Downtown, National City, CA

Downtown National City is a narrow civic strip between National City Boulevard and D Avenue, running south from Plaza Boulevard. Most of the land belongs to Kimball Park and the buildings around it, so the neighborhood feels less like a business district and more like the city's front yard. Kimball Park covers about 30 acres. Paradise Creek runs through it, its bed cleared of concrete, and the bridge over the creek is lined with sculpted totems that glow at night on small solar panels. Inside are diamonds for baseball and softball, courts for tennis and hoops, an outdoor amphitheater, picnic lawns and a skate park that opened in 2016. Each summer the Lions Club fills it with a five-day Fourth of July carnival that ends in fireworks. Around the park sit the Civic Center, the Martin Luther King Community Center and the National City Public Library, whose Kile Morgan Local History Room holds the city's archive. A Reason to Survive, a youth arts nonprofit known as ARTS, works out of the old library building on the park's north side. Homes are a small part of Downtown. A few blocks of older houses and apartment buildings sit between the civic buildings, and the city's downtown plan encourages new housing mixed with shops along this stretch. Expect a handful of residential streets, not a full neighborhood grid. For food, people who live downtown walk north. Niederfrank's Ice Cream, on A Avenue a block above Heritage Square, has made small batches since 1948 on its original freezer, with flavors like avocado pistachio and Thai tea. The dealerships of the Mile of Cars line National City Boulevard to the south. Getting around Downtown is easy by car or trolley. The Blue Line has stations at 8th Street and 24th Street, and the I-5 on-ramps are close. The downside is that daily shopping is outside its lines, and evenings after the library closes are quiet along the boulevard. Living here means the park is the backyard, and the sound of skateboards on concrete carries across 16th Street most afternoons.