Boulevard Park, Sacramento, CA

Boulevard Park is one of the prettiest historic neighborhoods in central Sacramento, a compact grid just north of Midtown organized around the landscaped medians that give it its name. Those boulevards are not decorative accidents. They trace the oval of the old Union Park horse-racing track, and the neighborhood grew up inside the footprint. The housing is the reason people fall for it: restored Victorians, Craftsman bungalows, and early-century apartments, many of them on the National Register, set under a genuinely mature canopy. It is also walkable in a way little of Sacramento is, an easy stroll to Midtown's restaurants and bars, to downtown jobs, and to the river, with light rail close at hand. The tradeoffs are the standard central-city ones, sharpened by the neighborhood's age. Street parking is tight, some blocks rub up against busier arterials and the freeway, and you pay a clear premium for the history and the location. What that premium buys is specific and hard to replicate: intact period architecture, real walkability, and one of the most distinctive addresses in the city.