An in Depth Look at San Diego’s Metro Communities
Lets take a trip around the San Diego Metro areas, help familiarize yourself with the local history that some of this communities have and the impact each area has on the greater city. Need more specific market details, click on the community name and the link will take you to the statistical analysis of each community, at the end of the page one can find the full county reports.
Coronado
Coronado, also known as, Coronado Island, is a resort city located in San Diego County, California, across and around San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census. Coronado lies on the geographic combination of an island and a tombolo connected to the mainland called the Silver Strand. Coronado is a tied island, connected by a tombolo. In 2012, Dr. Stephen Leatherman, Director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research, ranked Coronado Beach as the best beach in the United States.
Coronado is Spanish for “crowned one”, and thus it is nicknamed The Crown City. Coronado is also home to North Island Navy Base and has must historic value in naval history. Three ships of the United States Navy have been named after the city, including the USS Coronado (LCS-4). The zip code of Coronado is 92118.
Gas Lamp Quarter
The Gaslamp Quarter is a district of San Diego, California. It is a 16½ block historical neighborhood in Downtown San Diego, and is the site of several entertainment and night life venues, as well as scheduled events and festivals, including Mardi Gras in the Gaslamp, Street Scene Music Festival, Taste of Gaslamp and ShamROCK, a St. Patrick’s Day event. Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres is located one block away in downtown San Diego’s East Village.
The area is listed as an historic district on the National Register of Historic Places as Gaslamp Quarter Historic District. Its main period of development began in 1867, when Alonzo Horton bought the land in hopes of creating a new city center closer to the bay, and chose 5th Avenue as its main street. After a period of urban decay, the neighborhood underwent urban renewal in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Gaslamp Quarter extends from Broadway to Harbor Drive, and from 4th to 6th Avenue, covering 16½ blocks. It includes 94 historic buildings, most of which were constructed in the Victorian Era, and are still in use with active tenants including restaurants, shops and nightclubs. The zip code for this area is 92101.
Barrio Logan
Barrio Logan is a neighborhood in south central San Diego, California. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of East Village and Logan Heights to the north, Shelltown and Southcrest to the east, San Diego Bay to the southwest, and National City to the southeast. Interstate 5 forms the northeastern boundary. The Barrio Logan Community Plan Area comprises approximately 1,000 acres, of which slightly more than half is under the jurisdiction of the Port of San Diego or the United States Navy rather than the city of San Diego. The community is subject to the California Coastal Act.
In 1871, Congressman John A. Logan wrote legislation to provide federal land grants and subsidies for a transcontinental railroad ending in San Diego. A street laid in 1881 was named Logan Heights after him, and the name came to be applied to the general area. Plans for a railroad never successfully materialized, and the area was predominantly residential by the turn of the century, becoming one of San Diego’s oldest communities. Its transformation began in 1910 with the influx of refugees from the Mexican Revolution, who soon became the majority ethnic group. For this reason, the southern part of the original Logan Heights neighborhood came to be called Barrio Logan. Barrio is a Spanish word for “neighborhood”. The zip code for this area is 92113.
Golden Hill
Golden Hill is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is located south of Balboa Park, north of Sherman Heights/Highway 94 (M. L. King, Jr. Freeway), and east of Downtown.
Golden Hill is one of San Diego’s most historic and architecturally eclectic zones, with many pre-1900 homes and apartments. In the 1910s, it became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by the Class 1 streetcars and an extensive San Diego public transit system that was spurred by the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 and built by John D. Spreckels. These streetcars became a fixture of this neighborhood until their retirement in 1939. Street cars, the number 2 line operated until the mid-1950s
This neighborhood is also in walking distance of Downtown, City College and much of Balboa Park. Auto access is direct from freeways 5 and 94, the major through streets and bus routes are Broadway (East and West), and 25th Street and 30th Street (North and South). The Zip code is a portion of 92102. Pedestrianism, like in other urban mesa neighborhoods surrounding Balboa Park, is high relative to the rest of San Diego.
Hillcrest
Hillcrest is a small and affluent neighborhood in San Diego, California northwest of Balboa Park and south of Mission Valley.
Hillcrest is known for its “tolerance and acceptance,” its gender diversity, and numerous locally owned businesses, including restaurants, cafés, bars, clubs, trendy thrift-stores, and other independent specialty stores. Hillcrest has a high population density compared to many other neighborhoods in San Diego, and it has a large and active lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
Hillcrest is an older neighborhood which has gone through gentrification. Many streets are lined with trees. There are Craftsman homes and Mid-Century modern apartment buildings.
