We live where?

Ironically, one of the things I haven't quite figured out about where we live, is actually where we live.

When we travel outside the area, we just tell people we live in San Jose, which is correct. However, it's when we talk to other people who live around San Jose that I have a problem. Since San Jose is a city of one million people, it makes sense to tell people that you live in a certain district or area of San Jose. That's how it was in Seattle, you lived in Ballard or Fremont or Capital Hill etc...

Although San Jose does have neighborhoods and districts, we apparently don't live in one of them. We live in no man's land. Our neighborhood doesn't have a name. In fact there are even pockets of neighborhoods around us that aren't even incorporated by the city of San Jose, yet geographically we're smack in the middle of the city limits. Invariably, we tell people we live a half mile down the road from Santana Row or Valley Fair Mall. People figure it out. But, this doesn't really help build one's sense of community, when you identify the neighborhood you live in as being down the road from a mall, even if it is a nice mall. The other option is to tell people we are kind of by the Pink Poodle...also not helpful.

So, before we leave here, I'd like to try and figure out exactly where here is. So, I start with the closest neighborhood that I can identify. Burbank. How do I know it's Burbank? Because the historic Burbank theater proudly or not so proudly says so:

This theater is so historic that I can't find much history on it, other than the fact it's out of business and at one or two points in its history was an "outstanding" adult theater.

As real estate agents say: Burbank is a transitional neighborhood. If you should be so inclined, here's a link to Burbank's history. As interesting as this is, we don't live in Burbank. We live four blocks away from its border, so I guess I should keep looking...I'll keep you posted if I figure this out or I might just give up and go back to the beer fridge.