Harborside, Chula Vista, CA

Harborside fills the flat ground between Interstate 5 and Fourth Avenue in southwest Chula Vista, from L Street south to Main Street. It came into the city as part of the Montgomery area annexed in 1986, and it still feels like the working south end of the west side, with shops, warehouses and homes sharing the same few streets. Homes are mostly single-story houses on small lots, a mix of postwar tract homes and later infill, with apartment complexes and a few mobile home parks along Broadway. Near the freeway, the blocks around Industrial Boulevard and Anita Street turn commercial, home to produce distributors, a bakery wholesaler and Boochcraft's hard kombucha brewery. Parkland is thin inside the neighborhood. Lauderbach Park sits just east on Oxford Street with a basketball court and picnic tables, and the trails of the Otay Valley Regional Park start a short trip south, running along the river toward the salt ponds at the edge of the bay. Broadway is a long, unpretentious food street. Mexipino Craft, on Broadway, mixes Mexican and Filipino comfort food in dishes like adobo chicken and waffles. On Main Street, Tamales Ancira sells cheese-and-corn tamales that often run out before closing, and Heave Ho Coffee roasts small batches of beans a few doors away. Daily needs are well covered. Walmart sits on Broadway and Food 4 Less anchors the shopping center on Palomar Street. The Palomar Street trolley station connects to downtown San Diego and the border, and I-5 runs along the western edge. The rough edge is the industrial one. Freeway noise, truck traffic on Main Street and warehouse lots shape the western blocks, and few streets have the shade trees or green space found farther east in Chula Vista. For people who want to get around without a car, Harborside has something unusual for the South Bay, a trolley stop, a supermarket and a dozen taco counters all within walking distance of the same front door.