Walnut Park, CA

Walnut Park is a small unincorporated pocket of Los Angeles County directly below Huntington Park, and because its mail carries a Huntington Park address, it often gets lumped in with its bigger neighbor. Pacific Boulevard runs down the middle as the shopping street, Santa Fe Avenue carries more traffic on the western side, and the residential grid fills the space between. Deeper in, the streets are mostly single-family houses dating from the 1920s to the 1950s, with shallow front yards, short driveways and the occasional back unit. Walnut Nature Park, a pocket park on Pacific, gives the community a playground, splash pad and a patch of lawn. For bigger fields, pools and longer walks, people head to the larger parks in Huntington Park and South Gate, each a short drive away. Most meals happen on Pacific and Santa Fe, where taquerias, seafood spots and panaderias fill the storefronts. The closest well-known coffee stop is Tierra Mia, about a mile north up Pacific in Huntington Park, a local roaster that got its start in South Gate. Everyday shopping is mostly small markets and corner stores, and bigger grocery runs go to supermarkets in the neighboring cities. Buses run on Pacific, Santa Fe and Florence, and the Metro A Line is a short ride west. Because Pacific and Santa Fe carry traffic between Huntington Park and South Gate, both can back up at rush hour, and parking near the busiest stretch of shops is tight. Step a block or two off Pacific and it all goes quiet, and on a warm evening the loudest sound in Walnut Park is usually a paletero's bell.