Hillcrest

The neighborhood surrounding Hillcrest Park, is one of those planned communities where a developer builds a number of homes in the same style so that the neighborhood has certain level of consistency. In this case, the style is a neo-Mediterranean or neo-Spanish style. The motif of red-tiled roofs and pastel stucco walls works quite well in creating a clean overall look to the neighborhood.

Despite this consistency of motif, however, the homes do a good job of differentiating themselves by playing with a series of variables, such as the shape of the windows. These distinguishing characteristics are helpful, because they allow you to individuate your home and give you a sense of uniqueness to the place where you live so that you don’t just feel like a tiny cog in the wheel of your neighborhood.

On the far eastern end of the neighborhood, there is a sort of strange gated community with large homes inside of it (large enough to house troops for example). These homes resemble barracks or hotels. I’m not sure what is going on with this area.

The location of Hillcrest is also nice because it is just far enough away from the western landfills that you rarely get much of a whiff of the scents that other residents of Milpitas often complain, and because it is nestled up against the Contra Costa Mtn. and there are a few trails there.

Overall, this is a good neighborhood.