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NoHo

Photograph by Mindee Choi Compared with its neighbors, North Hollywood had long lacked an identity. It was neither as trendy as Studio City nor as sleepy as Burbank. Then in 1992, the City of Los...

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Little Tokyo

Like much of downtown Los Angeles, this is boom time for Little Tokyo. Everywhere you look in the century-old neighborhood just east of City Hall, another upscale residential project is going up. Of...

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South Pasadena

South Pasadena has long been considered a great place to live, especially for families drawn by the top-rated schools. Now, thanks largely to the arrival of the Gold Line, a slew of smart restaurants...

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Hermosa Beach

If Manhattan Beach is all sleek storefronts and Redondo Beach mostly strip malls, Hermosa Beach is somewhere in between—a charming hub that retains its counterculture vibe, even though starter homes...

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Encino

It’s been 25 years since Frank and Moon Unit Zappa memorialized Encino as “like, so bitchen” in the hit song “Valley Girl.” Despite the influx of big-box stores, the community retains much of its retro...

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Montrose

Photograph by Mindee Choi The stretch of Honolulu Avenue that makes up Montrose’s main drag has appeared in dozens of films. It’s easy to see why: The picturesque storefronts, shady pines, and kids...

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Pico-Hauser

As with many other nondescript thoroughfares in Los Angeles, the proliferation of liquor stores and auto body shops that line this stretch of Pico Boulevard has rendered it the equivalent of a flyover...

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The New Chinatown

Photograph by Mindee Choi Pedestrian-friendly plazas—check. Offbeat architecture with dragon motifs—check. Close proximity to the booming downtown—check. With stats like these, L.A.’s Chinatown is...

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Magnolia Park

Photograph by Mindee Choi When Earl L. White broke ground on Burbank’s Magnolia Park in the 1920s, there were plenty of naysayers. But the people came, and the modest ranch-style homes were sold to WWI...

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Culver City

There was gold in those flatlands east of the Pacific, once developer Harry Culver lured the fledgling film business to set up shop on the former ranchos in the early 1900s. Industry workers flocked to...

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4th Street

Before eBay, 4th Street was a trove of vintage goods. In the 1970s, locals stocked up on antiques for their homes in the nearby historic districts. Two decades later, as real estate prices soared and...

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Koreatown

High-rises make the stretch between Westlake and Hancock Park one of L.A.’s most alluring hardscapes, with buildings going up on seemingly every block and clubbers filling the neon-lit streets after...

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Calabasas

From Chumash Indians to Spanish explorers, Basque rancho owners to scrappy homesteaders, 1920s artists to D-list reality stars, the famed oaks of Calabasas have shaded generations of residents. When...

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Sawtelle

Teens flock to Sawtelle Boulevard between Santa Monica and Olympic for the streetwear and karaoke, their parents for traditional household goods, and everyone else for the food. When it comes to...

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Sierra Madre

Don’t be surprised if you recognize the shady intersection that anchors this century-old community; it has appeared in dozens of films as a stand-in for Smalltown, USA. With its massive elm trees and...

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Tehrangeles

Westwood Boulevard between Wilshire and Olympic is the commercial heart of the city’s Iranian community, which makes up the largest concentration of Persians  outside Iran. Many came in the late ’70s...

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Boyle Heights

Photographs by Mindee Choi   Street names like St. Louis, Indiana, and Brooklyn (rechristened in honor of Cesar Chavez in 1994) are holdovers from the early 1900s, when a Jewish community thrived in...

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Tujunga Village

Photograph by Mindee Choi   The Brady Bunch lived in the vicinity of Tujunga Village, and in some ways that quaint TV fiction still holds. This Studio City enclave is only a block long and offers leafy...

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Atwater Village

Photograph by Michael Newhouse   A relatively green stretch of the L.A. River is all that separates Atwater Village from Silver Lake and Los Feliz. It makes sense, then, that the boutiques, bars, and...

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Little India

Map by Michael Newhouse   Imagine Mumbai’s Crawford Market in miniature—bustling fruit stalls, colorful sari shops, vendors hawking Bollywood DVDs—and you’ll have a good sense of Little India. Situated...

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Fairfax Avenue

Map by Michael Newhouse   For decades the stretch of Fairfax Avenue between Beverly and Melrose has served as a hub for L.A.’s Jewish community. Transplants from then heavily Jewish areas like Boyle...

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West 3rd Street

Map by Michael Newhouse   Zipping between Fairfax Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard, you may mistake the road for any other thoroughfare. But for more than a decade West 3rd Street has functioned as an...

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Hollywood Blvd. East

Map by Michael Newhouse   It was only a matter of time before the strip of Hollywood Boulevard between Hillhurst and Vermont avenues—where you’d go for a U-Haul rental or Goodwill duds—would begin to...

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Claremont

With its distinctive brick buildings, graceful cupolas, and shady colon-nades, Claremont brings to mind an East Coast hamlet set in the foothills of Angeles National Forest. Home to seven renowned...

