Best of 2001: Best Residential Row

28th Street, Between Date and A Streets, South Park

It's mostly Craftsman houses of varying degrees of size and splendor along this row of houses, with a few Monterey-style houses and Spanish numbers. The highlight is the elegant Victorian-Craftsman amalgam on the corner of 28th and Ash. The well-kept, well-landscaped houses face west into the golden afternoon sunlight. Across the street, a narrow park, planted with eucalyptus and California peppers, runs the length of the strip. Beyond that is the endless green carpet of the Balboa Park Golf Course. A near-constant cool ocean breeze blows from this direction, bearing the scent of eucalyptus and grass being cut on the golf course. The sidewalk along 28th is set back from the curb by a border of grass and spaced date palms. Ornate, slate-blue gaslamp-style streetlights illuminate the row at night and adorn it by day. The planes that fly overhead on their way to land at Lindbergh Field are high enough and under low enough power that they don't annoy. And if you're lucky enough to get a house here -- there's rarely a for-sale sign up -- you're only a five-minute, freeway-free commute from downtown.