Parkland Hills in Albuquerque, NM

Parkland Hills sits in Albuquerque's Southeast Heights, between Carlisle Boulevard on the west and San Mateo on the east, with Silver Avenue along its northern edge. The Albuquerque Journal announced the addition in August 1926, when the first bungalows went up on the Southeast Mesa; building continued for roughly forty years, so Mediterranean Revival houses laid out on City Beautiful principles stand a few blocks from postwar modernist ones. A tree-lined boulevard with a grassy median runs through the middle and gives the area its other name, Ridgecrest. The district carries a National Register of Historic Places listing, and the University of New Mexico sits a few minutes northwest.

The Parkland Hills Neighborhood Association is voluntary, funded by small annual household dues rather than anything attached to a deed. Members vote at general meetings on board seats and neighborhood questions, and the association runs a fall festival at Eunice Kollach Park and meal packs for a neighborhood school.

Housing stock runs wide for one neighborhood — brick colonials, Santa Fe style, bungalows and mid-century modern all turn up within a few blocks, a consequence of the long build-out. Mature street trees came with the original plan and are still the first thing most people notice.

Kirtland Air Force Base lies to the south and Nob Hill's storefronts are just north, so the neighborhood is close to both work and errands without sitting on a main road. Puerto del Sol Golf Course, a public facility with a lighted driving range, is nearby but outside the neighborhood; Old Town is about fifteen minutes by car.