A few years ago, I wrote about my favorite Chico streets in my former E-R column "But This is Chico."  It's time to do an update in my blog, using photos.

Some streets -- The Esplanade, Woodland and Vallombrosa avenues and Bidwell Avenue -- are such obvious candidates there's no sense in mentioning them.

Not surprisingly, all of my favorite streets are in my favorite neighborhoods. They are in the only places I call neighborhoods.

Chico has, at most, eight neighborhoods: South Campus, Barber, the avenues, the streets (not really their name), Mansion Park, Chapmantown, Mulberry and the place east of Mangrove Avenue and north of Bidwell Park that I call NoPa.

The rest of Chico consists of subdivisions, the mass-produced projects of developers. California Park has a name, but it's several developments rolled into one. The Doe Mill Neighborhood is called a neighborhood, but it's a subdivision. It tries to look like a traditional neighborhood, but it's a facsimile. I'm still trying to decide whether I like 21st century reproductions of older neighborhoods. I like them better than the typical mid-20th century suburban housing development, although I have a soft spot for Eichler homes.

In my book, a neighborhood is assembled lot by lot. Truly great streets have to be unpredictable. Subdivision streets may be pretty and charming, but they offer no surprises. Because cities are no longer built lot by lot, neighorhoods are no longer being created, at least not in a physical sense. That's why it's so important to preserve them.

It's hard to single out my favorite street in the Barber neighborhood. The most improved street is 21st Street between Park Avenue and Salem Street. New construction and renovations of existing properties have rescued this two-block stretch that was once on the brink of turning into a slum.

The best streets in Barber are Salem and Broadway. The photo that leads off this post is on Salem between 17th and 18th streets. Another favorite street is Chestnut between 9th and 10th. When you drive over the bridge that crosses Little Chico Creek, you feel like you're entering another world.

Without a doubt, my favorite street in the avenues is West Sacramento between The Esplanade and Palm Avenue. As you head east, you first pass through two blocks of modest craftsman bungalows. I've written about them several times. Beyond that are two blocks of houses built in the post-bungalow style but pre-date the mid-20th century ticky-tacky suburban ranch-style home. It's a quiet street, and extremely pleasant to walk. East First Avenue, which lies a block to the north, is also nice, but there's too much traffic for a pedestrian to feel comfortable. The two or three blocks that lie north of East First are also great walking streets.

Another favorite street, on the west side of the avenues, is Hobart Avenue, four blocks of semi-rural solitude just east of Warner Avenue. Ugly apartment buildings that serve as rentals for Chico State University students have made inroads into this part of the avenues, but Hobart has unbroken rows of older houses.

The day I walked this street to recall what it's like my serenity was shattered by a woman walking down the street yelling obscenities into a cell phone. This wasn't some college student who had the mistaken idea that swearing is a sign of maturity. This woman was easily in her 40s.

I'd venture you'd never hear this kind of talk on the streets of California Park. On the other hand, you don't see a lot of people walking the streets of any of Chico's subdivisions. There's no life to them. The thing about neighborhoods is that all kinds of people live in them, which is part of their unpredictability -- good or bad.

Mansion Park is such a distinctive part of the avenues that it more than deserves its own name. It gets its name not because it has mansions in it but because it's next to Bidwell Mansion. It was subdivided in the early 1920s, and was built up lot by lot over the next 20 years. It has few bungalows, but several storybook-style houses. It's impossible for me to pick a favorite street. I chose this one because so many of the yards were in bloom the day I was taking photos of the neighborhood. Despite being in the heart of town and right next to Chico State University, it retains a quiet, early 20th century atmosphere.

The streets, the unnamed section east of downtown, is Chico's version heaven on earth. It's the perfect early 20th century small-town neighborhood, replete with charming houses, well-tended gardens and tree-lined streets. It's impossible to pick out a favorite street.

I arbitrarily picked out a corner house about two blocks south of Bidwell Park. Heaven runs south for another two blocks past this location.

It's hard to find even one decent block in the South Campus neighborhood despite the historical and architectural significance of its numerous 19th and early 20th century buildings. it has too many bad remodeling jobs and ugly apartments. Fortunately, there are a few property owners in the neighborhood who value the old houses. I took me a while to notice that a few blocks of Eighth Street between about Salem and Ivy, still look like old Chico. I wasn't inclined to walk it because of the traffic. But when I gave it a chance on foot, I discovered this is a good stretch. I was especially intrigued by this house with the witch's cap.

NoPa is a much newer neighborhood than the others, but most of it was developed lot by lot. The queen street is Arbutus Avenue, the one stretch that was built up before the mid 20th century. The homes in this neighborhood are on large lots that bask beneath the blue suburban skies.

It and Mansion Park are the most consistently middle class of the neighborhoods, so they aren't as likely to provide the same element of surprise that walking in more economically diverse realms of Chico does.

Chapmantown and the Mulberry neighborhood offer the most surprises. I like how churches, stores and other non-residential buildings can pop anywhere. I like the neighborhoods' mixture of shabby charm and drab ugliness. I like how when you leave the precise grid of Mulberry and cross over into Chapmantown, you risk losing your sense of direction. Chapmantown streets are a labyrinth. Here's a fence in Chapmantown. I challenge you to find anything like this in a Chico subdivision.