All Neighbors in San Diego's Balboa Park
Top Neighbors: The magic behind the mirrors
You will never have to pay to be listed as a top neighbor. Period. That important detail clarified, let's discuss how we arrive at two "top neighbors" for a given region:
Localism is a bustling collection of hyper-local communities, and the top neighbors should reflect those members who are most active. When ranking users in a given region, several factors are considered. To get your foot in the proverbial door, you need to have posted at least one "Localism" article or photo for the region.
The very best way to quickly rise to #1 is to post high-quality local content. Keeping a steady strem of incoming posts and photos will massively tilt the scales in your favor.
What doesn't count toward the top neighbor ranking? ActiveRain points and community sponsorships. The top neighbor spots will always go to the most active members in a region. We want to create a level playing field that encourages the growth of communities — talent and dedication are required to win the day.
The San Diego Zoo has five Malayan tigers in residence, but they usually spend most of their time sleeping.
San Diego has many seasons (drought, rain, mudslide, fire, etc.), but one of the most important to us is Tourist Season.
San Diego Zoo -- both an internationally recognized zoo and botanical garden
Botanical Building
The Prado at Balboa Park
San Diego Model Railroad Museum -- the world's largest operating model railroad museum
The Old Globe theatre
Balboa Park just north of downtown San Diego is one of the largest urban cultural city parks in the nation with over 1,200 acres. For comparison, Central Park in New York City has 843 acres. It also dates from 1835, making it one of the oldest urban parks.
Much of Balboa Park is still rugged, undeveloped land and is good for hiking and exploring.
Many of those developed areas were landscaped with grass and other plants that require regular watering, and while grass and such plants are beautiful, they really are inappropriate for a desert environment like San Diego. Remember that it's water that defines a desert, not temperature, although many deserts are also hot.
Recently, the San Diego City Parks Director announced that the yard at the 80-year-old Fire Alarm Building in Balboa Park has been converted from a traditional lawn into a drought-friendly landscape 
using redwood mulch, pathways of decomposed granite from a San Diego quarry, manzanita, sea dahlia, firecracker shrubs, Douglas iris, penstemon firebird, Cleveland sage, Little Sur shrubs, and Engelmann oaks.
The San Diego Union-Tribune has a long and distinguished history of supporting various causes throughout San Diego County. On Saturday, from 8:00 a.m. to noon, Dr. Seuss characters will be on hand for the 14th Annual Union-Tribune Kids Magic Mile, a one-mile run/walk that benefits literacy programs throughout the County.
