Emerald Hills, San Diego, CA

Emerald Hills began as a golf course. The Emerald Hills Country Club opened on these slopes in southeastern San Diego in 1929, and the neighborhood that replaced most of its fairways still carries the name, set between State Route 94 on the north and Market Street on the south, with Euclid Avenue to the west and Encanto past Skyline Drive to the east. Radio explains the rest of the map. Thomas Sharp bought the club in 1939 to put up a transmitter, the KFSD towers went up in 1948, and in 1958 he trimmed the course to nine holes and sold the remaining land to builders. Homes went up on the former fairways after that, on streets that wind with the hills. The transmitter still stands on the highest point, now broadcasting AM 600 KOGO, and a church on Kelton Road occupies the site of the old clubhouse. A large share of Emerald Hills is open space. Radio Canyon Open Space keeps a big piece of the slope wild, a stretch of Chollas Creek passes through, and Emerald Hills Neighborhood Park sits on Kelton Road. The hillside streets themselves make for steady uphill walks. The Malcolm X branch library, on Market Street at the south edge, is the neighborhood's civic anchor, with a performing arts center, meeting rooms and a teen technology lab, all refreshed in a 2016 remodel. Small shops along Market Street to the west cover snacks and quick stops. Groceries mean Food 4 Less at Market Creek Plaza on Euclid, close to the southwest edge. Trolley riders board at Euclid Avenue, where Orange Line trains head downtown and a park-and-ride lot sits beside the platform, and SR 94 is the fast route for drivers. Inside the neighborhood there is almost no retail, and the hills that give the place its views also make walking errands a climb. In return, few places this close to downtown leave so much land unbuilt, with a canyon and a radio mast where a subdivision might otherwise be.