Villa Parke, Pasadena, CA

Villa Parke is a compact neighborhood in central Pasadena built around the community center that shares its name, where Villa Street meets Euclid Avenue. The center does a lot of work for the area, with sports fields, a library branch, the Villa Verde rooftop garden and a Tuesday morning farmers market that runs from 8:30 to 12:30. Soccer is the other thing people know it for. The Villa Parke Soccer League runs women's, teen and adult divisions, and its games spread across fields from Villa Parke itself to Victory Park and even the Rose Bowl grounds. Housing is a mix of older single-family houses, small multi-unit buildings and apartment complexes, with a large share of rentals. Shade trees cover many of the side streets, and Woodbury Creek still runs through the neighborhood, mostly underground now. The brick clock tower of St. Andrew's Church marks the southern edge near the 210. Lucky Boy Drive-In on East Walnut Street is a longtime locally owned stop for burgers. Brenner Park on Barthe Drive adds a second small green space, a quieter spot than the busy fields at the community center. Errands are close, and a lot of them can be done on foot. Vallarta Supermarkets and Smart & Final both sit on North Fair Oaks, and Old Pasadena's restaurants and Metro A Line stations are a short trip south across the freeway. The tradeoff is the 210, which runs along the southern edge and brings steady traffic noise to the nearest blocks. Still, most of what the neighborhood needs, from produce to Sunday soccer, happens within a few blocks of Villa Street.