Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, CA

Porter Ranch sits at the San Fernando Valley's northern tip in Los Angeles, where streets climb into the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains above the 118 freeway. Next to older Northridge and Granada Hills, it reads newer and more planned, with wide boulevards, landscaped slopes and gated enclaves stepping up the hillsides. Homes here arrived in two waves. The first tracts went up in the early 1960s along San Fernando Mission Boulevard, mostly single-story ranch houses on flat lots. Limekiln Canyon Park is the local trail, an out-and-back of about three and a half miles that follows a creek from Rinaldi Street past rock gardens and a small stand of redwoods. were filmed, and Holleigh Bernson Memorial Park on Sesnon Boulevard supply ballfields and ridge views. Eating and errands mostly happen on Rinaldi Street. makes sandwiches on its namesake bread, and Ralphs Fresh Fare and a Peet's handle the weekly routine a short drive away on the same street. Daily life runs on a car. The 118 links east to the 405 and 5 and west toward Simi Valley, and bus service thins out as the streets climb. One tradeoff is the Aliso Canyon gas storage field in the hills to the north. A leak there, found in October 2015 about a mile from homes, sent thousands of residents out of the neighborhood for months before the well was sealed in February 2016. Limekiln's entrance on Rinaldi is close enough to the Vineyards that a creek walk and lunch fit into one short outing.