Alamitos Beach, Long Beach, CA

Alamitos Beach is the walkable, apartment-dense part of Long Beach that sits between the downtown towers and Bluff Park, where 1920s buildings run from Ocean Boulevard up to 4th Street and the sand is never more than a few blocks away. It feels busier than Bluff Park next door and more residential than the downtown blocks to the west. Homes in Alamitos Beach lean toward multifamily. Large condominium towers line the beachfront, including landmarks such as the Villa Riviera and the St. Regis, and inland the scale drops to two-story courtyard buildings, small apartment complexes and a few single-family houses. Single-family homes are the exception. Bixby Park anchors the neighborhood. It spans several blocks inland from Ocean Boulevard and has a restored 1928 bandshell, a playground, a dog park and a mobile skate park, and it hosts a farmers market. For coffee, Black Dog Coffee Roasters is nearby on 3rd Street, run by an owner whose family grows coffee in El Salvador. Just inland, Broadway has long been the center of the city's LGBTQ nightlife, with bars and restaurants that stay busy late. Daily errands happen along Broadway and 4th Street, and Vons near downtown covers big grocery runs. Many residents here get through the week without driving, and bike lanes on 1st through 3rd Streets help. The tradeoff is parking. Most buildings predate the car-heavy era, spaces on the street are hard to find at night, and circling the block is a routine part of life. On summer evenings, the bandshell lawn at Bixby Park is where the neighborhood spills out of its apartments.