Oak Park is an

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

neighborhood of the

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

region of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Geography

The neighborhood's borders are defined by Euclid Avenue to the west, Chollas Parkway/Streamview Drive/College Avenue to the north, and State Route 94 to the southeast
Oak Park map

Demographics

Oak Park is a very diverse neighborhood and home to one of the higher concentrations of African-Americans in the city. Current demographics for the neighborhood are as follows: people of Hispanic/Latino heritage make up 31.2%, followed by Asians at 25.8%, then African-Americans at 22.0%, non-Hispanic Whites at 16.5%, Mixed Race at 3.7%, and others at 0.8%

Economy

Oak Park is located 4 miles (6 km) from

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

. The community is home to a large mall, the Marketplace at the Grove Shopping Center, with anchor stores of

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawai ...

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's Cl ...

and

24-Hour Fitness 24 Hour Fitness is a privately owned and operated Physical fitness, fitness center chain headquartered in Carlsbad, California. It is the second largest fitness chain in the United States based on revenue after LA Fitness, and the fourth in numb ...

. The center originally opened as a traditional shopping mall called College Grove with anchors of

JC Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

Walker Scott Walker Scott, also Walker-Scott or Walker's, was a chain of department stores in San Diego and surrounding area from 1935 to 1986 and had eight branches at the time of its closure. It was founded by Ralf Marc (or R.M.) Walker and George A. Scott ...

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

, and various national chain retail stores. It was the first shopping center in central San Diego for the burgeoning community growing in the area in the Post-War era. Over the years, management changed hands and in the mid-80s briefly became The Grove and received a pastel-influenced makeover. By this time rent had increased sharply and one by one tenants left. Before the mall closed the center had only

Mervyns Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...

Longs Drugs Longs Drugs is an American chain owned by parent company CVS Health with approximately 70 drugstores throughout the state of Hawaii and formerly in the Continental US. Before being acquired by parent company in 2008, it was a chain of over 500 s ...

MANN Theaters Mann may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Mann (chess), a variant chess piece which moves as a king * ''Mann'' (film), a 1999 Bollywood motion picture * ''Mann'' (magazine), a Norwegian magazine * Mann Theatres, a theatre chain co ...

, and a branch of the United States Post Office. Close to the end of the 1990s, a master plan was created to revitalized the

dead mall A dead mall (also known as a ghost mall, zombie mall, or abandoned mall) is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is deteriorating in some manner. Many malls in North America are considered "dead ...

, with ambitious plans including the redevelopment of the mall into strip mall with many big box retailers.

Pic 'N' Save Pic 'N' Save Corporation (later MacFrugals) was at one time the second-largest closeout retail chain in the United States. Financial troubles caused the chain to close many stores in the late 1990s and early 2000s. History William Zimmerman fou ...

(Later

Big Lots Big Lots Stores, Inc. (stylized as Big Lots!) is an American retail company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with over 1,400 stores in 47 states. History The Big Lots chain traces its history back to 1967 when Consolidated Stores Corporation w ...

Party City Party City Holdco Inc. is an American publicly traded retail chain of party stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. Party City’s parent organization is Party City Holdings Inc. Based in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, the compa ...

, and

HomeBase Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, unti ...

opened in March 2000.

and

were the only hold overs from the original mall. In the next ten years

would become House2Home and eventually go bankrupt and be replaced by Target. Longs Drugs was acquired by CVS and closed. Mervyns went out of business in 2008 as a result of the late 2000s recession but by late 2009 was gutted and replaced by

. As of 2010, the shopping center sees daily full parking lots, a feat not even achieved by the mall in its prime.

Community character

Oak Park is characterized by single family homes, condominiums and apartments, as well as

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

housing. It is an established, stable community, demographically diverse and generally representative of San Diego. Oak Park is divided between City Council District 4 and District 7. It has a fire station and a branch of the public library. It has a strong community organization, the Oak Park Community Council. The jewel of Oak Park i
Chollas Lake
a lake designated for free youth fishing (age 15 and under); a 0.8 mile dirt path around the lake for walking, jogging, and bicycling; picnic tables with barbecue grills; children's play equipment; a small basketball court; hiking trails; and a multi-purpose ball field in North Chollas canyon.

Education

Oak Park hosts two elementary schools. * Oak Park Elementary School (

San Diego Unified School District San Diego Unified School District (formerly known as San Diego City Schools) is the school district based in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1854. As of 2005 it represents over 200 institutions and has over 15,800 employee ...

):Oak Park Elementary Music Conservatory Magnet School enrolls grades kindergarten through 5th grade. The registered enrollment was 823 students for the 2007–2008 school year. * Carver Elementary School (

)

References

{{coord, 32.7359, -117.0797, display=title Neighborhoods in San Diego