Burbank

Cornered into Highway 880 and 280, Burbank is a flat, blue collar San Jose community with very little to offer. It was mostly concentrated in the Santa Clara County, but part of the neighborhood has been annexed to San Jose. While the district is largely middle-class, a couple suburban blocks are marred with ugly residences. As a result, many locals identify Burbank with the ghetto-looking part of town. For the prospective resident, it features a myriad of rundown housing options, vary little of which please the eye. Demographically speaking, the racial makeup of the community is somewhat diverse. Of the total 5,000 residents that live within the district’s bounds, over 60% white, 21% mixed race and 10% hispanic.

Burbank’s residential terrain is made up of an ugly ambiance. The northwestern corner of the neighborhood is your best bet for any redeeming family-friendly atmosphere. But for the most part, homes are usually small, single story cottages with little to no room for (unkempt) front yards. In fact, driveways are usually skinny and go deep into side properties while old, ugly cars are usually parked along the many dreary roads. House styles can vary. They are usually of the Victorian or Bungalow style, but I have seem some Deco and Craftsman peppering the area. House values for Burbank are usually affordable and estimate between $600,000 to $800,000. If these prices aren’t in your budget, you also have your selection of ugly, boxy and two-story apartment buildings dotting the community.

For young families, the district encompasses Luther Burbank School, an underwhelming K-8 school governed by the Luther Burbank School District, which has garnered three-out-of-five stars on greatschools.org. Also, San Jose City College lies adjacent to the neighborhood quarters, as does the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. For commuters, the area grants easy access to the Highway 880/280 junction, which makes for vastly shorter commute times in any direction. But that’s about it as far as amenities go. And if you’re interested, the neighborhood’s median household income is around $70,000/year.

Not to be confused with the large San Fernando Valley city near Los Angeles, the Burbank neighborhood just to the west of Downtown, where 880 and 280 meet, is a pretty varied residential neighborhood having a mix of single family homes, apartments and condominiums. The big draw of the area for a lot of people is Lincoln High School which is academically solid and much stronger than the high school options in Downtown.

You can roughly break Burbank down into four sections.

The southwest corner of Burbank is the most run down with older homes and beat-up looking apartments. Some of the apartments by the freeway, for example, have boarded up windows and cracked adobe walls—not a pretty site. The surrounding residential neighborhood is largely made up of older Ranch homes and vary from block to block—some looking pretty dreadful while others remind me of the kind of relatively well-kept older homes where you might expect to find retirees.

The northwest area of Burbank is dominated by O’Conner Medical Center. The neighborhood that surrounds it looks much like a much better kept version of southwest corner. Much better kept ranch homes, often with pristine lawns and attractive thatched roofs are the norm in this area.

Just south of the Municipal Rose Garden is the northeast section of Burbank. It is made up of very attractive older homes (much like the Rose Garden neighborhood north of the Garden). Shasta Ave. is especially attractive, with its leafy canopy and line of mint condition Mission style bungalows. It is definitely the most attractive section of Burbank. There is also a pretty nice similarly styled condo community just off San Carlos.

The southeastern section of Burbank is basically an apartment city, filled with those boxy 60’s style apartment complexes. Not all that attractive but not horrible either.

Put simply then, this neighborhood has a variety of living options. Its proximity to Downtown and the Peninsula, plus the fact that Lincoln High School is an above average school in terms of academics, make this a great spot for a variety of residents.