Neighborhoods, City of San Diego
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Code: 92102, 92105
Neighborhoods
east and south of Balboa Park. Many are located north and south of Highway 94. www.mccormacks.com
When you
look at these names on a map, they suggest that the City of San Diego has gone
way overboard on this neighborhood business. Every little housing tract seems
to rate the status of “neighborhood.”
Nonetheless,
there is a logic — a helpful logic if you are getting to know the city
— to the neighborhood designations.
San Diego
is a city of hills and mesas divided by deep arroyos. Almost all the
neighborhoods have easily recognized borders — the arroyos. Complementing
the arroyos are the freeways and many of the arterial streets. Engineers very
early figured out that it was cheaper to build arterial streets and freeways
and rail lines at the bottom of the arroyos than over the hills and mesas. So
the major roads and freeways often define the borders of the neighborhoods.
Many of
the neighborhoods were built out or almost built out at one particular time,
according to the housing styles of the era. If you are shopping for a home or
apartment, this information might prove helpful.
Children
usually attend their neighborhood schools. The school rankings section
identifies the neighborhoods for almost all the schools. See Schools. www.mccormacks.com
The police
department breaks out its crime statistics by neighborhood — also helpful
in deciding where you want to live. See Crime.
Some
people choose their neighborhoods by the transit choices, notably the freeways
and arterial streets. In this sector, the trolley line along Imperial Avenue is
a major player. Here are the neighborhoods:
• Sherman
Hts.-Grant Hill. Neighborhoods to the south of Balboa Park and the Golden Hill
neighborhood. Five-ten minutes to downtown. Split by Interstate 5 and Highway
94. Trolley line station. Flight path to international airport. Check out
noise. Apartment buildings, cottages, small and old homes. Working-class
neighborhood that is being nudged a little upscale by its proximity to the
park, the downtown and the city college. Zero homicides in 2005, 2004, 2003 and
2002. In 2001, zero Sherman, one Grant.
• Mountain
View. Located just east of Grant Hill. In this sector, maps will also show Mt.
Hope, Southcrest and Shelltown.
Bordered
on the south by National City, on the north by Highway 94, on the west by
Highway 15 and on the east by Interstate 805.
Trolley
line but no stations. Ten to fifteen minutes to downtown. www.mccormacks.com
Large cluster of cemeteries in the
middle. Up and down neighborhood, the mini sections bordered by the usual
arroyos. Much of the housing was built in the 1920s and 1930s, plain homes,
many with one-car garages. Blue collar. Some infilling with new homes and
apartments.
Four
parks, three with community centers, one with several sports fields. Library.
Homicides
for 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002: Mt. Hope, one, two, one, two, Mountain View,
zero, three, five, four, Southcrest, zero, two, one, zero, Shelltown, zero,
two, one, one.
• Lincoln
Park. Blue-collar, middle-class neighborhood in transition. Located east of
Mountain View. Bordered on the west by Interstate 805, on the east by Euclid
Avenue, on the south by National City, on the north by Highway 94.
Two
trolley stops and a transit center. About 15 minutes to downtown. www.mccormacks.com
Two parks,
library near Euclid. Lincoln Park was developed right after World War II. The
styles run to the plain two- and three-bedroom models popular with veterans
buying their first homes with government-backed loans. Builders have been
filling in empty lots with modern housing. The retail stores and shopping
centers have been remodeled and fixed up. An old suburb slowly remaking itself.
Terrain
does the usual up and down over mesas and arroyos but not as steeply as in
other neighborhoods. Lincoln Park almost comes across as flat. Section on the
northwest side is called Chollas View.
For
Lincoln Park and Chollas View together, six homicides in 2005, three homicides
in 2004, four each 2003 and 2002.
• Chollas
Creek-Oak Park. Middle class. Mix of fairly new and new, some old. Located east
of Interstate 805 and north of Highway 94.
San Diego
housing follows a chronological pattern: first the downtown, then the
neighborhoods next to the downtown, then the sections to the east and so on. www.mccormacks.com
Chollas
Creek got its housing in the 1960s and 1970s at a time when homes were growing
bigger and planners a little more demanding. Here you will find one- and
two-story homes, three and four bedrooms, some streets with utility lines
buried.
Oak Park
presents a more varied face: apartment tracts out of the late 1950s-1960s and
looking every bit of their 40-plus years, 1960s housing well maintained, and a
new tract of single homes and townhouses above the College Grove Mall. New
condos-apartments, well kept, also near the mall.
The mall includes a Mervyns, Wal-Mart,
Sam's Club and a Staples. Compared to the neighborhoods to the east, Chollas
Creek and Oak Park seem a big departure, signaling a move into a new era of
housing. These communities are within 15 minutes of San Diego State University
and this may be influencing their demographics. The terrain, especially at
Chollas Creek, elevates sharply and this accentuates neighborhood differences.
One large
park, Chollas community, two or three smaller parks. Transit center at the
mall. Library.
Chollas
Creek had zero homicides in 2005, two in 2004, one in 2003. For Oak Park, zero
in 2005 and 2004, one in 2003 and zero in 2002. www.mccormacks.com
• Voters
in 1998 approved a $1.5 billion bond to repair and build schools. Almost every
school in the city is getting some kind of improvement.
