Lundy, San Jose, CA

Lundy is, somewhat surprisingly, the neighborhood that actually contains the Berryessa BART station, along with the historic San Jose Flea Market site and the new development rising around it. That makes it the real transit hub of the north side: BART, a bus transit center, and a major redevelopment all sit within its borders on the flat valley floor, which is a rare thing in a city where most homes are nowhere near heavy rail. Homes here are older single-family blocks mixed with business-park and light-industrial frontage along Lundy Avenue, so houses and work sites share the same few streets. The biggest change is still ahead. The flea market's southern grounds are planned for thousands of new homes and shops beside the station, so the shape of the neighborhood will keep shifting for years. The flea market is the local institution. It runs Fridays through Sundays, with a long row of produce stalls, food vendors, a vintage carousel and a small Ferris wheel, and it fills the lots around the station with weekend shoppers. Over at the station, a tall Larry Kirkland bronze shows a figure pushing a giant wheel built from everyday objects. Food along Berryessa Road leans casual. Claw Shack serves crawfish and crab tossed in Cajun seasoning, and next door B Cafe, also called Berryessa Coffee X Tea Cafe, makes fruit teas and boba drinks. Bill's Cafe, a short drive away near King Road and Mabury Road, is the big-breakfast stop. Down Oakland Road, Chez Sovan has cooked Cambodian food for more than two decades, and its amok, a coconut fish curry, is the dish to order. Daily life runs through the station. Orange Line and Green Line trains start and end here, and the bus transfer center on the north side links several VTA routes, including the Rapid 500, which runs into downtown and on to Diridon station. For green space, the paved Penitencia Creek Trail is a short ride east. The honest tradeoffs are exactly that mixed, transitional character: this is a working, traffic-heavy, in-flux district rather than a quiet residential one, and the light-industrial edges are utilitarian. But for a buyer who wants to live within walking distance of BART and bet on a redeveloping area, Lundy is where the north-side transit story actually is, whatever the neighboring polygon's name suggests.