Chollas View, San Diego, CA

Cholla cactus once covered the slopes here, and Chollas View still carries the name. This part of San Diego sits toward the north end of the city's southeastern neighborhoods, held between State Route 94, Interstate 805, Euclid Avenue and the old San Diego and Arizona Eastern rail line that now carries the trolley. Housing took shape around a defense housing project built during World War II, and the streets around it filled in through the 1950s. Many of the homes date from that postwar building period, so the typical house is a modest single-story place on a compact lot, and the blocks have the steady, settled look of a neighborhood that has been lived in for generations. Market Street, along the southern side, has a short row of small shops, and most everyday needs mean a quick drive or a trolley ride. Across Market Street in Emerald Hills, the Valencia Park/Malcolm X Library adds a performing arts center, a teen tech lab and meeting rooms. Gompers Park is the neighborhood's main patch of open ground, and Hawk Pocket Park on Guymon Street is a smaller stop for a short walk. Larger parks and canyon trails are a drive or bus ride away in Encanto and Emerald Hills. Transit is the strong suit. Trolley riders board at 450 Euclid, the Euclid Avenue stop, which has commuter parking and a cluster of bus connections, and the 47th Street station is just south in Lincoln Park. Drivers have SR 94 and I-805 at the edges, and the Food 4 Less at Market Creek Plaza on Euclid handles weekly groceries. Living between two freeways has a price. Traffic noise carries on the blocks nearest SR 94 and I-805, and sit-down restaurants are few, so dinner out often means leaving. Still, from most of Chollas View the trolley platform is close enough to walk, and the Orange Line runs straight toward downtown.