VENICE

Venice is where the boardwalk buskers meet tech startup founders, and somehow it works. Abbot Kinney Blvd is lined with boutiques, galleries, and restaurants that'd be pretentious anywhere else but feel right at home here. The canals are actually walkable and gorgeous at sunset. Rent has climbed over the years, but you're paying for a lifestyle — morning surf, afternoon coffee at Intelligentsia, evening stroll past murals you haven't noticed before. If you want a neighborhood with character that hasn't been focus-grouped out of existence, Venice is still it.