Living in Venice, Los Angeles

Venice still runs on the layout laid down a century ago — the canals wind through a quiet residential pocket a few blocks inland, while the boardwalk stays loud and crowded along the waterfront, and Abbot Kinney Boulevard connects the two with boutiques, restaurants, and galleries in between, footbridges crossing the water every block or so. Tech offices have moved into converted warehouses near the beach over the years, giving the neighborhood a daytime workforce alongside its longtime bohemian character, and Muscle Beach still draws its own steady crowd along the sand every day of the week.

There's no rail line here, and rent runs toward the top of the LA range — Venice charges a premium, and residents are paying for the beach proximity and the canal-and-boardwalk setting rather than for easy transit or a bargain lease, parking scarcity part of that same cost.

Venice's real texture is the contrast within a few blocks: skateboarders and street performers along the boardwalk, then near-total quiet once you cross onto a canal walkway a short walk inland, houseboats and footbridges included, ducks drifting past porches on either side.