Downtown Long Beach is the heart of

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and is the location for most of the city's major tourist attractions and municipal services. It is also the location for numerous businesses. There are many hotels and restaurants in the area that serve locals, tourists, and convention visitors.

Location

Downtown Long Beach, California 3 (6026494605)

Downtown Core, Long Beach, CA, USA - panoramio (11)

Middough Brothers-Insurance Exchange Building

Downtown Core, Long Beach, CA, USA - panoramio (1)

Downtown Long Beach is bounded by the

Los Angeles River , name_etymology = , image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg , image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge , image_size = 300 , map = LARmap.jpg , map_size ...

to the west, and Ocean Boulevard to the south (south of Ocean is considered the "Downtown Shoreline," a separate area). Alamitos Avenue roughly delimits downtown to the east, although the City's actual downtown zoning extends a few blocks east of Alamitos. Similarly, downtown effectively ends around 7th Street to the north, but the City's downtown zoning carries as far north as Anaheim Street between Pacific Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard, and up to 10th Street east of that. The greater downtown area includes the neighborhoods of the East Village Arts District, the West End, North Pine, the Civic Center, and the "Downtown Core" or central business and entertainment area.

Tourist attractions and shopping

Aquarium of the Pacific The Aquarium of the Pacific (formerly the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific) is a public aquarium on a site on Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, California, United States. It is situated across the water from the Long Beach Convention Center, Shor ...

Catalina Express Catalina Express (legally Catalina Channel Express) is an American passenger ferry service that operates scheduled trips between Santa Catalina Island and mainland California. The company began service in 1981 with a single sixty-passenger ves ...

– boats to Catalina Island * East Village Arts District *

Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center The Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center is a convention center located in Long Beach, California. Built on the former site of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, the venue is composed of the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach Ar ...

Terrace Theater The Terrace Theater is a full theatrical and performance venue located in Long Beach, California. The theater seats 3,051 patrons at its maximum configuration in Orchestra, Loge, and Balcony sections. The Orchestra seating section is arranged i ...

Long Beach Sports Arena The Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center is a convention center located in Long Beach, California. Built on the former site of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, the venue is composed of the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach Ar ...

(which has one of Wyland's Whaling Walls) *

Long Beach Plaza Long Beach Plaza was a two-level shopping mall located in Downtown Long Beach, California. It was designed in the 1970s by The Hahn Company and opened in 1982. The eight-block dumbbell-shaped mall was an enclosed structure and included a two-story ...

– shopping *

Museum of Latin American Art The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) was founded by Dr. Robert Gumbiner in 1996 in Long Beach, California, United States and serves the greater Los Angeles area. MOLAA is the only museum in the United States dedicated to modern and contempora ...

The Pike ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

– shopping *

Pine Avenue Pine Avenue (french: avenue des Pins) is an east–west street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This street serves as the dividing line between the downtown Ville-Marie borough and borough of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, and also serves as the northern ...

— restaurants and nightclubs * '' Queen Mary'' – historic ship, hotel, restaurants & conventions (nearby) * Rainbow Harbor – shopping and restaurants * Shoreline Village – shopping and restaurants * Harvey Milk Promenade Park

Events

* Second Saturday Art Walk (East Village) * Third Fridays Twilight Walk (Historic Pine Avenue) * Certified Organic Farmers Market (Fridays) * Bob Marley Reggae Festival (February) * Queen Mary Scottish Festival (February) * Congressional Cup (sailing races, April) *

Long Beach Grand Prix The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in downtown Long Beach, California. Christopher Pook is the founder of the event. It w ...

Formula DRIFT Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...

(April) * Cajun & Zydeco Festival (May) * Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Parade & Festival (May) * Aloha Concert Jam (Hawaiian music, June) *

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first w ...

or AX (SPJA) (Promotion of Japanese Animation & Culture July 2 to July 6) * Catalina Ski Race (July)

2028 Summer Olympics

During the

2028 Summer Olympics The 2028 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, also known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA28) is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14 to July 30, 2028, in and around Los Angeles, Cali ...

, downtown Long Beach will host

BMX racing BMX racing is a type of off-road bicycle racing. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing. BMX bicycle races are sprint races on purpose-built off-road single-lap race tracks. The track usually consists of a starting gate for up to ...

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...

and

open water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam s ...

Government and infrastructure

Local government

Long Beach City Hall
* Long Beach Police Dept. Headquarters * Municipal Library

County, state, and federal representation

* Long Beach Main Post Office, located at 300 Long Beach Boulevard *

Los Angeles Superior Court The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The ...