The neighborhood is bound by Mission Hills to the northwest, Bankers Hill and Balboa Park to the south, University Heights to the north, and North Park to the east. A large ridge overlooking San Diego Bay borders the neighborhood to the west.
Hillcrest is part of the Uptown community planning area, which consists of the neighborhoods of Mission Hills, Hillcrest, Bankers Hill, Park West, and University Heights. The zip code for this area is 92103.
Little Italy
Little Italy is a somewhat hilly neighborhood in Downtown San Diego, California that was originally a predominately Italian fishing neighborhood. It has since been gentrified and now Little Italy is a scenic neighborhood composed mostly of Italian restaurants, Italian retail shops, home design stores, art galleries, and residential units.
Little Italy is one of the more active downtown neighborhoods and has frequent festivals and events including a weekly farmers market, also known as the Mercato (the Market, in Italian). The neighborhood has low crime rates when compared with other neighborhoods in Downtown San Diego and is maintained by the Little Italy Neighborhood Association, which looks after trash collection, decorations, and special events.
Little Italy is located in the northwest end of Downtown, just a few blocks away from the Embarcadero. It is located north of Columbia, south of Middletown, southeast of Core, and west of Cortez Hill. It is also located on a hill thus giving its hilly terrain.
This district is bordered by West Laurel Street to the north, West Ash Street to the south, Interstate 5/Front Street to the east and the San Diego Bay and Pacific Highway to the west.
India Street, the commercial corridor, runs through heart of Little Italy, intermingled with high-density mixed-use buildings and single-family bungalow style historic properties in a highly walkable 48 square block area. The zip code for this area is 92101.
From the 19th century through the 1970s, people from Italy led the enterprise in the building the boats to found the American tuna fishing fleet and canning industry based in San Diego, the “tuna capital” of the Western US. The first large tuna cannery, the Pacific Tuna Canning Company, was founded in 1911. By the mid-1930s the canneries employed more than 1,000 people. Due to rising costs and foreign competition the last of the canneries closed in the early 1980s.
Mission Hills
Mission Hills is an upscale affluent neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is located on hills just south of the San Diego River valley and north of downtown San Diego, overlooking Old Town, Downtown San Diego, and San Diego Bay. It was subdivided on January 20, 1908 as a smaller portion of what is now referred to as Mission Hills. The City of San Diego describes Mission Hills as being the area north of Horton Avenue, South of Mission Valley, West of Dove Street, and East of the Old Town community area. Mission Hills is part of the 92103 zip code area. It shares this zip code with Hillcrest, a neighborhood of San Diego East of Dove Street. It is part of the Uptown community planning area.
The area is primarily residential, with some boutique shops and restaurants. Pioneer Park and Mission Hills Park serve as two recreational parks within the neighborhood. The San Diego Public Library has a branch located on corner of Washington Street and Hawk Street called the Mission Hills Branch Library. The Mission Hills community is within walking distance to the Hillcrest restaurants and shops to the East and the Old Town restaurants, shops, and museums to the Northwest.
University Heights
University Heights is a neighborhood in Central San Diego, California centered on Park Boulevard and Adams Avenue. According to the City of San Diego Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk parcel maps, University Heights is bounded on the west and north by the edge of the mesa, the southern boundary is Lincoln Avenue, and the eastern boundary is Boundary Street along the western edge of Interstate 805. The area is filled with a number of restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, and artist studios primarily on Park Boulevard and Adams Avenue. Live entertainment can be found most nights. Adjacent to Hillcrest, Normal Heights and North Park, additional restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and night clubs are within easy reach.
The neighborhood sits in a central San Diego location with a broad spectrum of housing options, from cottages, apartments and condominiums, to million-dollar homes. Downtown, Balboa Park, San Diego Airport, Mission Valley, San Diego State University (SDSU, or “state”), are only a few minutes away.The zip code in this area is 92103 and 92104.
South Park
South Park is a neighborhood in San Diego, California located east of Balboa Park, north of the Golden Hill and Stockton neighborhoods and south of the North Park neighborhood. The northern boundary is Juniper Street.
