Islenair, San Diego, CA

Islenair is one of the smallest neighborhoods in San Diego, a few short streets off Euclid Avenue in City Heights that the City has designated as a historic district. Belle Isle Drive and Isla Vista Drive curl through it, and the whole place can be walked end to end in a few minutes. The houses are why it was protected. Islenair was built between the mid-1920s and the early 1950s as a small, early car-oriented suburb, and the homes trace how modest American houses changed over those decades. The older ones are Spanish Eclectic, and later lots filled with Minimal Traditional cottages and early Ranch houses. Nothing here is large, and the district status means the streetscape changes slowly. There is no park inside the district, but there is plenty of green within walking range. Olivia Canyon opens just to the north off 47th Street in Fairmount Village, and Charles Lewis III Memorial Park, a few blocks south off Home Avenue, has a basketball court, a dog park and footbridges across a canyon hillside. Swan Canyon, a restored canyon with a trail through it, starts just west across Euclid. For a meal, the nearest standout is across the street on Euclid. Nate's Garden Grill sits on the grounds of City Farmers Nursery, a plant yard that has been in the area for more than fifty years, and pairs its food with live music. Takeout, groceries and coffee mostly come from the busier stretches of Euclid Avenue and University Avenue to the north. Getting around starts on Euclid, which carries buses and leads to State Route 94 to the south. Interstate 805 and Interstate 15 are a few minutes west, and downtown is an easy drive. Euclid is a busy road, and the houses closest to it hear the traffic. Step a block in and the district goes quiet, with houses that look much as they did when Isla Vista Drive was new.