Highland Park is the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood that rewards arriving without a car — two long commercial corridors you can walk end to end, a 1927 bowling alley that is the oldest in the city, a soda store with 750 varieties, and a Metro station that puts Downtown and Pasadena within an easy ride. It is old, it is dense by Los Angeles standards, and it has changed faster than almost anywhere else in the city over the past decade. This guide has the two corridors, the food, the landmarks, the transit and the cost of living on one page. For what opened this month, you can also ask people who live in Los Angeles right now.

Where Highland Park is

Highland Park sits in northeast Los Angeles, roughly midway between Downtown and Pasadena, in ZIP code 90042. It is among the oldest neighborhoods in the city, developed early along the rail corridor that still runs through it, and the street grid and building stock reflect that age — this is a neighborhood of pre-war storefronts rather than strip malls.

Its life runs along two parallel corridors, and understanding the difference between them is most of what you need to navigate it. York Boulevard, roughly between Avenue 50 and Avenue 57, is the daytime strip — cafes, bakeries, boutiques, record shops. North Figueroa Street, a few blocks south and running parallel, carries the older institutions, the galleries and the evening venues. They are close enough to combine on foot.

One clarification worth making, because it distorts every search for this neighborhood: the Highland Park in the news for a mass shooting is in Illinois, not Los Angeles. They are unrelated places that share a name.

York Boulevard

York is the corridor most visitors mean when they say Highland Park. The stretch from about Avenue 50 to Avenue 57 is continuously walkable, and its Walk Score samples land in the 90s — a figure almost nowhere in Los Angeles reaches. Park once and walk; driving between stops on York is actively counterproductive.

Galco’s Soda Pop Stop, 5702 York Blvd, is the single most unusual store in the neighborhood and one of the more unusual in the city. It stocks more than 750 varieties of independent soda from around the world — small bottlers, regional brands, and recipes that the large producers discontinued. The business began as an Italian grocery in Downtown Los Angeles in 1897, moved to Chinatown, and settled into this Highland Park storefront in 1955. It became a soda specialist in 1995, when John Nese took over from his father and decided to stock what the big distributors would not. The Italian deli still runs at the back of the store, which a lot of first-time visitors miss entirely.

Donut Friend, 5107 York Blvd, makes its doughnuts in house and carries an unusually large vegan and vegetarian selection — enough that it functions as a default for people who normally cannot eat at a doughnut counter at all. It holds roughly 2,926 Yelp reviews and runs 7am to 9pm, staying open to 10pm on Friday and Saturday.

Goldburger, 5623 York Blvd, is the burger counter, open daily from noon to 8pm, with about 513 Yelp reviews. The hours are the thing to note — it closes early by Los Angeles standards, so it is a lunch and early-dinner proposition rather than a late one.

North Figueroa Street

Highland Park Bowl, 5621 N Figueroa St, is the neighborhood’s landmark and the oldest bowling alley in Los Angeles, dating to 1927. Its history is genuinely strange: during Prohibition the second floor held doctors’ offices where patrons collected prescriptions for medicinal whiskey, which they then had filled downstairs — the bowling alley was, functionally, the delivery mechanism.

It was restored to its original appearance and reopened under its original name in 2016, and it now runs eight vintage lanes alongside a cocktail bar and a kitchen turning out wood-fired Neapolitan pizza. It opens in the late afternoon on weekdays — around 5pm Monday through Thursday, closing at midnight — runs 5pm to 2am on Friday, and opens at noon at weekends, to 2am Saturday and midnight Sunday. It is popular and the lane wait on a Friday night is real, so go early or plan to eat and drink while you wait.

The Highland Theatre, 5604 N Figueroa St, is the other landmark on this corridor, and it needs an honest caveat: it is closed. Built in 1924 and opened on March 2, 1925 — the premiere was attended by its lead actress, Norma Shearer — it was designed by the theater architect Lewis A. Smith and seated 1,432 behind a Moorish interior. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument on October 2, 1991. It closed in 2024, six days short of its 100th anniversary, and was purchased in March 2025 by an ownership entity that has stated an intention to restore it. Treat it as a facade to admire from the sidewalk, not as a cinema to buy a ticket for.

Getting there without a car

This is Highland Park’s real advantage over most of Los Angeles. The Metro A Line stops at Highland Park station, at Avenue 57 and Marmion Way, one block north of North Figueroa Street. The A Line runs through Downtown, which means Highland Park is reachable by rail from a large part of the county without touching a freeway.

From the station it is roughly an 11-minute walk to the junction of North Figueroa and York, which puts both corridors within comfortable reach of a train. The neighborhood carries a Walk Score of about 77 overall, and as noted, the York blocks score far higher.

