Downtown L.A. can feel like a microcosm of Los Angeles. The city's rich culture (including great food and interesting architecture) are on display, right alongside its tough issues (like homelessness and a housing crisis) — sometimes within the same block.
It’s a neighborhood that can be tough to characterize, because you often hear some contradictory things about it.
When you bring up the area, there are things you hear from lots of folks: like how back in the '70s and '80s downtown was like a ghost town after the 9-to-5 work day … except for those who did enjoy the nightlife.
Downtown was definitely a regular hangout spot in earlier decades, even though it wasn’t popular for many. Historically, the neighborhood (and its surrounding areas) have catered to recently arrived populations — from the original Chinatown and Little Tokyo to the bars serving Latinos on Main and Third streets.
Now, a lot of the talk nowadays is how expensive it is to live downtown, and in the city overall.
The cost of living in the city is up 4% compared to March 2023, according to the U.S. Labor of Bureau Statistics. The same figure is up 3.5% nationwide.
Some see that rise, specifically rent prices, as something to be concerned about as it makes the area unaffordable to those who work there.
But others argue the rising prices can be seen as a sign of progress in a neighborhood that’s had its fair share of ups and downs.
“You can just look at the cost of rent and tell it's on the way up,” says J. Ellis McGinnis, who serves on the downtown L.A. neighborhood council. “The dodgier parts of it are becoming smaller. The Arts District is becoming more broad. The fashion district is becoming more vibrant, and so those are clear indicators that the city is revitalizing.”
One longtime resident and business owner of downtown is betting on that revitalization — and trying to do his part, one small business (block) at a time.
Oliver Alpuche, a homegrown Angeleno, has lived in the area since 2008 — the start of the Great Recession. His friends and family thought relocating to downtown in that era was a pretty terrible idea but, to him, downtown felt like home almost instantly. The neighbors in his condo building almost all knew each other, and would host weekly dinner parties. A few of them also worked downtown.
Alpuche’s desire to create more community downtown eventually led him to open Redline, a now-defunct LGBTQ bar that opened in 2015 on Los Angeles Street. (Redline is where I met him and danced many nights away.) That same year, other queer bars opened up: Precinct and Bar Mattachine. DTLA Proud, a nonprofit he founded to further LGBTQ empowerment in the area, came to fruition shortly after.
“So many things were happening here and it was so amazing.” Alpuche says. “Never felt unsafe. It was great.”
He’s talking about all the small businesses that opened up — a dog grooming spot, a clothing store, a gym — all within a block or two of Redline. It wasn’t just downtown, L.A. was having a moment.
In 2015, about 68% of small businesses owners in L.A. County said they expected to grow the following year, according to a survey.
Other areas of downtown also had many well-established attractions by then — the Broad museum, a regular artwalk and Grand Central Market had gotten a facelift.
The momentum spilled over into the following years, until 2020.
“The pandemic hit and it kind of drained it of life,” he says. “And I feel like if you think about [downtown] as a tree or a forest … we went through a forest fire downtown.”
Sonoratown co-owner Jennifer Feltham once noted to me that even after COVID restrictions were lifted, the foot traffic in some downtown corridors wasn't the same. She pointed to the closing of many offices in the area as workplaces expanded to work-from-home options.
Business owners had to reevaluate.
This led Alpuche to close Redline earlier this year and open a new gay bar with coworker Brad Nitz in downtown’s Historic Core. KISO, the new, bigger space, is tucked in The Barclay Hotel building on 4th Street, just a block away from Precinct in the Broadway corridor.
It’s a space that holds special significance to L.A.’s LGBTQ history. It used to be Score, the oldest gay bar in downtown. As Oliver describes it, “It was a Latin gay bar that had drag shows, dancers. You name it, it was here.”
After Score closed, it became Bar 107, which was more of a dive bar. Bar 107 opened in 2005, and closed 10 years later.
“So when it became available,” Oliver says, “we were like — we need to occupy [it]. We need to bring back a historic queer space, and modernize it of course, and bring it back to its glory.”
He also hopes the proximity to another gay bar, and other businesses, will help with foot traffic. “What I'm waiting for is for more people to bring their small businesses here so we can really flourish,” he says.
Claudia Oliveira echoes his sentiment. She’s been on the Downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council for seven years.
“The more commerce that we have, the better the streets are, the more eyes on the streets we get,” she says. “But in order for the small business to survive, the city has to be more welcoming when it comes to offering them opportunities.”
She notes that those trying to open a new business downtown should be given more support as they navigate a complicated permit process.
Alpuche knows that complicated process well, having been through it with Redline, and now again as he prepares to open KISO. He says the bureaucracy of permits and paperwork takes far too long. He’s had to push back the opening of KISO a couple of times.
The other problem he’d love to see fixed: housing affordability.
“How do my bartenders, my barbacks, my security guards, how are they able to enjoy the city that they work in and play in, but they can't live here?” he says. “They make too much for transitional housing, but they don't make enough for just a standard apartment, because everything that is built is high-end luxury.”
Downtown has been slow to rebound after the pandemic, but things might be on an upswing again. There’s been a lot of investment.
The Broad recently announced it will expand 55,000 square feet with a new wing of the museum to host more gallery space. Construction begins next year and it’s set to be completed by the 2028 Olympics.
UCLA also made a big investment in downtown with its purchase of the Historic Trust Building on Spring Street last year as a way to expand its campus in other parts of the city.
And while the Ace Hotel moved out of downtown this year, the Los Angeles Business Journal notes that two new hotels opened up late last year — The Craftsman and The Winfield, which were both previously office spaces.
The city is also taking steps to increase affordable housing downtown. In May of 2023, the city council unanimously approved new zoning rules that allow housing in areas where it was prohibited before. It also includes incentives for developers to build more affordable housing.
Garment workers and homeless service providers have raised concerns about the new rules displacing manufacturing and unhoused people, but it will take a while to find out — the plans are looking way ahead to 2040.
The opening of KISO is coming soon. Alpuche is confident they will have a soft opening in May, and be fully open to the public by Pride Month.
He jokes by saying, “We’re going to make DTLA gay again.” But it’s also something he’s serious about.
He’s doing all he can to make KISO a success, and he’s hopeful about the possibility of a renewed, thriving nightlife in downtown — like there was before the pandemic.
And for all its challenges, the area still does have a lot going for it.
From great restaurants to museums, and a lot of interesting history to dive into, “downtown has so much to offer,” Oliver says.
And in talking to residents, there’s a sense of hope that downtown could be on the brink of another era of revitalization — Oliver, for one, is betting on it.
How to LA associate editor Aaricka Washington contributed reporting.
