Cedar Bayou and North Baytown

The older residential north, where the streets have trees older than the houses and the houses are older than the plants' current names. Jenkins Park is the backyard; Cedar Bayou is the edge; the tracks are the line you cross to get downtown.

What it's like. Families, mostly. Ranch houses from the fifties and sixties on lots you can't buy anymore, a few new builds filling the gaps, churches on the corners, and a quiet that the Garth side doesn't have. It's the part of Baytown where people have lived in the same house for forty years and know which neighbor's grandfather worked which unit. Yard signs for the high school, trucks in the driveways, a lawnmower at seven on Saturday.

Jenkins Park. The best playground in the city and the shade to survive it, pavilions you can reserve through Parks & Rec, fields for the youth leagues, and the pavilion where the District 5 listening tour meets in November because this is where the long-time voters are. Walk it early; the park is the neighborhood's living room from seven to nine on a summer morning, and the youth-league Saturdays from March to June are the social calendar.

The bayou. Cedar Bayou runs the east side of the neighborhood down to the bay — slow, brown, full of catfish, and the reason Roseland Park is where it is. Roseland's pavilions are first-come, its shoreline is a beginner's fishing spot, and its boat ramp is the quiet alternative to Bayland. After a hard rain the bayou rises fast; the park floods before the streets do, and the streets nearest it are the ones on the flood map.

Eating and coffee. Heart and Whisk, 4618 North Main, is the reason to cross the tracks in the morning — the best coffee in town and the pastry case that sells out by mid-morning on weekends. The Dirty Daiquiri, 2007 North Main, is the reason to cross them at night. Denna Donuts is out east on FM 3180, 4:30 to noon, for the pre-dawn kolache. In between, the taquerías on North Main that don't have websites and don't need them, and the Baytown Washateria at 2125 North Alexander, 7 to 9 daily, where the crews do the week's laundry.

Schools. Goose Creek CISD; the elementary and the junior high are in the neighborhood, and Friday nights belong to whichever high school your side of town feeds — the district has three, and the zone lines run through the north side. The schools page has the map and the bell times.

Moving here. Older houses mean older foundations and older plumbing; get the inspection, and ask about the sewer line. The trade is a real yard, a real street, mature trees, and a ten-minute drive to everything in Baytown including the plants. Flood history is bayou-side, not neighborhood-wide; the map is on the hurricane page, and the streets a block up from the water have been dry through Harvey.

En español. Cedar Bayou y el norte de Baytown: el barrio residencial más antiguo — casas de los cincuenta y sesenta con árboles grandes, familias, iglesias en las esquinas, la liga juvenil los sábados en el parque Jenkins. Cedar Bayou es el borde y sube rápido con la lluvia. Heart and Whisk en North Main para el café; el Dirty Daiquiri para la noche; Denna Donuts en la FM 3180 antes del amanecer. Casas viejas: revise los cimientos y la tubería.