Cherry Manor, Long Beach, CA

Cherry Manor is a pocket of postwar houses on the east side of North Long Beach, stretching from South Street and Cherry Avenue out toward Paramount Boulevard and the city's edge. It is a quiet residential grid with a neighborhood park in the middle and a lot of everyday shopping on the outside. Cherry Manor's housing is largely modest one-story homes built around midcentury, each with a small front lawn, a driveway and a backyard. Many have been updated over the years, and a few apartment buildings sit near the main roads. Davenport Park on 55th Way is the neighborhood park inside the grid, a spot for an evening walk or a game of catch without crossing a major street. Houghton Park and Ramona Park, both with ball fields and community centers, are a short drive west. Food and drink spread along the edges. Bahn Thai on Downey Avenue cooks Thai standards, Shlap Muan Chicken Wings on South Street serves Cambodian-style wings, and Lee's Sandwiches on Cherry Avenue is the stop for banh mi and Vietnamese coffee. Errands are easy and almost all by car. Walmart on South Street and El Super on South Street cover groceries and household runs, and the 91 freeway is only minutes to the north. Lakewood and Paramount are right across the city line for more shopping, and the Starbucks on South Street is the closest coffee stop. The tradeoff is that the east side of North Long Beach runs into an industrial strip served by the Union Pacific railroad, so trucks and rail traffic are part of the backdrop near the edge. Most of the interior streets stay quiet, and Davenport Park is the place neighbors see each other in the evening.