Living in East Hollywood, Los Angeles

East Hollywood packs two distinct food cultures into a few square miles — Thai Town's noodle shops and markets sit a short walk from Little Armenia's bakeries and grocers, and the neighborhood's density means most of it is walkable without much planning, corner markets and family-run kitchens filling in the blocks between the two. The B Line runs through, connecting East Hollywood directly into the subway system without a transfer needed to reach downtown or the Valley, and the mostly low-rise streetscape keeps the pace closer to a village than a boulevard, with apartment buildings set close to the sidewalk.

Rent here sits toward the more affordable end of Central LA, a real advantage given the subway access and restaurant variety packed into a compact area, though the streetscape is busier and more built-up than the quieter residential pockets just to the north, with fewer trees and more traffic on the main corridors.

Anyone chasing an affordable, transit-connected home base with two neighborhoods' worth of restaurants in easy walking range will find East Hollywood hard to beat on that particular combination of price and access, subway included at no premium.