Like many downtown Los Angeles residents, Ricardo Sebastián doesn’t own a car and prefers it that way.
“I do not want the responsibility of owning a vehicle. That’s not for me,” said Sebastián, who grew up in Chicago relying on public transit.
The 38-year-old consultant travels around L.A. by train and bus, but finds most of what they need close to home in the South Park district near Crypto.com Arena, including leisurely strolls.
“I enjoy going for long walks from one end of downtown to the other,” Sebastián said in Muffin Can Stop Us, a casual coffee bar and restaurant at the base of a high-rise apartment complex on Hope Street. “I love living downtown.”
Sebastián is hardly alone in that sentiment. In addition to being a commercial center with office skyscrapers, trendy hotels and cultural venues, downtown L.A. remains a vibrant and growing residential neighborhood with a population of 90,000 — about the size of Santa Monica.
Noemi Tagorda stands in Grand Hope Park, where she brought her children to play when they were younger.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Despite myriad challenges — including a sprawling homeless population and its reputation as a sometimes dodgy place to live and work — downtown L.A. is staging a comeback by attracting a steady stream of new residents.
Occupancy in downtown apartments has remained about 90% for more than a year, recent surveys by a downtown business support group show. That is slightly higher than the level before the pandemic, when offices hummed with 9-to-5ers.
In fact, the downtown population has more than tripled since 2000, reflecting a dynamic shift in the city center’s character toward a 24-hour lifestyle.
“You do not see that kind of change in any other neighborhood in Los Angeles,” downtown activist Cassy Horton said. “If anything, most neighborhoods are kind of aging and atrophying versus adding people.”
The reasons why people choose to live in…