DTLA News

But thanks to an influx of exciting restaurants and bars, as well as the arrival of L.A. Live—an entertainment district across from the Staples Center arena that’s filled with popular eateries, the Microsoft theater, and the Grammy Museum—Downtown L.A., affectionately called DTLA, is becoming a must-visit neighborhood in Los Angeles, even for Angelenos.

Contrary to dire predictions of the demise of urban centers in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Downtown Los Angeles has weathered the storms of 2020 and 2021 with characteristic grit and passion.

The landmark building that publishing titan William Randolph Hearst built for his Los Angeles newspaper over a century ago has been restored to public life as surging development in its downtown neighborhood brings new apartments, hotels and offices.

“I thought it was gonna be a long road to recovery, but it's been New Year's Eve in every bar and restaurant in downtown LA since mid-June,” says Brian Houck, the owner of The Escondite near Skid Row and Little Tokyo. He markets his business as a dive bar hideout for downtown locals and folks in the hospitality industry. “They come here when they're off [work] and we all talk. Everyone's over the moon about their sales, their projections. It's crazy,” he says.

Experts said downtown L.A. is a cornerstone of the region's tourism industry.

On this Sunday night, however, the Music Center stages its cautious return to live performance with its fifth and final Dance at Dusk show featuring queen of tap Dormeshia. “The Super Villainz: A Tap Dance Act for the Modern Age” awakens L.A.’s cultural nerve center, which crackles with energy.

In a deal expected to be announced Thursday, the franchise will extend its lease with owner AEG for another two decades through 2041. The agreement includes a commitment to spend “nine figures” on capital improvements and upgrades throughout the 22-year-old arena. A team official said renovations were key to the extension, as was a desire to remain downtown.

As a kid, architect Karin Liljegren would stare at buildings while she refined them in her head. “As a kid, I used to look at buildings and think about how I could improve them,” said Liljegren. “I love positive transformation.” In 20 years, Liljegren and her company, Omgivning, have built over 400 buildings, helping to revitalize Downtown Los Angeles after crashes in 2000 and 2008. To revitalize the city’s urban core after the devastating COVID-19 pandemic brought the city to its knees, Liljegren hopes her ideas will help businesses reconnect with their communities.

Even with the acknowledged hurdles to Downtown LA’s recovery, all panelists remained bullish on the neighborhood’s future and imminent recovery. Once vaccines are widely administered and people are comfortable being near each other again, “central business districts and urban cities will be key and people will come back to them,” Pagan said.

California Community Foundation, a non-profit organization, has acquired a 54,657-square-foot office building in Los Angeles for $15.4 million. First City Credit Union sold the property, which has served as its downtown location for the past 24 years. Located at 717 W. Temple St. in the city’s central business district, the four-story building was completed in 1978. The property has two passenger elevators and a six-floor parking structure with a ratio of 1.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet.

Chef Ria Dolly Barbosa had attuned Petite Peso’s menu to the moment. A sly French dip chicken sandwich with adobo jus for dipping cast a palliative spell; so did rice bowls of kare kare vegetables, coconut-rich adobo and braised pork belly. As 2020 wound down, she ventured into more traditional recipes: a centering stew of boiled beef and vegetables called nilaga, and sinigang, a sour, umami-revved soup hearty with pork belly and shoulder.

Downtown Los Angeles is one of the most dynamic dining destinations in the city, and it remains so as many restaurants have made the turn to takeout. Whether you’re in the mood for rich pastas or mesquite-grilled steak stuffed into some of the best tortillas in the city, these restaurants from the 2020 101 restaurants guide will keep you coming back downtown.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Amanda Gunawan is conscious of the ways in which people’s relationship to design and space is likely to change, post-COVID. Of her top 10 LA design spots for the post-pandemic world, 3 are in DTLA: The Broad, Verve's Coffee Roasters in the Arts District, Mexican restaurant Damian.

The World Travel Awards has been handing out annual tourism accolades for just shy of three decades, and this year it’s awarded Los Angeles with the title of North America's Leading City Break Destination 2020. Travel industry insiders and members of the general public who voted found L.A. to have more of that city break allure than Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

After the pandemic dramatically slowed commercial real estate deals across the U.S., the summer saw an uncharacteristically high uptick — but shifting dynamics cost New York City its top spot. The normally robust Manhattan real estate market has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and dropped behind Dallas and Los Angeles in the third quarter.

A&M Records cofounder Jerry Moss and his wife, Tina, have given $25 million to the Music Center, the largest gift earmarked for programming in the organization’s history. The inaugural order of business, when it is deemed safe for the public to gather again, will be an annual free summer concert featuring prominent musicians that Moss said he hopes to help recruit from his network of industry connections.

