Dominguez Village, Carson, CA

Dominguez Village shares its name with the Dominguez family, whose Spanish rancho grant of 1784 once covered the land that became Carson. Today the neighborhood sits on the city's eastern side, and its clearest draw is Dominguez Park, where the city runs an aquatic center with three waterslides. Housing in Dominguez Village is mostly single-family, with single-story tract homes built during the 1950s and 1960s on flat, regular streets. Garages, driveways and fenced yards are standard, and many houses have been expanded or updated. Industrial and business parks along El Presidio Street and Susana Road border the residential blocks. Dominguez Park, on Santa Fe Avenue, covers 10 acres with a five-lane activity pool, a zero-depth kiddie pool, tennis courts, a jogging path and Frisbee golf, and the Dominguez Community Center is on the same street. Eating out is casual and scattered. Rocco's Deli Italiano on Susana Road is an Italian deli tucked among the business parks, El Camaron Bichi serves Mexican seafood on Alameda Street, and Piggies Charbroiled Restaurant grills burgers on East Del Amo. Errands usually mean a drive. There's no big supermarket inside the lines, so groceries tend to happen at the markets along Avalon or at SouthBay Pavilion, both a short drive west. The 405 and 710 are close, which helps with trips to the ports, Long Beach and the South Bay. The tradeoff is the industrial edge, which brings truck traffic onto Del Amo and the streets near the business parks. The residential streets themselves stay calm, and few Carson neighborhoods have a public pool with waterslides this close to home.