Downtown LA / Arts District

What you gain

• ↑Downtown has the best transit connectivity in LA — Union Station (the Metro hub) and the DASH bus system make it the only neighbourhood in the city from which major destinations are reasonably accessible without a car. The Metro E Line runs to Santa Monica; the A Line to Long Beach; commuter rail to Anaheim and Riverside.
• ↑Grand Central Market on Broadway has operated continuously since 1917. The current iteration — kept as an affordable market of local vendors (Eggslut, Belcampo Meat Co., Ramen Hood) alongside longstanding Mexican counter restaurants — is genuine rather than curated, with a clientele of office workers, local residents, and visitors in roughly equal proportion.
• ↑The Broad museum (free general admission, advance timed entry required) on Grand Avenue has the most significant collection of contemporary American art in Los Angeles. Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha, and Jean-Michel Basquiat are represented in depth. The adjacent Walt Disney Concert Hall (Frank Gehry, 2003) offers free 45-minute self-guided audio tours of its interior.

What you sacrifice

• ↓Parts of downtown LA — particularly Skid Row (east of Main Street) — have significant homelessness concentrations that can make walking certain routes uncomfortable or distressing for visitors not prepared for it. The areas immediately around the Broad and Grand Central Market are well-managed; the surrounding blocks require more awareness.
• ↓The Arts District's restaurant scene is excellent but the neighbourhood still has a transitional, unfinished quality — it is an arts district in the process of becoming, not a fully formed neighbourhood. Some blocks feel deserted at night and solo evening walks east of Alameda should be considered carefully.