Marina Point, Foster City, CA

Marina Point is the Foster City neighborhood that is least about the water, which in this city is almost a personality. Aside from a couple of apartment complexes and a handful of homes, life here happens inland, and the neighborhood is better for it in ways people do not expect. The street layout is the giveaway. Marina Point is built around courts laid out in squares, each one wrapped around a small island of trees in the middle. It reads as quiet and enclosed, kids' bikes end up in the middle of the court, and through traffic essentially does not exist. Ketch Park sits at the dead center of the whole arrangement. There are Eichlers scattered in here too, part of the same 1960s wave that gave Bay Vista its flat roofs, though they are more mixed in with conventional stock than they are to the east. The real everyday advantage is on the eastern edge, where Marlin Cove Shopping Center sits on Foster City Boulevard. It is anchored by 99 Ranch Market and filled out with Asian restaurants, a dry cleaner, and a salon, which makes Marina Point one of the few neighborhoods in the city where a real grocery run is a walk rather than a drive. The downside is on that same eastern edge. Foster City Boulevard is the last exit before the San Mateo Bridge, so when Highway 92 backs up in the afternoon, the overflow finds its way here. And the water, while never more than a short drive or ride away into the neighborhoods next door, is not something you will see from your window.