What street is the best place for a visitor to get a coffee, walk around and check out Lakewood?
3 Answers
Lakewood is the quintessential suburb. For the most part it has neighborhoods, busy arteries with commercial buildings connecting the neighborhoods, and strip malls. And parks and pretty things, of course. But not a lot of "walking neighborhoods" with coffee shops, etc. The one exception is Belmar, which used to be the site of Villa Italia mall. They have redeveloped it as a "downtown Lakewood", and it has a main street feeling with shops and restaurants, a plaza with ice skating in the winter, etc. About the best "hanging out" place in Lakewood.
Belmar is the place to go.
On West Alameda Parkway in Green Mountain there are several coffee shops and if you walk up the hill there are some nice views. It's a busy street but can be very peaceful if you're strolling around near the Green Mountain High School area.