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This is my old neighborhood, along with its neighbor Kensington, where I rented for 15 years before I moved to North Encanto, where I now have called home for the last 20 years.

This article is actually a really good one, considering it comes from the New York Times, thousands of miles away.

It does a surprisingly good job of talking about the dynamic of Housing South of Adams and housing north of Adams.

I would like you all to read it and think about how neighborhoods that are considered diverse are actually less diverse when you drill down.

I noticed it when I lived in normal Heights myself, before I moved in 2000.

There is a divide. As this article notes it’s denser south of Adams Avenue, and more affluent north of Adams.

That divide is a lesion on that community.

There are more renters in the South more homeowners in the North. The average house price is way higher north than South, and the population is whiter north of Adams.

The last place I lived, a townhouse 1/2 blocks south of Adams put me right in the epicenter of that divide.

I felt comfortable walking down Adams Avenue and in places south of Adams, I was looked at and not considered very welcome north of Adams.

About 30 years ago, when I lived in Kensington, its neighbor to the immediate East that shares a ZIP code with normal Heights, my car broke down and my father had to come fix it.

He had a key, and he came straight from work on the flight deck in his overalls, and the police were called on him.

This was in the days before cell phones, and he had to have the police call me at my home to verify that he was indeed my father and that he had permission to go inside my car.

Never mind that technically my father owned that car; he was the lien holder, which was plainly seen on my registration.

But they didn’t believe him, this very dark skinned man in overalls in an affluent part of San Diego.

That was one reason when it was time for me to buy, that I chose not to be in a place that would call the police on my father.

A place where I would not be an unwelcome anomaly. A place where looks of surprise greeted me when I went to get a coffee or go to the library. And it must be noted normal Heights, and to a lesser extent Kensington are considered reliably blue areas in San Diego. We’re not talking guns and big trucks, we’re talkin Volvos and and natural Fabrics and organic vegetables. People who fit the profile of the people who would welcome me and mine, but in reality, not so much. This is not a dynamic singular to this ZIP code. There are a lot of areas that look Progressive and talk Progressive and even vote Progressive where I would never dare to go alone.

Again, that was 30 years ago and the likelihood that it would happen is lower now, but not impossible.

When I am in Kensington I enjoy it; it’s beautiful. But I am well aware that I am considered an interloper.

It’s better as you move west in to normal Heights, but again I would never buy north of Adams.

Let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about what diversity really means, and let’s talk about about to visions and disparities even within the same zip code.

Where you live, is it diverse? How is it diverse, and is there the same bifurcation that we see in normal Heights? And if that’s true can it truly be considered the diverse?

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