Lucerne-Higuera, Culver City, CA

Lucerne-Higuera is the Culver City neighborhood where small older houses sit a few blocks from some of the most unusual office buildings in Los Angeles. Homes in Lucerne-Higuera are mostly single-family houses from the 1920s through the 1950s, many of them two- or three-bedroom bungalows. That stock is changing, and on almost any block an original cottage now stands next to a larger modern rebuild. Juliet serves French food, with endive salad and chicken liver tartlets on the menu, and Destroyer on Hayden Avenue is a daytime cafe that plates simple food like art. Bar Nine on Helms Avenue roasts coffee in an open garage space with records playing, and Los Angeles Ale Works pours its own beer on Washington. Groceries are unusually close. Trader Joe's and Erewhon both sit on Culver Boulevard at the Culver Steps end, and Co-opportunity Market carries organic produce on Washington. The Culver City E Line station is right on Washington, so trips to Santa Monica or downtown Los Angeles do not need a car. For exercise, the Ballona Creek path runs along the south side of the neighborhood toward Marina del Rey, and the Culver City Stairs rise from Hetzler Road to the Baldwin Hills overlook. Both get steady use before work. The tradeoff is change and traffic. Construction crews are a regular sight, both on houses and on commercial projects, and delivery trucks and office traffic crowd the Hayden Tract streets on weekdays. On weekends the tract empties out, and the walk past the Moss buildings becomes one of the quieter strolls in town.