West Covina, CA

West Covina is the Los Angeles County suburb that happened almost overnight. It was a walnut settlement of a few hundred people until the 1950s, when tract maps filled its 16 square miles within a decade, and that burst still shapes the city between Baldwin Park and the San Jose Hills. North of the ridge, neighborhoods like Cameron Park and Merced-Orangewood are block after block of single-story 1950s ranch houses with attached garages on curving streets. For open space, Galster Wilderness Park protects a hillside of black walnut woodland with trails and a nature center, a reminder of what the valley grew before the houses. Cortez Park is the big flatland park for ballgames and picnics, and the Sportsplex on Azusa Avenue sits on land reclaimed from an old landfill. Food follows the arterials. Amar Road near Azusa Avenue is the local Filipino district, where Manila Sunset is known for bibingka and Toto's Lechon sells roast pork with crackling skin. La Social Cafe, also on Sunset, is the coffee stop people bring up, known for its waffles. Errands run between Plaza West Covina, the enclosed mall downtown, and Eastland Center, the 1957 shopping center rebuilt around a Target. The 10 crosses the middle of town and the 60 runs below the hills. Foothill Transit runs the buses, but there is no train station, so Metrolink riders drive to Covina or Baldwin Park. Nearly everything in West Covina is a drive, and summers run hot well into October. What that buys is room. A house here usually comes with its own driveway, a yard and a park within a few blocks, and from the hill streets the San Gabriel Mountains line up across the whole valley.