East Village, Long Beach, CA

East Village is the arts district on the eastern side of downtown Long Beach, a compact grid of older brick and Art Deco buildings with galleries, tattoo studios and independent cafes on the ground floors. It has a looser, more homegrown feel than the more visitor-oriented Pine Avenue side of downtown. Housing in East Village is almost all multifamily. Converted commercial buildings hold lofts with high ceilings and big windows, older walk-up apartments line the side streets, and newer mid-rise apartment buildings mix in along the larger streets. Condo towers along Ocean Boulevard sit at the southern edge with water views. Coffee and food are the neighborhood's daily routine. Around 1st Street and Linden Avenue, Utopia Good Food and Fine Art hangs local artists' work on its walls, District Wine pours rotating bottles with cheese boards, and Blind Donkey runs a whiskey bar with live music. East Village Arts Park on Elm Avenue is a small green lot used for events, and the beach is a few blocks south across Ocean Boulevard. The bike path along the sand runs east toward Belmont Shore, and art walks bring crowds into the galleries and studios throughout the year. Errands are handled on foot. Vons on Broadway and Albertsons on Long Beach Boulevard cover groceries within a few blocks, and the Metro A Line stops at the western edge of the neighborhood. The tradeoff is the usual downtown friction. Parking is scarce, homes are small, and some blocks see loud bar traffic and street activity at night. On a gallery night, the sidewalks along 1st Street fill with people drifting between open studios and the wine bars on Linden well after dark.