Downtown Pomona, Pomona, CA

Downtown Pomona is where the city goes out at night, a grid of old brick storefronts around Second Street and the Arts Colony where galleries and music venues share the same few blocks. Art is the daily texture here. The American Museum of Ceramic Art sits on North Garey Avenue and opens Friday through Sunday, and South Thomas Street holds the Sasse Museum of Art and the Latino Art Museum within a short walk of each other. dba256 pairs a wine bar with rotating gallery walls on Main Street. Eating out leans casual. Joey's Bar-B-Q and Dia De Los Puercos share an address on West Second Street, and The Rookery Alehouse is a few doors down. For coffee, Wish You Were Here Coffee Roasters works out of East Third Street and Mi Cafecito Coffee has a counter on South Main Street. Housing is a mix of lofts and apartments above and around the commercial core, with older single-family bungalows on the residential streets toward Holt Avenue and south toward Mission Boulevard. Tony Cerda Park and Hamilton Park are the nearest green spaces, and the Pomona Public Library sits by the civic center on South Garey. Getting around Downtown Pomona is easier than in most of the valley. Groceries are mostly small markets and carnicerias like Pomona Ranch Market on West Mission, so a big weekly shop usually means a drive. Nightlife cuts both ways. Weekend crowds and event parking come with living near the Fox, and some storefronts between the busy blocks still sit empty. On a quiet weekday morning in downtown, though, you can walk from a coffee bar to a ceramics show in under five minutes.