Downtown Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

Downtown Long Beach is the city's high-rise core, a walkable grid of condo towers, converted historic buildings and office blocks that ends at a working waterfront of marinas, a lighthouse and the Aquarium of the Pacific. Homes in Downtown Long Beach are condos and apartments. Glassy towers along Ocean Boulevard look over the harbor and the Queen Mary, restored brick and terra cotta buildings from the 1920s hold lofts, and newer mid-rise rentals sit near the Promenade. Single-family houses are almost absent, and most buildings come with shared amenities instead of yards. Harvey Milk Promenade Park on 3rd Street hosts events, the Downtown Long Beach Farmers Market sets up on the Promenade, and Lincoln Park sits beside the Billie Jean King Main Library at the civic center. Over on Long Beach Boulevard, Recreational Coffee is known for bright cartoon bean labels and community events, and Beachwood Blendery pours sour beers next door. Ammatoli on 3rd Street serves Levantine small plates, and Parkers' Lighthouse at Shoreline Village is the classic harbor-view seafood dinner. The Metro A Line ends downtown with service to Los Angeles, Long Beach Transit hubs at the First Street transit mall, and the Aquabus and Catalina ferries leave from the harbor. The tradeoff is event disruption. The Grand Prix closes streets each spring, concerts and conventions fill the garages, and bar noise on Pine runs late on weekends. A weeknight downtown can mean a walk from a Pine Avenue dinner to the water in a few minutes, with the Queen Mary lit up across the harbor.