This is the front of Brentwood Country Mart in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Very charming. It's unfortunate the sidewalk is so narrow and made even narrower by the placement of parking meters and potted plants. I assumed the sidewalks had once been more spacious and then narrowed for street widening, but the old photos I found show narrow sidewalks since the 1950s. It's unfortunate the sidewalks aren't more "pedestrian friendly," because most of the action is on the interior and would no doubt spill out onto this sidewalk if there was enough room. It's an odd couple of blocks. The buildings all sit right at the edge of the sidewalk as they should and the street is narrow; parking on both sides, and just one lane in each direction, but the sidewalks are very narrow. There's a center turn lane that might provide some room to work with as far as sidewalk widening but not enough to make it worth the investment. That being said, this has been a successful development and a successful neighborhood for nearly seven decades in spite of the the narrow sidewalks. Apparently the ideal of wide sidewalks and street trees aren't always necessary.
