Hawthorne, Hawthorne, CA

Hawthorne is a dense, everyday slice of the South Bay, where small postwar houses and two-story apartment courtyards share blocks with taco stands, donut shops and tire shops. This one Hawthorne page covers the whole city, about six square miles of Los Angeles County between Inglewood to the north, Gardena to the east and Lawndale to the south. Apartments make up a big share of the housing, from older garden-style complexes to newer townhome rows. The Holly Glen area on the west side has the calmer streets of single-story ranch homes, while the blocks near the 105 Freeway are tighter and busier. Parks here are small and built for the neighborhood around them. Eucalyptus Park on Inglewood Avenue has a skatepark next door, and Holly Park on 120th Street is the main patch of green on the east side. Food leans local and casual. Common Space Brewery on El Segundo Boulevard brews its beer on site and pours it in two outdoor beer gardens, with food trucks rotating through and trivia or DJ nights on the calendar. For coffee, Urth Caffe South Bay on 147th Street serves organic coffee and a long breakfast menu from 7 a.m. Ralphs on Hawthorne Boulevard and Northgate González Market on Rosecrans Avenue handle groceries, and the commercial strips along Prairie Avenue and Inglewood Avenue cover most of the rest. The 405 and 105 freeways border the city, and the Metro C Line runs down the middle of the 105. The tradeoff is density. Curbs fill with parked cars, the boulevards back up at rush hour, and there isn't much room to spread out in a yard or a park. In return, groceries, a taco lunch and a cup of coffee usually sit within a mile or two of home, and the beach is a short drive west.