El Dorado Park, Long Beach, CA

El Dorado Park is where east Long Beach goes outside, a stretch of regional parkland of more than 600 acres that the San Gabriel River and the 605 cut in two, with residential streets tucked along its edges. For most of the city the name means the park, and living next to it shapes the whole routine. The west side of the park, along Studebaker Road, is the everyday half. It holds a public golf course, ball diamonds, a big tennis center, a skatepark, a disc golf course, a duck pond and the El Dorado branch of the Long Beach Public Library. Homes in El Dorado Park sit on the single-family streets along the park's edges, the area often called El Dorado Park Estates. Expect mid-century ranch houses, mostly one story with some grown into two, on blocks where the main traffic stays out on Spring, Studebaker and Wardlow. A Spring Street strip handles quick stops with a Grocery Outlet, a Starbucks and a handful of casual counters like Hong Kong Express and La Cocina. North on Carson Street, Long Beach Towne Center has the bigger lineup, including Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que for slow-smoked ribs, Daphne's Greek Cafe, Charo's Peruvian Cuisine and an In-N-Out. The honest downside is the crowd. On summer weekends and holidays the park's lots fill, the entry roads back up and the Towne Center traffic on Carson spills onto nearby streets. Mornings in El Dorado Park tend to start on foot, with a lap around the duck pond or a slower walk through the Nature Center before the lots fill.