McManus, Culver City, CA

McManus sits at the eastern tip of Culver City, where the Arts District stretches along Washington Boulevard toward La Cienega. Galleries and small restaurants line the boulevard, and a few blocks off it Syd Kronenthal Park marks the starting point of the Ballona Creek Bike Path. Housing in McManus is a mix of apartments and small single-family houses on short residential streets, with loft-style condos near the commercial blocks. Single-family homes are limited, so the side streets tend to feel compact and close to the boulevard. Kronenthal Park, which was called McManus Park before it was renamed, has ball fields and open space, and it anchors the eastern end of the creek path. From there the trail runs about 6.7 miles west along the channel to Marina del Rey, which makes a bike ride to the beach a realistic weekend plan. The eating along Washington Boulevard is some of the most varied in the city. Cognoscenti Coffee, with its long wood island and careful pour-overs, is the coffee shop people bring up first. EK Valley serves Oaxacan cooking, including a slow-cooked beef barbacoa, and Industry Cafe & Jazz pairs Ethiopian food and soul food with live jazz. Getting around is easy without a car. Two E Line stops, Culver City and La Cienega/Jefferson, are both close, and the neighborhood sits right between downtown and the La Cienega corridor into Los Angeles. Groceries usually mean a short trip west to the markets on Washington. The tradeoff is traffic. Washington and La Cienega carry heavy commuter flow, and gallery openings fill street parking in the evenings. Early on a weekend morning, though, the creek path at Kronenthal is busier than the boulevard, full of cyclists heading for the coast.