Harborview, San Diego, CA

Harborview is the waterfront side of Little Italy in San Diego, the strip between India Street and the bay where Kettner Boulevard, the rail line and Pacific Highway run side by side. Most people who live here just say Little Italy, and the line on the map mostly matters for the walk to the water. The County Administration Center anchors the southern end. The building opened in 1938 on filled tidelands, and in 2014 its parking lots became Waterfront Park, a twelve-acre stretch of lawn, gardens and shaded paths that wraps the building on three sides. Two long wading pools run off its north and south walls, the playground has sculptural climbing pieces and a bocce court, and the western lawn looks straight out at the bay. On a summer evening it is the neighborhood backyard. Homes are mostly condos and apartments. Taller buildings cluster toward the south near Ash and Beech Streets, the blocks get lower heading north toward Laurel, and a few older buildings remain among the newer ones. Many units are a block or two from the Embarcadero, and the trains on the coastal rail line are part of the soundtrack. Kettner Boulevard is the dining street on this side, and the west side of it falls inside Harborview. The Waterfront Bar & Grill has poured drinks at Kettner and Grape since the end of Prohibition, first for tuna fishermen and now for anyone after a burger, tots and a game on the screens, and it stays open late. Herb & Wood, a few doors up, cooks wood-fired dishes with Mediterranean flavors along with house cocktails and desserts. India Street, with its cafes and Italian restaurants, starts one block east. Groceries take a little more planning, since the closest full supermarket is a Ralphs down in the Marina district. The Saturday Mercato a few blocks inland covers produce and flowers. The County Center/Little Italy trolley station on California Street serves the Blue and Green Lines, and San Diego International Airport sits just up Pacific Highway. Living by the airport means the jets are close. Planes on approach pass low over these blocks through the day, and freight and passenger trains rumble past as well. Step across Pacific Highway at sunset, though, and the bay is right there, with Harbor Island across the water.