The social network site NextDoor recently published its list of friendliest cities in California.
Fresno didn’t make that list.
But the site used the same data to rank the city’s friendliest neighborhoods, which is a fun bit of knowledge to have and play with.
In a statement, Nextdoor CCO Kelsey Grady said the company (via its 100 million users) is “uniquely positioned to analyze neighborhoods based on real neighbor interactions,” which it used for the rankings.
Meaning, Nextdoor looked through its data for posts with a positive tone (as opposed to the negative ones) or those that expressed some kind of neighborhood pride. It counted any time a welcome post got a response and how often neighborhood requests were fulfilled.
It also tallied whether users were promoting local businesses and how much free stuff was being offered.
The top neighborhood was scored at 100 and the rest were given relative rankings.
The top five in Fresno were:
FigardenPinedale, Herndon IngramOld Fig GardenTower District Area Greater Tower District  (2).jpeg "FRS_EPZ_TOWER_THEATRE_ANNIV(2) (2)")
The Tower Theatre is seen during the Fresno High Neighborhood Holiday Home Tour Monday evening, Dec. 2, 2024 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
The list offers few actual insights into these neighborhoods, or what makes them tick, but does serve as a reminder of the physical size of the city (115.18 square miles as of 2020) and the sheer number of unique pockets that exist within it (enough for a top 20 — who knew?).
It is worth noting that Nextdoor users set the neighborhoods and boundaries, with the early adopters acting as “founding members.” So to really understand the list, you have to be either overly familiar with an area or at least Nextdoor’s mapping and naming configurations, which can be hard to follow.
Top-ranked Figarden, for example, is an area that broadly runs north of Bullard Avenue from Valentine to just past Millburn, and all the way to Herndon Avenue. It includes Sierra Sky Park, but carves out a small area for the Fig Garden Loop Northeast. (Which begs the question whether there’s a northwest demarcation. There is not.)
That is wholly separate from the double-G Figgarden, a triangle of properties at Ashlan and West Avenues, or Old Fig Garden, the neighborhood surrounding Christmas Tree Lane.
Van Ness Boulevard in Old Fig Garden, also known as Christmas Tree Lane, is known for its towering deodar cedar trees covered in lighting during the holidays. It is one of the areas of greater Fresno with the most dense tree growth. CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com
Similarly, Nextdoor splits the Tower District in two. The so-called Tower District Area is a square of land from McKinley Avenue to Belmont and Blackstone Avenue to Palm. The Greater Tower District sits to the north and west and bounded by Maroa, Fruit, Shields and Olive avenues.
Some neighborhoods are designated by the development or developer (the Dominion, Granville Sunnyside) or through historical significance (Tarpey Village). For others, it’s simply cross streets. See: Maple/Behymer, Cornelia and Ashlan.
With that in mind, the rest of Fresno’s friendliest neighborhoods include:
Audobon WedgeMaplecreekChamplain DriveSunnyside East Maple/BehymerDakota/Shields/West/MarksTarpey VillageCornelia and AshlanRoy St.WestMiramonteFresno East Granville Sunnyside Eaton Elementary NeighborThe Dominion 
Volunteers and neighbors gather to create art in front of Fresno High School in this file photo from July 2019. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com 
A couple walk onto Palm Avenue, part of the Old Fig Garden nieghborhood, Wednesday, March 4, 2026 in Fresno. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
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Joshua Tehee covers breaking news for The Fresno Bee, writing on a wide range of topics from police, politics and weather, to arts and entertainment in the Central Valley.