East Side, Oakdale, CA

East Side, Oakdale, is the working edge of town. The ConAgra Brands plant, where Hunt's tomatoes and other canned goods are made, sits inside the neighborhood and shapes it more than any storefront does. The area runs along East F Street, where the commercial blocks and the highway access are. Houses sit among and behind those strips, and the neighborhood has a more everyday, practical feel than downtown, with the bar-and-grill and drive-through stops that come with a main road. Parks are scattered rather than central. Cottles Wood Park, the larger of the two at nearly ten acres on Ventanas Avenue and East J Street, has a baseball field, a soccer field and a playground, and Florabelle Brennan Park, at 349 South Sixth Avenue, has a skate park, basketball and barbecue grills, plus picnic tables and a play area that make it workable for a longer afternoon. Ryderz Restaurant & Lounge at 875 East F Street serves American comfort food and runs a full bar, and Dying Breed Brewing on Shepard Court is a taproom built around the area's cattle-ranching identity. Masterpiece Coffee covers the morning side, and the chain restaurants lined up along the road, Denny's, Round Table and Mountain Mike's among them, handle quick meals. This is where the city does its big grocery shopping. Save Mart and Mid Valley Foods are both here, and the road leads straight to the highways and the rest of the valley. Walking between places is possible within a shopping center but not across the neighborhood. Downtown's museum, taproom and Saturday market are a short drive west along the same road. Industrial neighbors and steady traffic mean it is not the quiet end of town. The East Side payoff is convenience, with groceries, gas, a bar and a park all reachable without crossing the whole city. East Side is where the city's farm economy is visible rather than just talked about.