Oso Grande in Albuquerque, NM

Oso Grande is an established neighborhood in Albuquerque's Northeast Heights, bounded by Spain Road on the north, Edwards Drive on the east, Morris Street on the west, and the Bear Canyon Arroyo along the south. Its namesake city park anchors the southern edge, where a half-mile paved loop circles the sports fields past a playground and picnic tables. CNM's Montoya Campus sits immediately south of the park, off Morris Street. The association that speaks for the neighborhood is voluntary, holding no covenants over residents and collecting no mandatory dues.

The association behind the neighborhood name goes back to the mid-1990s, formed to give residents a single voice on zoning cases, city projects and the ordinary business of the area rather than to police what anyone does with a lot.

The city rebuilt the park rather than patching it, replacing a 30-year-old irrigation system down to the pipe and valves, resurfacing the playground from sand to engineered wood fiber, and planting 58 trees and more than 50 shrubs against Albuquerque's shrinking tree canopy. Parking sits along Osuna Road, and the loop is graded flat enough to walk end to end.