First registered as a subdivision in 1870, the South Park Addition was too far from Downtown San Diego to attract development until its purchase in 1905 by E. Bartlett Webster. The Bartlett Estate Company put in sidewalks, water, sewer, electricity, and other amenities and began selling lots, positioning the neighborhood as a “high-class residential district”. Further development was spurred by the 1906 opening of the South Park and East Side Railway, an electric streetcar line linking South Park with Downtown San Diego and making South Park the city’s first streetcar suburb. In the 1910s, Golden Hill and the area now referred to as South Park became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by the Class 1 streetcars and an extensive San Diego public transit system that was inspired by the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 and built by John D. Spreckels. These streetcars became a fixture of this neighborhood until their retirement in 1949, when the number 2 streetcar was replaced with the number 2 bus.
South Park is now considered one of the major historic urban communities of San Diego and has long been proposed as a registered historic district. Other historically significant neighborhoods not far from South Park include Burlingame, Golden Hill and Sherman Heights. The zip code in this area is 92102.
North Park
North Park is a neighborhood in San Diego, California. It is situated to the northeast of Balboa Park, and according to the City of San Diego Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk parcel maps bounded on the north by University Heights University Heights along Lincoln Avenue, on the west by Florida Canyon, University Heights and Hillcrest, and on the south by Switzer Canyon and the South Park neighborhood, on the east by Interstate 805 and City Heights. The pre-Interstate 805 boundary of North Park was widely considered to be 35th Street, which is now part of City Heights.
The North Park sign can be seen at 30th Street and University Avenue, and this intersection is often considered to be the heart of the neighborhood. North Park includes the subneighborhoods of Burlingame, Altadena, and the Morley Field area (site of the Dryden Historic District). The zip code for this area is 92104.
Normal Heights
The “Normal” part of “Normal Heights” refers to the State Normal School (teachers college), the predecessor to San Diego State University; the normal school was located in the adjacent University Heights neighborhood and founded in 1899. The former State Normal School building now serves as the Eugene Brucker Education Center, the central office for the San Diego Unified School District.
At the time of the founding of San Diego, the area that is now Normal Heights was largely covered with brush and populated only by rabbits. Later it had a few farms, but development was limited by lack of water. Speculators became interested in the area during the San Diego land boom of the 1880s, and several land development companies were actively working in the area by the 1900s. Around 1905 a reservoir was built in University Heights; partly as a result, the number of buildings in Normal Heights increased from one in January 1906 to 43 in December of the same year. The community was officially founded in 1906, when a syndicate led by D. C. Collier and George M. Hawley filed a subdivision map with the county. At that time it was an independent community, not part of the city of San Diego. It became one of San Diego’s first “streetcar suburbs” with the development of an electric trolley route along Adams Avenue, part of the San Diego Electric Railway system. A trolley barn was built in Normal Heights in 1913; the Adams Avenue Operating Division was established in 1915.
A group of residents organized the Normal Heights Improvement Association in 1911, establishing a county public library and other improvements. Normal Heights Central School was established in 1912. The county began paving the roads and establishing gutters and sidewalks in 1913. A commercial business district developed in the 1920s, centered on Adams Avenue between 37th Street (now Felton Road) and 38th Street (now 34th Street); the area is now considered a potential historic district, referred to as the Carteri Center after local resident Benjamin J. Carteri, who spurred business and residential development in the 1920s. The community was annexed to the city of San Diego in 1925.
Normal Heights is centrally located in the city of San Diego, on a mesa just south of Mission Valley. Its borders are defined by Interstate 805 to the West, Interstate 8 to the North, Interstate 15 to the East, and El Cajon Boulevard to the South. The zip code for this area includes parts of 92105 and 92116.
A notable building in the community is a bungalow court on Adams Avenue designed by Louis L. Gill, originally named El Sueño and now known as Santa Rosa Court. Another is a Carmelite monastery on Hawley Blvd. designed by Frank L. Hope, Sr.
Kensignton
Kensington is a neighborhood of San Diego, California. Its borders are defined by Interstate 15 to the west, Interstate 8 to the north, Fairmount Avenue to the east, and El Cajon Boulevard to the south. Its neighboring communities are Normal Heights to the west, and City Heights to the south.
Kensington was founded in 1910 when a map was filed on April 9, 1910. The map contains the name of two sisters who owned the land which became the Kensington Park subdivision. Abby (Hall) Hitchcock and Mary (Hall) Gleason inherited the ex-Rancho Mission land from the estate of their deceased brother and mother. Abby’s husband was a realtor, and her brother-in-law was a land use attorney and early mover-and-shaker in San Diego. Through the Hitchcock brothers, a connection was made to William Douglas, a real estate promoter from Los Angeles. Douglas’ name also appears on the original Kensington Park map.
