Green Meadows, Los Angeles, CA

Green Meadows was dairy country before Los Angeles annexed it in 1926, and a racetrack called Ascot Park drew crowds here in the early 1900s. Most homes in Green Meadows are early and mid-1900s single-family houses, many of them bungalows or small Spanish-style places with modest yards and a car parked out front. Blocks are flat and fairly uniform, which makes the neighborhood easy to get around on foot or by bike. Avalon Boulevard is the main street. A&T Burgers has been on Avalon since 1983, and its location at 94th Street is known for fried chicken dinners, pastrami burgers and a chili made from scratch, with breakfast served too. Tam's Burgers and Manuel's Burgers hold down Manchester Avenue, and Restaurante y Pupuseria Lemus on Central Avenue makes Salvadoran pupusas. Green Meadows Recreation Center on East 89th Street has tennis and basketball courts plus a playground, and Jacaranda Park on East 98th Street adds fitness trails and more courts. For a bigger outing, the lakes and loop trail at Earvin Magic Johnson Park are a short drive south. Superior Grocers has stores on Manchester Avenue and on Avalon near 102nd Street, and smaller markets and produce stands fill in between. Metro buses run Avalon, Central and Manchester, and the C Line's Avalon station at the 105 Freeway links to the rest of the rail system. The tradeoff is that nearly everything to eat is quick and casual, and a sit-down dinner means heading to Inglewood or downtown. What Green Meadows does have is room to breathe, with driveways, yards and two neighborhood parks within a few blocks of most houses.