Los Angeles Arts District

I was talking to a friend at UCLA the other day.   She's been in LA for 5 years or so, and lived on the West side for all of it.  Anyway, she told me that the entire time she's lived here, she's only been downtown a handful of times...mainly because she's afraid to leave the west side!  What?!?!?  That's crazy to me.  I love downtown.  And there's SO much to do.  There's bars, restaurants, artists/galleries, and newer things to do that pile on the already huge list of cool things in the downtown area.  Anyway, the Arts District is downtown.  This place is cool.  There's basically a bunch of old industrial buildings now inhabited by artists, mixed in with a bunch of still functioning warehouses/factories, hip eateries, music venues, and galleries.  And of course, being that thousands of artists live there, the place is visually awesome.

There's a bunch of pictures in the gallery below:

PS I started adding these gallery things to put up more pictures in less space, but the trade off is definitely having to use flash.  Let me know if they load too slow and I'll find another solution.