Willowbrook, CA

Two Metro rail lines cross in Willowbrook, an unincorporated community in the South LA flatlands of Los Angeles County. The transfer station where they meet is how many people across the region first hear the name. Watts lies just to the north and Compton just below, while the 105 Freeway cuts across the northern side of the community. Most of the housing is small single-story homes from the years around World War II, with stucco walls, short driveways and fenced front yards. The eastern stretch toward Alameda Street mixes in storage yards, plant nurseries and small industrial lots, so the feel shifts from block to block as you head that way. Magic Johnson Park is the big outdoor draw in Willowbrook, a county park built on old oil land, with lakes, a long walking loop and wetlands that clean stormwater. Several smaller county parks sit closer to the residential streets for a quick game of basketball or a walk. The medical campus shapes a lot of daily life here. Charles R. Drew University trains doctors and nurses on the same grounds as the county-backed hospital, and the weekly farmers market sets up nearby. The A C Bilbrew Library on El Segundo Boulevard houses the county's Black Resource Center, a research collection on African American history and culture. Food is mostly counters and takeout. Hawkins House of Burgers, open for more than eighty years, turns out burgers big enough to split. Seafood spots, taquerias and bakeries fill in along Wilmington Avenue and El Segundo Boulevard, and chain grocery stores on those same streets cover the weekly shop. There is no real shopping district, and a sit-down dinner or an evening out takes a drive to another city. What Willowbrook has instead is reach, since downtown offices, the beach cities and the airport are all one or two train rides from the station.