North Hills, Los Angeles, CA

North Hills, a Los Angeles neighborhood at the San Fernando Valley's center, straddles the 405 between Bull Creek and the Pacoima Wash. It was called Sepulveda until 1991, when residents voted to take a new name, and the Sepulveda VA medical campus keeps the old name alive. Housing is mostly single-family. North Hills West has the steadiest run of postwar ranch houses, while other sections mix older homes with apartment complexes and a few newer gated developments. Green space inside the boundaries is limited. North Hills Community Park on Parthenia Place covers about four acres of fields and courts, and the Mission Hills Golf Course on Plummer Street also falls inside the lines. Bigger parks mean a short drive, to the Sepulveda Basin to the south or O'Melveny Park in Granada Hills. The food scene reflects a mix of Filipino, Mexican and Central American cooking. Seafood City Supermarket on Nordhoff Street anchors a Filipino shopping center, with Valerio's, the Filipino bakery chain, in the same center. Parthenia Street is the everyday strip, with Mercado El Rey, a ceviche counter and a neighborhood sports bar clustered close together. Daily errands are spread along Sepulveda Boulevard, Nordhoff Street and Devonshire Street, where Vallarta, Food 4 Less, Ralphs and Smart & Final cover the basics. The Mid-Valley Regional Branch Library is on Nordhoff, and Metro buses run the major boulevards. The 405 has exits at Roscoe and Nordhoff. The freeway splits the neighborhood in two, and the blocks closest to it hear traffic around the clock. The upside is position. From North Hills, Northridge, Van Nuys and Granada Hills sit minutes away in three different directions.