Hollywood Park, Inglewood, CA

Hollywood Park takes its name from the horse track that ran here from 1938 to 2013, and the old racetrack land now holds SoFi Stadium and the YouTube Theater. Homes in Hollywood Park come from two very different eras. Older streets nearby hold postwar stucco houses and small apartment buildings, so a brand-new building can sit a few blocks from a house that has been there for seventy years. Rivers Lake is the centerpiece outdoors, a man-made lake with fountains and waterfalls set inside roughly 25 acres of new parks and playgrounds. Its paths make an easy loop for an evening walk, and on non-event days they are fairly calm. The Inglewood Farmers' Market sets up on District Drive on Saturdays from 10 to 2, and it is the simplest way to see the development used as a neighborhood rather than a venue. The Starbucks on West Century is the default coffee stop, and Hollywood Park Casino, which reopened in a new building in 2016, anchors the corner. For errands, the Hollywood Park Marketplace on Century, with Aldi and Food 4 Less, is a short drive east in Inglewood Knolls. Driving is the norm, though Metro runs shuttles from nearby rail stations on big event days. Event days are the tradeoff. Game and concert traffic backs up Century and Prairie, some streets close, and parking rules tighten, so residents learn the schedule quickly. On a quiet weekday morning, the lake paths are nearly empty and the stadium's translucent roof catches the light over the water.