West Hollywood, CA

West Hollywood is its own city within Los Angeles County, bordered by Beverly Hills to the west, and its personality changes with each of the long boulevards that cross it. Walk a few blocks north or south and the whole tone of the place shifts. Santa Monica Boulevard, in the middle, is the everyday main street and the center of the city's LGBTQ+ life, with Pride and the Halloween Carnaval both taking it over each year. The Abbey on Robertson Boulevard, a gay bar known for drag shows and weekend brunch, is one of its anchors. Most homes here are apartments or condos. Prewar walk-ups, postwar multifamily buildings and newer condos near Sunset make up most of the stock. Parks are compact and well used. On the eastern end, Plummer Park draws chess players and pickup basketball, and the main park next to the library stacks its tennis courts on a rooftop. Daily errands can happen on foot. Several supermarkets line Santa Monica Boulevard, a certified farmers market sets up on the east side, and a free late-night trolley runs along the main street. Alana's Coffee Roasters on Robertson is the coffee stop in the Design District, feeding the showroom crowd by day. The tradeoff is space. That is also what makes West Hollywood feel lived in at street level, where a morning coffee run, a dog walk and a trip to the market can all happen within a couple of blocks.