Grand Central, Glendale, CA

Grand Central in Glendale takes its name from the Grand Central Air Terminal, the 1929 airport where Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes once flew, and the old runway is now Grand Central Avenue. Most of the area is that creative campus plus a band of workshops, wholesalers and small industrial buildings along San Fernando Road. Homes are the minority here. A small pocket of older bungalows and apartment buildings sits around Flower Street and the side streets near Griffith Manor Park, and a few Craftsman houses survive among later stucco buildings. Griffith Manor Park on Flower Street is the neighborhood park, with lawn and a playground a short walk from the residential blocks. For something bigger, Griffith Park is a quick drive across the river, and Brand Park and the Verdugo foothills are a few minutes north. Food follows the working day. Little Ground Cafe on Flower Street handles coffee and breakfast for the office crowd, and Brewyard Beer Company runs a taproom on Western Avenue where the beers draw on Filipino and Japanese flavors. Daily life is car-first. The 5 and the 134 meet just south of Grand Central, which makes it an easy base for Burbank, Griffith Park and downtown Los Angeles, and the tradeoff is truck traffic, freeway hum and blocks that empty out after studio hours. Neighbors Grandview and Riverside Rancho feel far more residential. Anyone driving Grand Central Avenue is rolling down the old runway, and the Art Deco terminal still stands at its end, restored between 2012 and 2014.