Coast City is a city located in Northern California. It is twenty miles from Edwards Air Force Base.
Features of Coast City included Ferris Aircraft, an aerospace company which Hal Jordan worked for as a test pilot; his romantic interest, Carol Ferris, was the company's manager. Coast City also included an extensive beach, and was a popular spot for surfing.
In the 1990s, Coast City was destroyed, with nearly all of its residents - then numbered at seven million - killed by Mongul. Mongul's gigantic ship appeared over Coast City and released thousands of spherical bombs which detonated simultaneously. It was then revealed that Mongul was doing the bidding of former astronaut Hank Henshaw, better known as the Cyborg Superman. Mongul and Henshaw built Engine City in Coast City's ashes, as part of a plot to turn Earth into the new Warworld.
Killed in the blast were numerous people, including Kari Limbo and several Ferris Aircraft employees. Hal Jordan attempted to resurrect the city using his ring and learned that his first girlfriend also died in the blast, but whether this was truly her spirit or his imagination made real is unclear.
One of the results of this was Hal Jordan becoming the villain Parallax, apparently due to a mental breakdown over the destruction of his city, though it would subsequently be revealed he was under the influence of an alien parasite. This led in turn to the appointment of a new Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. A memorial to Coast City's victims was erected on the site of the city with the help of most of the major superheroes of the period. When Hal Jordan died, it memorialized him as well.
For a time, an alien city named Haven (which crashed onto Earth) resided on top of the ruins of Coast City.
More recently, Coast City was rebuilt in the wake of Jordan's apparent return to the ranks of the living. While the Spectre, Hal Jordan, and the Parallax parasite were wresting for control of the Spectre's powers, all roads, street signs, and Jordan's apartment reappeared, setting the groundwork for the city. Repopulating the rebuilt city became one of the latest initiatives of Jonathan Vincent Horne, then-current president of the United States. Thus far, Coast City has remained a ghost town due to its reputation as the site of a mass murder. Among the exceptions depicted to date is the resurrected Hal Jordan, who lives in Coast City when he isn't working at nearby Edwards Air Force Base as one of their test pilots.
The U.S. Navy is also establishing a presence in the region in the wake of its reconstruction, as both a domestic security and economic stimulus measure.
One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Coast City has finished reconstruction. The city's population appears to have risen with many businesses and citizens returning.