Swan Canyon, San Diego, CA

A thirty-acre canyon runs north to south through the middle of Swan Canyon, and the neighborhood in San Diego's City Heights takes both its name and its shape from it. Fairmount Village lies to the north, Azalea Park and Hollywood Park to the west, and Ridgeview to the south. Homes sit on the streets along both rims, so a lot of back fences look out over brush and treetops instead of another row of houses. The area began as part of East San Diego, a separate city until 1923, and today's blocks mix single-family houses with multi-family buildings, much like the rest of City Heights. For years the canyon was neglected ground. San Diego Canyonlands spent about five years restoring it with the Ocean Discovery Institute and the City's parks department, adding thousands of native plants and rebuilding the steep dirt path that crosses the creek bed toward Hamilton Elementary. Swan Canyon is now one leg of the City Heights Canyons Loop, roughly four and a half miles of trail that also threads Manzanita, Hollywood and Pepper canyons, and volunteers still hold regular cleanup and planting days. On the eastern edge, along Euclid Avenue, City Farmers Nursery has been selling plants for more than fifty years under its second generation of owners, the Tall siblings. The yard is a maze of salvaged materials and greenery, and Nate's Garden Grill, run on the same grounds, pairs plates with live music. It is the one place in the neighborhood where people linger over a meal. Everyday shopping means heading to University Avenue or Fairmount Avenue for groceries and takeout. Euclid Avenue carries buses north and south, and drivers reach downtown quickly on I-805 or SR 94. Sit-down restaurants inside the neighborhood come down to Nate's, and the canyon trail is steep in places, with loose footing after rain. What makes up for it is a restored native canyon sitting right behind the houses, with a trail that starts at the end of the street.