Tully Senter, San Jose, CA

Tully Senter's secret weapon is Kelley Park, and it is a big one. Tucked along Coyote Creek at the neighborhood's edge, this 150-plus-acre park packs in Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, History San Jose's village of relocated landmark buildings, the serene Japanese Friendship Garden and a disc-golf course. The park gets everyday use. People walk the paths under the groves, spread out at the picnic areas and throw a round on the disc golf course that winds among walnut trees at the back of History Park. The Coyote Creek greenbelt gives the northwest corner a leafy, older feel. Homes in Tully Senter are mostly postwar single-family tracts on level valley ground, built in one era and now showing their age in different ways. A branch of the San Jose Public Library sits inside the neighborhood, and most streets are a few minutes' walk from the park paths, so Kelley Park works as an extension of the yard. Story Road, along the park's northern side, leads into Little Saigon, and that is where most meals happen. Pho Ga Nha makes its pho with free-range chicken, and Vit Dong Que a little farther east cooks duck into rice porridge. Vietnam Town and Grand Century Mall sit close together on Story, with a food court, jewelry counters and herbal shops between them. Lacaphe, also on Story, drips its coffee through a phin the Saigon way. Down on Senter Road, Banh Cuon Tay Ho rolls steamed rice sheets and tops them with Vietnamese charcuterie. Errands run by car. Tully, Senter and Story are all wide, busy arterials, and crossing them on foot takes patience. US-101 is close for longer drives. The honest side is the traffic: Tully, Senter and Story Roads are all busy, US-101 is close, and the homes are of their era. But the park frontage lifts the whole area, and for a buyer who wants a zoo, a Japanese garden and a creek trail essentially in the neighborhood, Tully Senter offers something most modest San Jose tracts simply cannot.