Sylvan Park, Mountain View

One of Mountain View's easternmost neighborhoods is something of an anomaly. Most areas with a peaceful suburban atmosphere are accompanied by a cookie-cutter aesthetic. But what Sylvan Park offers is an eclectic mix of houses as well as residents.

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"It's generally a quiet family-friendly neighborhood," said Lawrence Vallandigham, a resident since 1998. "There's an awful lot of familiarity. It's not anesthetic. People are real, out and about."

Bounded by Highways 237 and 85, El Camino Real and Acalanes Drive, the neighborhood runs alongside the Sunnyvale border. Its main feature is Sylvan Park, a nine-acre grassy area set in the neighborhood's center on Sylvan Avenue.

The park, which includes a playground, horseshoe area, picnic space and tennis courts, has become popular among Mountain View and Sunnyvale residents alike. It's also the site of the Sylvan Park Neighborhood Association's annual Fourth of July barbecue.

As the main street in the neighborhood, Sylvan Avenue contains a variety of housing types, from apartment complexes to large two-story homes, as well as a mix of residents, including short-term renters, families putting down roots and retirees.

Sylvan Avenue also contains a number of mobile home parks. Ruth Polata and her husband moved to the Sunset Estates park in 1998, after 33 years in Los Altos. The couple was seeking to downsize its living space and was pleasantly surprised by mobile-home life.

"It's a small community within a larger community," Polata said, adding that they have their own gatherings every month organized by residents, as well as a Christmas party provided by the owners.

Sylvan Park facts:| CHILDCARE AND PRESCHOOLS: Western Montessori Day School, 323 Moorpark Way; YMCA -- Slater, 325 Gladys Ave. FIRE STATION: No. 4, 229 N. Whisman Road PARKS: Sylvan Park, Sylvan Avenue and DeVoto Street POST OFFICE: Mountain View, 211 Hope St. PRIVATE SCHOOLS: St. Stephan Lutheran School, 320 Moorpark Way PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Mtn. View-Whisman School District -- Slater Elementary School, Crittenden Middle School; Mtn. View-Los Altos Union High School District -- Mountain View High School SHOPPING: Albertsons grocery store across El Camino Real MEDIAN 2006 HOME PRICE: $860,000 ($710,000-$1,248,000) # HOMES SOLD: 5 MEDIAN 2006 CONDO PRICE: $578,000 # CONDOS SOLD: 1

The homes lining the neighborhood represent building trends from the past four decades. One-story bungalows from the '60s mix with streamlined structures from the '70s and large two-story houses from the '80s and onward.

Throughout the neighborhood, a decidedly family-friendly tone exists. Families fill the park -- which is set away from Sylvan Avenue traffic -- kids ride bikes, and basketball hoops are a feature on nearly every home on Glenborough Drive.

Carolyn and Ray Kreiss, who moved to the neighborhood in 1985, find it "a fun place to walk around." Kids feel so safe there that, at Halloween, they opened the door to more than 250 trick-or-treaters, she said.

But residents have fought to keep their sense of suburbia. In 1994, the Emporium department store at El Camino Real and Highway 85 shut down after 25 years in business. Sylvan Park residents mobilized and helped defeat opening a Home Depot store there in 2002.

Since then, the Camino Medical Group has worked with the city and residents to design a 250,000-square-foot medical facility for the site, which is projected to be completed by spring 2007.

A secondary gain in fighting the Home Depot proposal was a sense of community spirit. And friendships have remained even though the issue has subsided.

"It was an example of the best of grassroots organizing," Vallandigham said. "We got involved to address this issue knowing that when it was over it was over and everyone would get back to their own private lives."

-- Katie Vaughn