Ganesha, Pomona, CA

The Ganesha Hills rise on Pomona's west side, and this neighborhood runs from those hilltops down to the flat commercial blocks of Holt Avenue. Up top, the Ganesha area has some of the best long views in the city. Down below, it is an everyday working neighborhood with markets, taquerias and mobile home parks. Mountain Meadows Golf Course fills much of the hill country. Bell laid it out, and it has a driving range and a bar and grill. Just up Gillette Road, Pomona Valley Mining Co. Coco Palm on Fairplex Drive cooks Cuban plates like ropa vieja and lechon asado, also with a city view. Housing splits along the same line as the terrain. Single-family homes climb the slopes near the golf course and Fairplex Drive, while the flatter blocks around Holt Avenue and Mission Boulevard mix older houses, apartments and several mobile home parks such as Westland Estates and Rosevilla. For outdoors, John F. Kennedy Park on Fairplex Drive and Veterans Park on West Mission Boulevard are the local parks, and Ganesha Park is a short drive east in Wilton Heights. The Phillips Mansion on Pomona Boulevard, built in 1875, is open for tours and is one of the last pieces of the old town of Spadra. Daily errands happen along West Holt Avenue. Cardenas Markets carries groceries, and the same stretch has El 7 Mares for seafood, Kwon's for Chinese food and Donut Plus for early mornings. Spike's Cake Shop on Fairplex Drive handles birthday orders. The Interstate 10 cuts across the neighborhood, and the hills and flats can feel like separate places with a freeway between them. Still, a drive up to the golf course or the Mining Co. at dusk shows the whole Pomona Valley lit up below, a view most of the city never sees from home.