Downtown Lancaster, Lancaster, CA

Downtown Lancaster is the one part of the city built around a street you can actually stroll. Expect small mid-century houses and ranch homes on a tight grid of streets like Cedar Avenue and Fig Avenue, with apartment buildings mixed in and a couple of mobile home parks closer to Avenue I. Lots are modest by local standards, and the blocks feel more like an old farm town than the newer tracts to the west. The food scene is the reason people come downtown. The Modern Tea Room pours more than 150 teas, runs a Sunday brunch and swaps in new work by local artists every few weeks. For coffee, Cafe Antigua on 10th Street West brews Guatemalan beans and bakes its own bagels. MOAH, the city's Museum of Art and History, shows local and visiting artists alongside Antelope Valley history, with a second gallery, MOAH Cedar, around the corner. The Lancaster Library is next door, and the farmers market sets up on the boulevard. Errands are mostly by car. Wonder Supermarket and Bob's Too Market cover quick trips along Avenue I, while bigger grocery runs head south to the stores on Avenue K. Lancaster's Metrolink station, the last stop on the Antelope Valley Line, is close by for trips into Los Angeles. A block or two off the boulevard it turns back into wide avenues lined with drive-throughs along 10th Street West and Avenue I, so the main-street feel depends on which side street you live on. Living in Downtown Lancaster works best on the blocks where the museum, the library and the tea room are all within a few minutes on foot.