Lathrop

Lathrop is the 209 city growing the fastest. Population has more than doubled in the last decade, and the River Islands master-planned community keeps adding restaurants, parks, and a real downtown to a place that until recently was mostly fields and freeway exits.

The food scene is catching up to the population. Mexican places along Lathrop Road run deep — taquerias, panaderias, and birria spots that locals know but Yelp hasn't gotten to yet. The River Islands Town Center is where the newer dining lives: brunch, coffee, a brewery. The South Harlan corridor handles the everyday.

If you want what's happening, look at River Islands Town Center on weekend evenings and the youth-sports complex on Saturday mornings. The Tesla Megafactory put Lathrop on a different map; the city is figuring out what to be next, and that energy is showing up in the events calendar.