Vermont Vista, Los Angeles, CA

Vermont Vista got its name in 2002, but people have been passing through this corner of South Los Angeles since the late 1880s, when the Los Angeles and Redondo Railway put a station at Vermont and Century. Homes are mostly vintage bungalows plus Spanish-style houses from the early 1900s, on narrow lots with small front yards. Newer duplexes, small apartment complexes and backyard units have filled in over time, and a mixed-use affordable housing building went up at 88th and Vermont in 2020. Algin Sutton Recreation Center on Hoover Street has lighted baseball and tennis, sports fields, and a pool building that reopened in 2021 with a big canopy, a splash pad and a bright yellow promenade, run as a year-round public pool. Food is casual and spread across the main streets. Lemus #3 Restaurante y Pupuseria at Century and Main turns out Salvadoran pupusas, and Panaderia Hondurena Navas on South Figueroa bakes Honduran bread and pastries. Tam's Burgers has more than one spot here, and Tumby's Pizza on Figueroa handles pizza night. Errands are easy by car. Superior Grocers is on Figueroa, smaller markets sit along Hoover and Main, and the Mark Twain Branch Library is on South Figueroa. The J Line busway runs in the median of the 110 with stops at Manchester and at the 105 interchange, where the C Line crosses. The freeway is the tradeoff. The 110 runs along the whole east side, and the nearest streets carry a constant hum. A few streets west, though, Vermont Vista settles into quiet rows of stucco and porches, with the pool at Algin Sutton busy nearly every day of the year.