Downtown LA was impossible to ignore this year, in entirely different ways, and its “coolest neighborhood” distinction means something different now than when the votes were initially cast. In the most painful year in L.A.’s recent history, and in a city with no single, central gathering place, Downtown became its shared soul.

Before us was something else: Latinos eating, shopping, and even posing on the area’s infamous burro while wearing ponchos and bandoliers. Business was finally returning to the shopping district after months of coronavirus-caused shutdowns. “People make history real,” López said. “People make it their own. We have to move forward together to make a better tomorrow.”

If you’ve ever read a Raymond Chandler novel, you know Bunker Hill. Nathan Marsak resurrects the long-gone neighborhood in his new book Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Essence of Sunshine and Noir, sending us back more than 150 years to witness the new community rising.

On Kobe Bryant day, the City of Los Angeles is remembering the all-time NBA great, who was among nine people that died in a helicopter crash in January. President of the Los Angeles City Council Herb J. Wesson Jr. announced on Monday a portion of Figueroa Street near downtown Los Angeles will be renamed Kobe Bryant Boulevard. August 24 (8/24) is the combination of Bryant’s jersey numbers that he wore during a 20-year career with the Lakers.

Downtown L.A. has a nearly completed left-side southbound parking-protected bike lane along one mile of Grand Avenue between 5th Street and Pico Boulevard. As of last weekend, the thermoplastic striping on Grand is complete, but the bollard protection has not yet been installed. This portion of Grand was resurfaced under Streets L.A.’s ADAPT program, and the bike lane was upgraded. The lane has now been moved to the left side, which is a best practice for one-way-street bike lanes, as it minimizes conflict with transit.

Dedicated bus lanes and protected bike lanes officially opened on Monday in downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti held a Facebook Live event this morning (see above) to introduce this key transit improvement in DTLA. The lanes were created by a partnership between the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), StreetsLA and Metro.

The Los Angeles Department of City Planning released its new draft of the Downtown Los Angeles Community Plan, branded “DTLA 2040.” The plan envisions a downtown with new development supporting housing and jobs, especially more affordable housing. Per City Planning, by 2040 downtown L.A. is expected to accommodate “125,000 new residents, in addition to 55,000 new jobs, representing 20 percent of the City’s housing growth in one percent of its land area.”

Last month, Metro announced plans for bus-only lanes on Aliso Street, 5th Street, 6th Street, Grand Avenue, and Olive Street. Several of these bus lanes are being added relatively quickly in conjunction with the city Bureau of Street Services ADAPT program.A new Metro Central/Westside Service Council presentation on Metro’s NextGen Bus Study includes information on the new bus-only lanes couplet planned for 5th and 6th Streets – from Figueroa Street to Central Avenue.

LADOT is calling the project an “interim test” of new 7th Street striping, which features protected bike lanes, bollards narrowing intersections, expanded loading zones, consolidated bus stops, and reduced metered parking. The interim configuration does not include bicycle traffic signals or bicycle loop detectors, and has bus/bicycle mixing zones at bus stops. The planned permanent 7th Street Forward project will include curb-protected bike lanes, and transit islands.

As we all adjust to our new lives under the umbrella of the coronavirus, Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco gives us a look at downtown Los Angeles with the spotlight on Broadway.

Downtown LA’s revival was kicked off by the passage of the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance and the opening of Staples Center in 1999, but in many respects the DTLA we know today is a product of the 2010s.

The nexus of the City of Angels is both gritty and glamorous, from the alleyways in the Arts District to the blinking billboards and fancy rooftop bars at L.A. Live. And believe it or not, you can explore all 15 districts of downtown without bringing your car—it has a Walk Score of 95, the highest rating in the entire city.

Dubbed DTLA, downtown Los Angeles has established itself as not just one of the most talked-about neighborhoods in the City of Angels, but the entire country. The transformation kicked off in 1999, when a city-approved adaptive reuse ordinance was passed — permitting the neighborhood’s abandoned, but historic Art Deco and Beaux-Arts structures to be revitalized into stylish residences and commercial spaces.

What a decade it’s been for Downtown Los Angeles. In the last 10 years, the neighborhood has added thousands of apartments and condos, gained its new tallest skyscraper (if you count the spire), and added some very fancy hotels.

Buildings in Downtown LA are likely to get a lot taller. They might also include a lot less parking. A draft set of development guidelines for Downtown, released by the city in July, is testing the waters for eliminating the requirement that developers put parking in new apartment and condo buildings.

In 2016, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning launched DTLA 2040 – a multi-year update of the Central City and Central City East Community Plans that determine land use and development rules for the Downtown area.  Though the final plan is still months away from publication, a draft document unveiled this week give a glimpse of what it will entail.

