I cannot comment specifically on CA community colleges, but you should be able to find out if your school as automatic admit to certain 4-year colleges and universities. Often, these will be the less competitive public schools, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Stardustmom is correct that admission to a competitive school is much easier if you’ve done solid work for two years at a CC.
I started at a CC and applied to my in-state flagship, the U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Believe it or not, this Big Ten school is pretty difficult to gain admission to as a high school senior, and because I was an apathetic student in HS, I was not accepted. However, after maintaining a 3.7 GPA the CC, I was accepted easily. In fact, I’m sure that I could have been accepted with a 3.3 or maybe even a 3.0. The proof that one can handle college-level work and successfully complete two years is a strong persuader. I didn’t need to submit standardized test scores either. The process was quite simple. I didn’t end up attending UIUC (I attended an in-state CTCL LAC instead), but my CC success made the application process to schools a breeze.
Again, this probably doesn’t help you, as I don’t have specific experience with CA schools, but I am guessing that some basics are universal (easier to get accepted as a CC transfer than as a HS senior). UCBalumnus has provided a link to transfer percentage rates, with UCSB showing an admit rate of 52% and a GPA range for admitted students between 3.1 and 3.6. Of course, this includes all transfer students, not just CC students. I wonder if a large percentage of that percentage of admitted students is from CCs (probably?). I also wonder if the CC students have a slightly better admit rate if they fall into that GPA range.