East Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA

East Hollywood is where several of Los Angeles' most distinct communities overlap, with Thai Town running along Hollywood Boulevard and Little Armenia stretching across the blocks around it. Housing in East Hollywood is mostly rental apartments, from older courtyard buildings to newer complexes near the subway, with pockets of small bungalows and duplexes on the side streets. Virgil Village and Melrose Hill, toward the southern end, have smaller houses on quieter streets and have changed quickly over the last decade. Barnsdall Art Park is the main green space, a hilltop park on Hollywood Boulevard that holds Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. The hilltop lawn around the house is a popular picnic spot. Beyond that, most outdoor time means a short drive to Griffith Park or the Silver Lake Reservoir. The food is the reason many people come. Found Oyster on Fountain Avenue serves oysters and littlenecks on its patio, Lolo Wine Bar on Sunset turns out house-made pastas under huge fig trees, and Tabula Rasa is a wine bar on Hollywood Boulevard. Go Get Em Tiger on Hollywood Boulevard is the local coffee stop. Daily life works well without a car. Jons International Marketplace on Santa Monica Boulevard and Ralphs on Hollywood Boulevard handle most grocery runs, and the Children's Hospital and Kaiser medical campuses anchor Sunset Boulevard. The tradeoff is density. Street parking is hard to find, traffic on Vermont and Sunset rarely lets up, and park space outside Barnsdall is scarce. What you get in return is the ability to eat your way through three or four cuisines within a few blocks of home.