In preparation for the two-month closure of two Downtown LA Expo Line stations, Metro and the city of Los Angeles launched a pilot bus-only lane on Flower Street earlier this month. At a Metro committee meeting Thursday, agency officials said the project has been successful so far—and even drivers don’t seem to mind the change.

There are lots of reasons to go downtown (too many to name, in fact), but whether you’re checking out a museum, going to a show, meeting friends for dinner, or, you know, you live there, stopping for a drink will likely be part of the agenda. Here are nearly two dozen spots to choose from, whether you’re looking for tiki in Chinatown or a dive in the Arts District.

Walk the length of Grand Avenue from Temple to 5th Street, and you’ll encounter one of the most vital arts hubs in the city. You might be tempted by the collections at MOCA and the Broad or the multiple music offerings at the Colburn School and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Perhaps the opportunity to experience acclaimed architecture is a draw. Or theater. Or dance.

ArtCenter College of Design is perhaps best known for its tucked-away location in the arroyo on the eastern fringes of Pasadena. But when the school was first opened by Edward “Tink” Adams in 1930, it resided in the heart of Los Angeles, in a warren of courtyard buildings on West 7th Street near MacArthur Park. Now ArtCenter is making an L.A. comeback.

Los Angeles' Grand Central Market and Million Dollar Theater are one step closer to being considered a city historic-cultural monument and owner Langdon Street Capital is embracing the decision. The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission last week unanimously recommended placing the more than 100-year-old buildings that have been a staple in the city's downtown landscape on the city’s list of historic landmarks. 

By now it’s a classic, almost-cliche tale of urban revitalization: artists seeking dirt cheap studio spaces descend on a post-industrial, less-frequented part of town. They open a few galleries, a book store, a coffee shop. Then a groundbreaking new restaurant opens. Bam! Suddenly that under-the-radar, grimy stretch of warehouses is one of the coolest neighborhoods in town. 

Downtown Los Angeles is an ever-changing landscape that can amaze, shock, delight, and confound. Amidst the sparkling high-rises and award-winning restaurants is a hidden world with a crazy past and a weird and wonderful present. From prohibition-era bootleggers and serial killers to underground shows and tucked-away street art, every corner of this metropolis-within-a-metropolis has a story to tell. Here are some of LA’s best-kept secrets—so keep it to yourself…

Los Angeles’s downtown was little more than a sleepy office district not too long ago, where tens of thousands of suburbanites would clear out by the end of the workday and scores of classic Beaux-Arts and Art Deco buildings sat vacant or underutilized....Today, cranes dot the skyline and construction routinely diverts traffic as Downtown Los Angeles — a neighborhood known as DTLA — undergoes the biggest development boom since the Roaring Twenties, when the area was then the center of the entertainment industry.

So as the latest New York Times critic to go spelunking in this city’s museums, galleries, studios and alternative spaces, from Brentwood to Boyle Heights, let me get my verdict out of the way fast. Is Los Angeles, in 2019, the equal of New York as a center for contemporary art? Sure, of course it is.

A visit to the City of Angels extends beyond well-worn tourist areas like Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the Sunset Strip in search of “swimming pools, movie stars." What about downtown L.A.? There’s plenty to see and do in the revitalized area in terms of art, architecture, restaurants, bars and shopping.

Day 1 of your visit to La La Land will no doubt include the beaches, Hollywood and Rodeo Drive. With those out of the way, now head downtown for culture (the architectural masterpieces Walt Disney Concert Hall and the new Broad museum), history (the century-old Bradbury Building, seen in the original "Blade Runner" film), sports (the L.A. Lakers, Clippers and Kings all play at Staples Center) and a wide array of food, from the Grand Central Market to out-of-the-way taco stands.

Downtown Los Angeles wasn’t always this way. Not long ago, it was a desolate, terrifying land—its old buildings rotting on dirty silent streets, its sidewalks empty by nightfall. But then they arrived: the developers. They promised a manufactured make-believe of New York loft-living at a fraction of the price. What else would you expect in a city of make-believe? And now, more than a decade later, it’s been completely transformed.

The space is 60,000 square feet in size — bigger than a football field (the current record-holding mural is in Spain, according to Guiness World Records). It towers above the Pershing Square Metro station at the corner of 5th and Hill streets.

With its promise to make bicycling safer and more accessible, the MyFigueroa project has been one of the most anticipated efforts in Downtown. It has also been one of the most delayed, due to construction snafus, neighbor challenges and changes to the overall plan. Now the $20 million streetscape improvement project is reaching the finish line.