William Douglas promoted the subdivision and handled the early sales of lots. A newspaper announcement heralded the opening of the Kensington Park subdivision for lot sales on November 25, 1910. The owners had managed to convince the officials of the San Diego Electric Railway company to extend the Adams Avenue trolley line into Kensington Park in time for the opening. The first houses began to be built in 1910 and were all of the Craftsman style. The original Kensington Park subdivision stretched from Ward Canyon on the west (now SR-15), to County Line Road (now 42nd Street) on the east, and from Monroe Avenue on the south to Jefferson Avenue on the north (now Alder Drive). Kensington Park was annexed to the City of San Diego in 1952.
Later in the 1910s, Kensington became one of the many San Diego neighborhoods connected by the Class 1 streetcars and an extensive San Diego public transit system that was spurred by the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 and built by John D. Spreckels. These streetcars became a fixture of this neighborhood until their retirement in 1939.
Many street names in the community have English or New England origins, as does the name Kensington itself. The residential area has an impressive collection of Spanish Revival style homes, this being the most popular style in San Diego during the late 1920s when much of Kensington was built out. Architects Cliff May and Richard Requa built important homes in Kensington, and Requa, in particular, had a profound influence on the architecture and character of the Kensington neighborhood. The zip code for this area is 92116.
City Heights
City Heights is a large community in San Diego, California, known for its ethnic diversity. Along the main streets (which include University Avenue, El Cajon Boulevard and Fairmount Avenue) one can find Hispanic, Northeast African, Near Eastern, South Asian and Southeast Asian immigrant businesses. The area was previously known as East San Diego.
City Heights has a high concentration of retail outlets, restaurants, and other examples of self-employment resulting from the newly arrived immigrant communities. Businesses tend to be smaller and wider spread than to the north and east. Like other urban neighborhoods north of Balboa Park, City Heights also has a high rate of pedestrian activity relative to the rest of San Diego.
In the 1880s, Entrepreneurs Abraham Klauber and Samuel Steiner purchased over 240 acres of unincorporated land that sat 400 feet above sea level northeast of Balboa Park in hopes of developing the area. Together they named it “City Heights” or the “Steiner, Klauber, Choate and Castle Addition” after the original developers of the property. With the opening of the Panama Canal and the planned Panama-California International Exposition in 1915, the voters of the area voted for City Heights to become an incorporated city known as East San Diego on November 2, 1912. Population boomed in the next few years from 400 in 1910 to 4000 during the incorporation.
On December 31, 1923, the City of East San Diego ceased to exist and was annexed into the City of San Diego, becoming once again known as City Heights. The status of the city was in limbo throughout the early part of 1924, since the East San Diego trustees did not immediately recognize the annexation. Complete annexation occurred over the next few years with the City of San Diego taking over, improving or adding new services into the City Heights area.
During most of the 1930s, 1940s, and the 1950s the area was an important commercial center. In 1959 the neighborhood began to experience a decline as Fashion Valley, Mission Valley and the College Grove Shopping Center siphoned off merchants and customers from the University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard corridor. The zip code for this area is 92105.
Mission valley
Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east-west in San Diego, California, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Mission Valley East and Mission Valley West.
Mission Valley was the site of the first Spanish settlement in California, established in 1769.
Mission Valley currently serves as an important shopping and entertainment center for San Diego. Several condominiums and apartments can also be found in the area.
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
The San Diego River valley was originally called La Cañada de San Diego. Cañada in Spanish means gully, ravine, or glen. The name was changed to Mission Valley in the 1860s in reference to Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
The Mission Valley area was inhabited by Kumeyaay Indians for more than 10,000 years.
The first Spanish settlement in present-day California was the Presidio of San Diego and Mission of San Diego de Alcalá, both established in 1769. The Presidio and Mission were located at the western end of Mission Valley, present day Old Town, where the valley opens out into the flood plain of the San Diego River. In 1774 the Mission was moved to its present location at the eastern end of Mission Valley because of better access to fresh water for drinking and farming.
Until the 1940s Mission Valley remained largely undeveloped, featuring dairy farms and other agricultural activities; the city of San Diego was largely confined to areas south of the valley. After World War II the city’s expansion began to encroach on the valley. The last of the valley’s dairy farms closed in the early 1960s. The zip code for this area is 92108.