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Mid-City San Diego

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While Caucasians constitute its largest racial group, the Mid-City region is known for its ethnic and lifestyle diversity, influenced by affordable housing in City Heights and San Diego State University in the College Area. Latinos make up about a third of residents, while African Americans and Asians/Pacific Islanders comprise about 10 percent each of the population. Recent revitalization has made Mid-City communities all the more desirable.

Mid-City San Diego’s neighborhoods include:

City Heights
College Area
Kensington
Normal Heights
Talmadge

View healthcare facilities in Central San Diego

City Heights
Situated smack-dab in the middle of the city, City Heights has been called San Diego’s crossroads. It’s also the city’s most racially diverse community, which in some part is due to its affordable housing. More than 30 dialects are spoken here, while inside a local Buddhist temple, a “Thank You for Not Smoking” sign gives its message in 11 languages.

But recent redevelopment efforts have given residents better cause for pride. Investments by philanthropists, officials, and private interests are dressing up the community with streetscape improvements and attractive subsidized housing. Volunteers even have helped fix up homes of owners who couldn’t afford makeovers. And sure enough, the widespread revitalization has boosted home prices in this traditionally economically depressed community.

City Heights actually is a collection of 16 or so distinct sub-neighborhoods. Densely populated, the community mostly is comprised of a mixture of single-family and multi-family residences, with the nicest homes situated farthest from University Avenue. University and El Cajon Boulevard feature some big-name chain stores, yet small shops and restaurants thrive in the area, too.

An award-winning multicolored tower serves as both eccentric public art and local landmark. City Heights also has been honored for its urban village, which includes a community gymnasium, a library, a continuing-education center, a performance annex, a recreational center, and softball fields.

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College Area
Naturally, students and faculty members favor settling in this neighborhood, home to San Diego State University. So do working singles and families, drawn to the College Area’s wide selection of affordable tract homes, condos, and townhouses—for sale and rent—and its eight-mile proximity to downtown San Diego.

Restaurants and clubs cater to the locals, and the neighborhood’s rolling foothills delight bicyclists.

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Kensington
Named after an English borough, this mostly residential neighborhood lives up to the architectural charm you might expect from it. The neighborhood’s stone gateways lead to winding, palm-tree-lined streets with ornamental lighting. The homes, dating from the 1920s and 1930s, feature tiled roofs, courtyards, and stone chimneys. Adams Avenue, the neighborhood’s thoroughfare, offers quaint shops, restaurants, theatres showing art films, and local “watering holes.”

Kensington, sometimes called Kensington Park, was developed in the early 20th century to rival Mission Hills in prestige—and it shows. Recent revitalization projects have buffed up Kensington in the status department, although north of Adams Avenue, the upscale neighborhood already featured half-million-dollar fixer-upper homes and multi-million-dollar estates along the valley rim. Rentals here are scarce, but one-bedroom apartments are reasonably priced, when you can find one.

The illusory bubble of stuffiness bursts on Memorial Day, when Kensington’s annual parade includes kazoo-blowers and marching Boy Scouts.

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Normal Heights
Vintage possessions are all the rage in Normal Heights, known as one of the county’s best places for antiquing. Its portion of Adams Avenue consists of 39 blocks of antique shops, taverns, used-book outlets, coffee shops, clubs, and restaurants. More antiques can be seen in the annual antique-car show. And for antique architecture, check out the Spanish homes dating from the 1930s.

Named for the now-defunct San Diego Normal School, Normal Heights grew up around the Carteri Center shopping district. Its popular music festivals take place in the spring (the free Roots Festival, showcasing folk music) and in September (the Adams Avenue Street Fair, Southern California’s largest free music festival).

Which sub-neighborhood you live in depends on which housing type you want. Adams North mostly features single-family dwellings, while Adams Park and Cherokee Park offer single-family homes, older apartment courts, and large apartment developments. Considered more affordable than neighboring Kensington, Normal Heights’ homes range from bungalows to large Victorians.

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Talmadge
Three silent-screen stars and their husbands raised capital for this neighborhood. But it was the three Talmadge sisters—Norma, Constance, and Natalie—who were forever immortalized in its name. In 1926, the trio dedicated their Talmadge Park subdivision, a ceremony which Buster Keaton and William S. Hart attended. And now Talmadge has dedicated itself to beautification efforts that would do its beautiful namesakes proud.

Refurbishments have included 400 newly planted trees and new single-globe pedestrian streetlamps. The quiet neighborhood’s original eight sets of ornamental “pearly gates” have been restored. But Talmadge already charmed visitors with its winding streets, palm trees, and Spanish- and traditional-style homes built between the ’20s and ’50s. Apartment complexes offer another housing option.

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Healthcare facilities in Central San Diego:
Kindred Hospital San Diego
Scripps Clinic