Downtown Palmdale, Palmdale, CA

Downtown Palmdale is the city's original core along Palmdale Boulevard and Sierra Highway, the roads that first gave this desert town a spine in the 1920s. It's also where the train comes in, since the Palmdale Transportation Center brings Metrolink, Amtrak, Greyhound and Antelope Valley Transit together at the edge of downtown. Homes in Downtown Palmdale are some of the city's older stock, modest single-family houses and apartment buildings on a grid of numbered streets and lettered avenues, with the boulevard's storefronts only a block or two away. Palmdale Boulevard is where the neighborhood eats, and it leans on small independent kitchens. Tacos El Superior and Birrieria La Korita handle the street-food end, El Carbonero serves Latin American plates, and Jasmine Thai sits a few doors from Pupuseria Rosali. Starbucks is the reliable coffee stop, and Manantial Frozen Treats cools things off in summer. Poncitlan Square on 9th Street East is the downtown gathering space, and Desert Sands Park on 3rd Street East adds meeting rooms and activity space. Legacy Commons on Avenue Q-9 is a city community center, and the Palmdale City Library sits right on the boulevard. Errands are easy by car and possible on foot for anyone near the boulevard. Vallarta Supermarkets and Phil Mart handle groceries, and Butera Market sits at Clock Tower Plaza by the station. This is one of the few places in the Antelope Valley where getting to Los Angeles can start with a train instead of the freeway. The tradeoff is age and polish. Much of the housing and retail is older and plain, and the boulevard carries heavy traffic through the day. In exchange, Downtown Palmdale is the one part of the city where a dozen cuisines and a train platform share the same mile of road.