Del Cerro, San Diego, CA

A trailhead on Adobe Falls Road leads straight from Del Cerro into Navajo Canyon. The neighborhood is a hilly residential area in eastern San Diego on the north side of Interstate 8, facing San Diego State across the freeway, and it borders Allied Gardens, Grantville, San Carlos and the city of La Mesa. Homes went up in waves through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s as the area filled in as a suburb, and they are mostly detached houses spread across the hills, with canyon slopes and brush between many of the streets. Adobe Falls, a waterfall on university-owned open space, is a city historic landmark, and a neighborhood group took SDSU to court over plans to build faculty housing there. The outdoors are close in every direction. Princess Del Cerro Park on Wenrich Drive is the neighborhood's public green, and the members-only Del Cerro Park and Pool has hosted Fourth of July parties since the early 1960s. Lake Murray, across the border in San Carlos, has a long walking path and a playground that volunteers rebuilt in 2012, and Mission Trails Regional Park begins just beyond the neighborhood. Eating out happens in two small clusters. On Adobe Falls Road near the freeway, Del's Hideout smokes Texas-style brisket and ribs low and slow and runs 24 beer taps for game days. The Del Cerro Boulevard center has KnB Bistro, a bottle shop, bistro and bar with 32 beers on tap, along with a taco shop and Windmill Farms Market for groceries. Phoebe Hearst Elementary sits on Del Cerro Boulevard, and College Avenue and Interstate 8 link the neighborhood to Mission Valley and Mid-City within minutes. Most errands mean a car, since those two small clusters are the only shopping inside the neighborhood. Brush is the downside of living on canyon edges. Del Cerro sits in wildfire-prone terrain, and clearing slopes around homes is a recurring chore that has led to disputes between residents and the city. Those same slopes are what give so many streets their open, green backdrop.