Governor

George Deukmejian Courken George Deukmejian Jr. (; June 6, 1928 – May 8, 2018) was an American politician who served as the 35th governor of California from 1983 to 1991. Of Armenian descent, Deukmejian was a member of the Republican Party and he also served ...

Courthouse

Businesses

The Downtown Long Beach Alliance manages the business- and commercial property-based improvement districts in Downtown Long Beach. There are approximately 1,500 businesses in Downtown Long Beach, including several law firms given the proximity of the Los Angeles County Courthouse, as well as over 150 restaurants, wine bars, performing arts venues, and the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. A complete and frequently updated business directory is available online a
Downtown Long Beach Alliance's website
The

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

system headquarters are at 401 Golden Shore in Downtown Long Beach. * Long Beach Rescue Mission
Long Beach World Trade Center
*

Port of Long Beach The Port of Long Beach, also known as the Harbor Department of the City of Long Beach, is a container port in the United States, which adjoins Port of Los Angeles. Acting as a major gateway for US–Asian trade, the port occupies of land with ...

(nearby) *

Molina Healthcare Molina Healthcare is a managed care company headquartered in Long Beach, California, United States. The company provides health insurance to individuals through government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. History Molina Healthcare was f ...

Revitalization Projects

Outdated office buildings that have reached the end of their competitive life-cycle are finding a new beginning as residential conversions. In 2014 the city's Municipal Code provided for

Adaptive Reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...

, which is a "construction or remodeling project that reconfigures existing spaces, structures or buildings to accommodate a new use or to accommodate another purpose than what it was originally designed for." The City created the Adaptive Reuse Incentive Program to guide developers through the process. Re-purposing a building avoids demolition, sending the structure to landfills, while preserving the historic value and unique architecture of downtown Long Beach. Examples of buildings converted for reuse include the Verizon office building on 200 W. Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach which is changed into a mixed-use apartment building over retail. The Long Beach Professional Building, an eight story poured in place concrete

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

medical office tower constructed in 1929 and once in danger of being torn down, was most recently renovated in 2018. The historic building is on the List of City of Long Beach Historic Landmarks and the California Office of Historic Preservation. The building was accepted in 2005 into the National Register of Historic Places. The restoration project was conducted by Global Premier Development and KTGY Architecture + Planning. The structure is now called The Regency Palms, an assisted living and memory care facility. Refer to the Downtown Update of the Long Beach Development Services for a presentation document showing completed, approved and pending projects.2018 in Review, Downtown Plan Update
/ref>

Transportation

The following are located in Long Beach's downtown area: * A transit center of

Long Beach Transit Long Beach Transit (LBT) is a municipal transit company providing fixed and flexible bus transit services in Long Beach, California, United States, in other communities in south and southeast Los Angeles County, and northwestern Orange County. L ...

(bus) * The southern terminus of Metro Rail's A Line:

Downtown Long Beach Station Downtown Long Beach station (formerly Transit Mall station) is an at-grade light rail station on the A Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The station is located in the middle of 1st Street between Pine Avenue and Pacific Avenue in Down ...

(Transit Mall Station) * The southern end of

Interstate 710 Route 710, consisting of the non-contiguous segments of State Route 710 (SR 710) and Interstate 710 (I-710), is a major north–south state highway and auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of the ...

(Long Beach Freeway) * Bus service of Greyhound Lines,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

Thruway,

Torrance Transit Torrance Transit is a transit agency primarily serving the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . History Torrance Transit inaugurated service on January 15, 1940 using thre ...

, LADOT, and

LACMTA The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angel ...

From 1902 to 1961, the neighborhood was served by the Pacific Electric

Long Beach Line The Long Beach Line was a major interurban railway operated by the Pacific Electric Railway between Los Angeles and Long Beach, California via Florence, Watts, and Compton. Service began in 1902 and lasted until 1961, the last line of the syste ...

Education

Downtown Long Beach is within the

Long Beach Unified School District The Long Beach Unified School District is a school district headquartered in Long Beach, California, United States. Established in 1885, Long Beach Unified School District now educates 81,000 students in 84 public schools in the cities of Lon ...

Architecture

References

{{Olympic venues water polo Neighborhoods in Long Beach, California Tourist attractions in Long Beach, California Economy of Long Beach, California

Venues of the 2028 Summer Olympics Olympic cycling venues Olympic swimming venues Olympic water polo venues Olympic triathlon venues