Downtown LA Travel Guide

Downtown LA embraces LA's every social, economic and ethnic division. It's not the highrise megalopolis you might expect; only a small clutch of towering office blocks punctuate its skyline. During the postwar boom, as businesses spread out across the basin, it seemed to be heading for dilapidation and decay, but recent corporate revitalization and piles of urban renewal dollars have given it a new life, at least economically.

The whole area can easily be seen in a day on foot, aided by the odd 25¢ ride on a DASH, or LADOT, bus (tel 213/808-2273, ). LA's original settlement on the Northside is the obvious first stop, before crossing into the brasher and more modern Westside , and continuing through the chaos along Broadway .