Chapman Woods, Pasadena, CA

Chapman Woods is a pocket of roughly 460 homes on the east side of Pasadena, most of it in unincorporated East Pasadena with a small piece inside the city. Signs mark every entrance, and the Chapman Woods Association, formed in the 1930s, still publishes a directory and keeps block representatives on each street. Most of the houses went up in the 1920s, when the old ranch was carved into subdivisions, so the streets have the settled feel of an interwar suburb with big trees overhead. Willard Elementary sits on one side of Madre Street near the middle of the neighborhood, and across from it is the old Wilson Middle School campus, which now houses Rose City Continuation High School. There are no shops or parks inside the boundaries, so people head out for both. For food, Saucy Chick, a short way up Rosemead Boulevard, does rotisserie chicken and goat birria tacos, and Wild Parrot Brewing on East Colorado Boulevard has a beer garden where leashed dogs are welcome. Groceries and errands happen along East Colorado in Lamanda Park, where Vons and Smart & Final sit, and the nearest train is the A Line terminus at Sierra Madre Villa. Rosemead Boulevard, the eastern edge, is also State Route 19 and carries highway traffic. The tradeoff in Chapman Woods is that nearly everything takes a car, from coffee to a gallon of milk. Inside the signs, though, the streets stay shaded and slow, and some of the pecan, walnut, citrus and avocado trees Chapman put in are still standing in backyards.