Personal choice instead of neighborhood consensus dictates decorating styles. Some yards are precisely maintained, with weed-free and closely cropped grass. Other yards are free form. On 14th Street, the neighborhood's main drag, is a house whose yard is AstroTurf over concrete. On top of the AstroTurf is a roomy old sofa, a perfect place to loll at leisure and watch the passing parade.
Some people fill their yards with flowers.
Roses bloom in untidy profusions, morning glories climb all over chain link fences, and calla lilies line the path to sagging front porches. The neighborhood rises and falls along a gentle slope, and trees are everywhere, in yards, lining the streets and heading into the hills. But this is not a good place to be a cat. Dogs are nearly as common as cars and take their job as guardians seriously. After enduring the perils of drugs and prostitution, South Park is facing gentrification.