Mid-city, Los Angeles, CA

Mid-city in Los Angeles covers a broad grid between Pico Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway, and what sets it apart is range. Within a few miles you get Little Ethiopia on Fairfax, 1920s Craftsman and Spanish homes in Victoria Park and Wellington Square, and the stately older blocks of Country Club Park near Crenshaw. Most homes are single-family houses and duplexes from the 1910s through the 1930s, with Craftsman, Spanish Colonial, Tudor and French Norman styles all common. Wellington Square alone has about two hundred houses in those revival styles. Small apartment buildings line the main streets, and Midtown Crossing, on the site of the old Sears store, brought newer big-box retail. Food is the neighborhood's calling card. Roscoe's, the chicken and waffles house, holds down La Brea, and Soban on Olympic is a Korean spot known for galbijjim and marinated raw crab. For coffee, Jurassic Magic on Mansfield Avenue has built a neighborhood following. Parks are small and scattered. LA High Memorial Park on Olympic honors World War I veterans, Queen Anne Park sits on West Boulevard, and Reynier Park serves the Reynier Village pocket. For hiking, Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in Baldwin Hills is close by to the south. Daily errands come easy. Sprouts sits on La Brea, Superior Grocers anchors Washington Boulevard, and the Wellington Square Farmers Market runs on Washington. The 10 Freeway runs along the southern edge, and La Brea, Crenshaw and Venice carry most of the traffic north and south. The tradeoff is uneven streetscapes. Some blocks are lovingly restored while the next is lined with auto shops and older commercial buildings, and freeway noise carries on the southern streets. Mid-city rewards anyone who likes to explore, since injera on Fairfax and chicken and waffles on La Brea are only a few minutes apart.