Greenbriar, Glendale, CA

Greenbriar is a quiet foothill section of Glendale beside Glendale Community College, where the streets leave North Verdugo Road and wind up into the Verdugo foothills. It is newer than most of its neighbors. Where Rossmoyne below is largely 1920s period revival, most of the homes in Greenbriar went up in the 1960s or later. Ranch homes share the slopes with larger contemporary houses and 1980s Tudor Revivals, most with modern floor plans, garages and yards terraced into the hill. Compared with the period houses just downhill, what you get here is more space, newer systems and fewer original details. The streets are purely residential, with no corner stores or apartment blocks. For outdoor time, drive up Canada Boulevard to Verdugo Park, with ballfields, a skatepark and walking paths across more than 40 acres. Nibley Park in Rossmoyne has tennis and basketball courts plus a playground, and it's the closest place for a pickup game. Hikers head into the Verdugo Mountains, where fire roads climb toward Mount Thom. The closest food is the plaza on Canada Boulevard by the college, where Rocky's Gourmet Pizza has been a family-run shop for more than 25 years and a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf pours the morning coffee. Greenbriar is a driving neighborhood. The hillside streets have no shops, buses stop only along its southeast edge, and the quickest way toward Pasadena or downtown Los Angeles is the 2 Freeway. Hillside lots near open space also carry the wildfire risk that comes with the Verdugo foothills. Being this close to the college and to downtown, yet up in the foothills, is the neighborhood's particular balance, and the campus lights below mark the edge of the city grid.