Gardena, CA

Three freeways touch Gardena, the 110, the 405 and the 91, which is why the city still answers to the Freeway City nickname. Its Japanese American roots go back more than a century to farm settlements and a Japanese language school, and the community institutions that grew from them are still part of town life. The city changes by corridor more than by neighborhood. Western Avenue and Redondo Beach Boulevard hold the densest run of restaurants and markets, the blocks near Vermont Avenue on the east side lean more industrial, and the western streets toward Crenshaw feel quieter and more settled. Food is the reason people cross city lines to get here. Weekend errands often run through Tokyo Central, the Japanese supermarket with a food court good enough to turn a grocery trip into lunch. Parks here are sized for the neighborhood around them, with ball fields, playgrounds and community buildings spread across town. The standout is the Gardena Willows Wetland Preserve, which keeps a few acres of willow marsh in its natural state in the southeast corner of town. Daily life runs on a car, and most errands mean parking in a strip plaza. Supermarkets are plentiful, including Japanese, Chinese and mainstream chains, and nearly every trip starts with a short hop onto one of the freeways. The tradeoff is open space. Big parks, trails and beaches all sit outside the city, so a long walk or a run on the sand means driving somewhere else. What Gardena has instead is range, with a dozen kinds of dinner within a couple of miles of almost any front door.