Castle, San Diego, CA

Castle is one of the fourteen small neighborhoods inside City Heights in San Diego, covering the blocks south of University Avenue and west of Fairmount Avenue. The name traces back to the 1880s, when the land was sold off as an addition that carried the surnames of its developers, Castle among them. Homes here are mostly apartments, with older houses and small multi-unit buildings mixed into the side streets, which is typical of City Heights as a whole. Few parts of the city are packed tighter, with buildings set close together and little open land between them. The 4100 block of University Avenue is the place to eat, with a run of small family-owned counters, and Hoa Hing Market sells groceries in the same row, so a quick lunch and a bag of produce can come from the same short walk. On Saturday mornings the City Heights Farmers' Market fills Wightman Street between 43rd Street and Fairmount, selling produce, prepared food and crafts, and it accepts EBT with a matching bonus. Green space comes in small doses. Central Avenue Park has the Central Avenue Skate Plaza, a 6,300-square-foot street-style plaza that was the first skatepark in City Heights. City Heights Mini Park sits on 39th Street, and Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park is just east on Wightman in Fairmount Village. Getting around without a car is realistic in Castle. Rapid 235 buses stop at the freeway-level Centerline station on Interstate 15 at University Avenue, and the City Heights/Weingart Branch Library is a few steps across Fairmount Avenue. Small markets on nearly every corner handle daily shopping. Density is the cost of all that convenience. Yards are small or shared, parks are pocket-sized, and a big lawn means a trip elsewhere. In return, Castle puts a busy restaurant row, a weekly farmers market and a rapid bus line within walking distance of the front door.