Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, CA

Lincoln Heights sits just across the river from downtown Los Angeles and ranks among the city's oldest neighborhoods, laid out in 1873 as its first suburb. For more than four decades it even went by the name East Los Angeles, until residents voted to change it in 1917. Victorian houses from Lincoln Heights' early decades still stand on several blocks, and some are protected under the city's historic preservation rules. Around them are later bungalows, duplexes and compact apartment buildings. The Brewery Art Colony, a converted brewery complex, keeps artists working in the neighborhood. Lincoln Park, off Valley Boulevard, has a lake and picnic lawns, and Plaza de la Raza, the cultural center on Mission Road, sits at its edge. In the hills above, Ernest E. Debs Regional Park takes in open slopes and the Audubon Center on Griffin Avenue. North Broadway is the main street, and it's still where much of the neighborhood eats. On Daly Street, Zizou is a French-Moroccan wine bar that hides a garden behind a plain front, and Mazal on San Fernando Road is a relaxed Israeli dinner spot. Daily errands mostly stay close. Big Saver Foods on Broadway and Smart and Final on Daly Street cover groceries, and small meat markets and bakeries fill the blocks between. The A Line's Lincoln/Cypress station sits by Avenue 26, and the 5 runs right through, so downtown is a short hop by train, bus or car. Living next to a major freeway and the industrial edges along the river brings truck traffic and noise to some streets. Still, Broadway remains a place where people shop on foot, going from bakery to meat market to taco stand in the space of a few blocks.