The caveat is topography and spread. The residential streets climb, and the pockets away from the two corridors are more car-dependent than the corridors themselves suggest. For a visit, though, the train-and-walk combination genuinely works — which is rare enough in this city to be the deciding factor in how you plan the day.

What it costs to live in Highland Park

Highland Park has become expensive, and quickly. Home values in ZIP 90042 sit in the region of $1.09 to $1.2 million depending on which source and which month you take, a level that would have been unrecognisable here a decade ago. The neighborhood’s transformation over that period has been one of the most discussed in the city, and the price data is the blunt version of that story.

In relative terms it still sits below the west-side neighborhoods, and the older apartment stock on the streets away from York and Figueroa remains meaningfully more attainable than the hillside houses. What you are paying for, beyond the housing itself, is the combination that almost nothing else in Los Angeles offers at this price: pre-war building stock, two walkable commercial corridors, and a rail station.

Our Los Angeles cost of living guide covers the citywide picture, the suburbs guide sets it against the wider region, and the neighborhoods guide compares Highland Park against the rest of the east side.

Planning a day in Highland Park

The efficient version: take the A Line to Highland Park station, walk down to North Figueroa, and see the Highland Theatre facade on the way. Work north to York Boulevard and spend the middle of the day on the Avenue 50 to Avenue 57 stretch — Donut Friend early, Goldburger at lunch before its 8pm close, Galco’s whenever you want to spend half an hour reading soda labels.

Then double back to Highland Park Bowl on Figueroa, which does not open until late afternoon on weekdays and is the natural end to the day rather than the start of it. That sequence works because it follows the neighborhood’s own hours rather than fighting them — the daytime corridor first, the evening corridor second.

If you are combining neighborhoods, Echo Park and Silver Lake are the natural pairings to the southwest, and the citywide things-to-do guide has the wider list.

Highland Park: common questions

Where is Highland Park in Los Angeles?

Highland Park is in northeast Los Angeles, roughly between Downtown and Pasadena, in ZIP code 90042. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, and its life runs along two parallel commercial corridors: York Boulevard and North Figueroa Street.

Can you get to Highland Park without a car?

Yes — it is one of the more car-optional neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The Metro A Line stops at Highland Park station, at Avenue 57 and Marmion Way, one block north of North Figueroa Street. From the station it is roughly an 11-minute walk to the Figueroa and York junction. Highland Park carries a neighborhood Walk Score of about 77, and the York Boulevard blocks themselves score in the 90s.

What is there to do on York Boulevard?

York Boulevard between roughly Avenue 50 and Avenue 57 is the daytime corridor: cafes, bakeries, bars, boutiques and record shops in a walkable strip. Galco’s Soda Pop Stop at 5702 York Blvd, Donut Friend at 5107 York Blvd and Goldburger at 5623 York Blvd are all on it, and it is dense enough that parking once and walking is the right approach.

What is Galco’s Soda Pop Stop?

It is a store at 5702 York Blvd that stocks more than 750 varieties of independent soda from around the world. It began as an Italian grocery in Downtown Los Angeles in 1897, moved to its Highland Park storefront in 1955, and pivoted to specialising in hard-to-find sodas in 1995 when John Nese took over from his father. The Italian deli still operates at the back of the store.

Is Highland Park Bowl really the oldest bowling alley in Los Angeles?

Yes. Highland Park Bowl at 5621 N Figueroa St dates to 1927 and is the oldest bowling alley in the city, restored to its original look with eight vintage lanes. During Prohibition the upstairs held doctors’ offices where patrons collected prescriptions for medicinal whiskey, then filled them downstairs. It reopened under its original name in 2016 and now serves cocktails and wood-fired Neapolitan pizza alongside the bowling.

Is the Highland Theatre open?

No. The Highland Theatre at 5604 N Figueroa St closed in 2024, six days short of the 100th anniversary of its opening. It was bought in March 2025 by an ownership entity that has stated plans to restore it. It remains a designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and is worth seeing from the street, but you cannot currently watch a film there.

Where should you eat in Highland Park?

Goldburger at 5623 York Blvd is the burger counter, open daily from noon to 8pm. Donut Friend at 5107 York Blvd makes its doughnuts in house and carries an unusually large vegan and vegetarian selection, open from 7am to 9pm and later on Friday and Saturday. Highland Park Bowl on North Figueroa serves wood-fired Neapolitan pizza with its lanes.

Is Highland Park expensive?

It has become expensive. Home values in ZIP 90042 sit in the region of $1.09 to $1.2 million depending on the source and the month, which is a substantial change from where the neighborhood was a decade ago. It is still generally below the west-side neighborhoods, and the apartment stock off the two main corridors is more attainable than the hillside houses.