Harbor City, Los Angeles, CA

Harbor City has a lake in the middle of it, which is not something many Los Angeles neighborhoods can say. Machado Lake anchors Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park on the east side, and on a quiet morning the birds on the water outnumber the joggers. The park is the main outdoor draw. Closer to the houses, Harbor City Recreation Center on Frampton Avenue has the gym and ball courts, and the Harbor City branch library sits on Western Avenue. Homes in Harbor City are mostly modest single-story houses from the postwar decades, stucco and ranch styles on flat, regular blocks, mixed with apartment buildings along the big streets and a few mobile home parks near the Palos Verdes hills. The food here rewards people who dig past the strip malls. Panaderia y Restaurante Antigua Guatemala on Lomita Boulevard adds Guatemalan breads and plates. For coffee, Aventurero Coffee in a shopping center on Western Avenue near Palos Verdes Drive North is the one locals talk about, known for its coffee cake and walls of work by local artists. Errands mostly run along Western Avenue, Pacific Coast Highway and Normandie Avenue, with a Kaiser-hosted farmers market near the park and small Latin groceries on Western. It's a driving neighborhood, though the Harbor Freeway sits right on the eastern edge, and Lomita, Torrance and San Pedro are each a short drive away. The main streets are wide, busy and built around the car, and the commercial strips can feel like a series of parking lots. Step onto the lake trail at Harbor Regional Park, though, and the traffic noise fades behind the reeds fast.