Clairemont Mesa East, San Diego, CA

A kabob dinner, a bag of Persian pastries and a cart full of Asian groceries can all happen on one stretch of Balboa Avenue in Clairemont Mesa East, the inland side of San Diego's Clairemont community. The neighborhood runs from San Diego Mesa College up toward Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, with Genesee Avenue on one side and I-805 on the other. Clairemont began in 1950, when builders Carlos Tavares and Lou Burgener laid out what became the city's largest postwar subdivision and named it for Tavares's wife, Claire. Homes in Clairemont Mesa East follow that early pattern, with single-family houses on curving streets, many of them updated over the decades, plus duplexes and apartment complexes closer to the busy boulevards. Mount-named streets such as Mount Abernathy Avenue and Mount Albertine Avenue give the residential blocks their character. Tecolote Canyon Natural Park reaches up into the neighborhood's western edge. The canyon runs about six miles toward Mission Bay, with dirt trails that hikers and mountain bikers share and owls that gave the canyon its name. Olive Grove Park, on Printwood Way, sits on the site of an old olive farm and gives the blocks around it a park of their own. Balboa Avenue carries most of the dining. Sufi serves Persian kabobs, lamb shank with dill rice and tea from samovars in a room hung with Persian paintings, and Balboa International Market next door stocks halal meat, dried fruits and a bakery case of Persian sweets. Up on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Yakitori Taisho has grilled skewers over bincho charcoal with craft sake since 2014. Groceries are a strong suit. A 99 Ranch Market and a Vons both sit on Balboa Avenue, and the Convoy District across I-805 adds more Asian markets a few minutes east. The Balboa branch of the San Diego Public Library is on Mount Abernathy Avenue. Most errands mean the car, with I-805 and State Route 52 close by. Balboa Avenue and Genesee Avenue carry heavy traffic, and homes along them hear it. A block or two back, the streets go quiet, and the canyon rim is close enough for an evening walk.