Spartan Keyes, San Jose, CA

Spartan Keyes is the gritty, creative pocket just south of downtown, and its name stitches together its two identities: the SJSU Spartans and Keyes Street. San Jose State's south campus, including CEFCU Stadium, sits inside the neighborhood, and the district's old industrial bones, canneries and warehouses that once processed the valley's fruit, have started turning into an arts scene, with spots like Bestor Art Park giving it a distinct identity. Homes in Spartan Keyes are mostly cottages and modest houses from around the turn of the last century, set among former canneries and warehouses that once packed the valley's fruit. Some of those buildings now hold artists, with Citadel Art Studios and Art Ark working out of converted warehouses. The Old Home of Benevolence, a Spanish Colonial Revival building on Martha Street, still anchors one corner of the older neighborhood. Bestor Art Park is the neighborhood's own small green, with an arts bent that fits the blocks around it. The bigger outdoor draw is Kelley Park along Coyote Creek on the eastern edge. Within its grounds are History Park and its Portuguese Historical Museum, Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, and the Japanese Friendship Garden. Carnitas El Rincon on Keyes Street sells Michoacan-style braised pork by the pound, the kind of order that feeds a whole table. Coffee means heading a little north toward downtown. Academic Coffee roasts its own beans on South Second Street, and Nirvana Soul on South First Street is a few more blocks in. Daily errands here mostly happen by car or bike, though downtown's shops and offices are close enough for a quick trip. The rail and warehouse past still shows on many blocks, and a short walk can go from a restored cottage to blank industrial frontage, so the polish is uneven from street to street. But it is genuinely close to downtown, the stadium and the arts give it flavor, and it remains one of the more affordable central neighborhoods. For a buyer who wants character and proximity over polish, Spartan Keyes is an interesting, still-evolving bet on a part of the city that is slowly reinventing itself.