Northridge, Los Angeles, CA

Northridge is the San Fernando Valley's college town, a Los Angeles neighborhood built around Cal State Northridge and the Reseda Boulevard strip that feeds it. The campus, opened in 1956, gives the neighborhood a busier daytime rhythm than Porter Ranch or Granada Hills to the north, and the name reached the world after the 1994 earthquake. Most homes are postwar single-family houses, the ranch-style tracts that replaced farm and horse land after World War II. Northridge once called itself the Horse Capital of the West. Apartments and student housing concentrate near campus and along the main boulevards, and the quieter blocks between them are mostly single-story houses with yards. The CSUN campus has its own botanic garden and a lot of walkable green, and Dearborn Park and the pocket-sized Vanalden Park, with its jogging path, serve the residential streets. Northridge Recreation Center on Lemarsh Street has a gym, courts and fields, and Oakridge Estate Park preserves a former horse ranch. Brent's Deli on Parthenia Street is the big classic deli, known for a black pastrami Reuben on a menu that runs past 650 items. Yonder Coffee on Balboa Boulevard and Cafe Aficionado on Reseda handle the coffee, and a Porto's Bakery sits on Nordhoff Street. Errands are easy by car. Northridge Fashion Center on Tampa Avenue is the regional mall and hosts a farmers market, and the Northridge Metrolink station connects to downtown and Ventura County. Reseda Boulevard traffic and campus crowds are part of the deal, especially at semester start. On a weekday afternoon, though, a walk from the botanic garden to a Thai lunch on Reseda shows how much of the neighborhood's personality comes from the campus next door.