Westwood, Los Angeles, CA

Westwood Village, the Mediterranean Revival shopping district the Janss family opened in 1929, gives this Los Angeles neighborhood something unusual on the Westside, an old walkable downtown. The neighborhood stretches from the UCLA campus south along Westwood Boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard, with Beverly Hills on its eastern flank and the 405 on its western one. Housing in Westwood falls into distinct pockets. Apartment buildings fill the blocks just north of the Village, condominium towers line the Wilshire corridor toward Beverly Hills, and the streets south of Wilshire hold single-family houses from the neighborhood's first building wave in the 1920s onward, mixed in with smaller apartment buildings. Westwood Boulevard below Wilshire has been a Persian business strip since the 1960s, and many Angelenos know it as Tehrangeles. Taste of Tehran grills juicy koobideh, Attari Sandwich Shop is the stop for the beef tongue sandwich, and Saffron & Rose scoops saffron-pistachio ice cream. The Geffen Playhouse is a few blocks away. For open space, Westwood Gardens Park on Wellworth Avenue is a compact neighborhood green, and the Westwood Recreation Center on Sepulveda is the larger public park. Here you can run errands on foot. Trader Joe's on Glendon Avenue, Whole Foods on Gayley Avenue and Sprouts on Westwood Boulevard all sit inside the neighborhood, and Broxton Avenue hosts a farmers market. The D Line subway extension is planned to reach a Westwood/UCLA station in 2027. Wilshire and the approaches to the 405 back up daily, and parking in the Village is limited, a problem that has long worked against its shops. On a premiere night, a walk to pick up groceries can pass a red carpet outside the Fox.