Oak Park, San Diego

Oak Park is an urban neighborhood of the Southeast region of San Diego, California.

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%

Development
Oak Park is characterized by single family homes, condominiums and apartments, as well as Navy 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 is Chollas Lake, a 16 acre 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):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 (San Diego Unified School District)

Economy
Oak Park is located 4 miles (6 km) from San Diego State University. The community is home to a large mall, the Marketplace at the Grove Shopping Center.

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

Close to the end of the 1990s, a master plan was created to revitalize the dead mall, with ambitious plans including the redevelopment of the mall into strip mall with many big box retailers.