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Sunset Plaza

Hollywood’s early royalty held court along this two-block stretch of American colonial-meets-Georgian grandeur, built in 1924 by Francis S. Montgomery on what had once been farmland. Glamour soon...

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Toluca Lake

The homes and yards are showy, dotted in places with old walnut trees; in the 1890s, Nevada mining mogul Charles Forman planted his Valley ranch with orchards and named it Toluca after the Paiute word...

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Manhattan Beach

Map by Haissam Hussein Developers John Merrill and George Peck flipped a coin in 1901, or so the story goes, to see who would name the beach enclave. Merrill, a New Yorker by birth, won. These days the...

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San Marino

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens—the former estate of Henry Huntington that’s as lofty and expansive as its title—is what draws most people to this corner of the San...

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Main Street

View Street Smart: Main Street Yes, there is a massive surf shop, and young things do saunter by in flip-flops and bikini tops. But there is an unbeachy feel to Main Street in Santa Monica. Just two...

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Palos Verdes

Several affluent communities call the Palos Verdes peninsula home. The main dining and retail outlets are clustered in Rolling Hills Estates at the Peninsula Center, a hodgepodge of development. A...

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Day Planner: Where to Take Grandchildren

SANTA MONICA AND MALIBU  Pacific ParkOlder children can go on the Ferris wheel and rollercoaster while little ones ride the antique carousel, which has 44 hand-carved and painted horses. They can also...

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Day Planner: Where to Take a Group

Il PiccolinoEddie Kerkhofs is the co-owner and he was one of the two original owners of Le Dôme on Sunset. He’s Belgium and a great friend and he makes all of his customers feel special and...

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Day Planner: Where to Take a Business Associate

The Beverly Hills HotelI think it’s the best. The layout and the gardens and the pool and the quality of service there—it’s friendly, it’s warm. It feels like you’re going home. We actually lived there...

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Day Planner: Festive Holiday-time Destinations

The Mission InnMy family loves Christmas decorations, but sometimes you don’t have the space or the time to put them up so we go to the Mission Inn. It’s spectacular and luxurious, very Old World and...

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Beverly Boulevard

  Black-suited Orthodox Jews, tattooed hipsters, and well-heeled suburbanites converge on this historic artery that links L.A. with Beverly Hills. Charming prewar buildings lining the stretch between...

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Day Planner: Where to Take the Parents

JarWe always take them to Jar. If you’re gonna have a nice grown up dinner with your parents and look like an adult in their eyes, it’s perfect. You can have a conversation and the lighting is very...

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Monrovia

  1 The Dollmakers’ Kattywompus A welcoming sign arches across tree-lined Myrtle Avenue marking Old Town Monrovia, while the San Gabriel Mountains create a dramatic backdrop just beyond. Railroad...

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Cross Creek Road

View Cross Creek Road in a larger map So many high-end boutiques have settled here, it could be called Beverly Hills West. A sprinkling of independent shops and restaurants help retain a laid-back vibe...

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Sunset Junction

This Silver Lake neighborhood, named for the intersection where Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards meet Sanborn Avenue, has gentrified rapidly in the last decade. The shops and eateries now cater to...

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Larchmont Village

Dedicated yogis strutting to class, silver-haired ladies who lunch, and parents chaperoning preteens all gather on Larchmont Boulevard. The broad, tree-lined stretch between 1st and Beverly popped up...

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Retro Row, Long Beach

In 2010, Long Beach set out to become America’s most bicycle-friendly city, touting its matrix of bike lanes and brightly colored “sharrows.” Along with reducing traffic and improving the air, the plan...

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Sawtelle Revisited

Nicknamed Little Osaka for its longstanding population of Japanese Americans, this Westside neighborhood has become a pan-Asian cultural and culinary hub. In the past couple of years the changes have...

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Uptown Whittier

Founded by Quakers in the late 1800s, Whittier was home to president Richard Nixon, food writer M.F.K. Fisher, and Pixar impresario John Lasseter. These days the heart of the city is along Greenleaf...

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The New Abbot Kinney

Since then the quaint boulevard has emerged as the pinnacle of bohemian chic—with a price tag. Artists’ studios sit next to concrete lofts that overlook whitewashed bungalows on a stretch that runs...

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York Boulevard

View Streetsmart: York Blvd in a larger map Today retro boutiques, art galleries, and vinyl shops share the street with by-the-slice pizzerias and Mexican markets. The march to gentrification may be...

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Magnolia Park

View Magnolia in a larger map Imagine Mayberry with tattoos. The stretch of Magnolia Boulevard from Buena Vista Street to Hollywood Way was developed in the 1920s; it flourished in the ’40s, when the...

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Lincoln Boulevard

Long occupied by car washes and auto repair operations, the stretch of Lincoln Boulevard between Venice Boulevard and Rose Avenue is being transformed with indie stores and restaurants that cater to...

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Street Smart: Atwater Village

Bookended by Glendale and Los Feliz on the banks of the L.A. River, Atwater Village feels like a small town in a big city. It’s a place where you’re as likely to find backyard orchards as you are...

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