Downtown Los Angeles has dramatically re-invented itself over the past decade – and changes continue to alter the city at a remarkable rate. What was once a grim and decaying urban core is today a lively, vibrant and colourful inner city attracting a new generation of urban pioneers to the fastest growing residential area in LA. The extensive renovation has forced greater public recognition of the plight of LA’s homeless population, the largest of any in the US. In 2007, more than 75,000 people were reported homeless in Los Angeles County with just over 40,000 concentrated in the city of LA. Although those numbers are down almost 20% from a 2005 count, the city has yet to develop truly effective remedies. Downtown’s Skid Row population actually increased from 3,668 to 5,131 over the same period – proof of the city’s chronic inability to cope. Public pressure, rising property values and the transformation of sections of the city surrounding Skid Row has encouraged an increase in social services and the number of available beds at shelters, which has made the problem less visible. A few years ago there were thousands of tents pitched along Skid Row streets each night – but that figure has now declined to the low hundreds.

In the historic core adjacent to Skid Row, scores of older structures have been transformed to accommodate lofts, condos, restaurants, galleries and retail space and shiny new world-class architectural marvels are rising all around. The new icon of the LA renaissance is unquestionably Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall on Grand Avenue near 1st Street. It is the crown jewel of the Music Center, which includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum, as well as outdoor theatres, plazas and gardens. Ironically sited beneath Disney Hall and accessed around the corner (and attracting a very different audience) is the REDCAT (the name, baffling to many, is actually an acronym for Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater), a post-avant-garde venue dedicated to artistic risk in theatre, film, video, dance. Across from Disney Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) has become a global centre for post-modernism. Adjacent to MOCA is California Plaza. From June to September (and on some holidays at other times of year) free concerts attract thousands of urban picnickers each week to enjoy world-class music during long, lingering, moonlit summer nights (www.grandperformances.org). Attending one of these Grand Performances should be on every visitor’s list of must-do activities.

Down the hill from the Grand Avenue citadels of high art, the formerly mean and ragged stretches of Main and Spring Streets (roughly between 1st and 9th) is Gallery Row in the Old Bank District, a lively quarter of galleries, restaurants, bars and cafes in ornate, lovingly restored buildings dating as far back as the first decade of the 20th century. On the second Thursday of every month the galleries stay open into the evening for an art walk featuring live street music, performance art and other enticements. A free bus service circles through the art zone. This is another activity not to be missed (www.downtownartwalk.com).

Anchoring one corner of the district is Pete’s Bar and Café, featuring dark wood panelling, floor-to-ceiling windows, bistro-style sidewalk seating and a reasonably priced cosmopolitan menu (213 617 1000; www.petescafe.com). A half block up from Pete’s on 4th Street is the cosy little Warung Café, which serves tapas-type hot and cold dishes with an Asian accent. It’s affordable, intimate and a big favourite among locals (213 626 0662; www.warungcafela.com). A few blocks northwest, at the corner of 5th and Figueroa, is Ciudad, specializing in Cuban, Spanish, Portuguese and South and Central American cuisine, and boasting the finest rum bar in town. This is also treasured by locals who pack the place on Tuesdays for ‘Paella on the Patio’ night (213 486 5171; www.ciudad-la.com). Close by is Wolfgang Puck’s LA Bistro. This is the newest creation of the famed celebrity chef and it is just as good as his umpteen other venues, serving inventive nouveau cuisine at surprisingly affordable prices (213 614 1900; www.wolfgangpuck.com/bistro).

There is a lively nightlife throughout the area – but a couple of places in particular stand out. The aptly named Edison is a former power plant, built deep beneath the city’s streets more than a century ago. The dynamos and other Victorian-era electrical artefacts have been artfully preserved in the huge cavern-like space beneath the Higgins building. The entrance, off an alley, is hard to find so check the website for directions. Perhaps the ultimate LA bar experience, if you can afford it, is the roof bar of The Standard at the corner of 6th and Flower, which features spectacular views, an outdoor fireplace, a heated pool, sculpted topiary and, of course, vibrating waterbed pods. Those who crave a hard rock, hip-hop or DJ scene should check out Crash Mansion at the intersection of South Grand and West Olympic. Located in a former 1930s ballroom, it features one of the biggest stages in town plus smaller, more intimate performance spaces and half a dozen bars. Other Downtown bars worth checking out include The Broadway Bar (830 Broadway, thebroadwaybar.net/main.html), The Golden Gopher (417 W 8th St, www.goldengopherbar.com) and of particular note, 410 Boyd (410 Boyd St), a favourite hangout of the Downtown arts crowd, it also features a reasonably priced and elegant menu, ever-changing artwork by Downtown artists and a patio for smokers.

A dozen blocks or so southwest of Gallery Row are temples to commerce and popular culture, including the Convention Center (www.lacclink.com) and the Staples Center home of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers, the National Hockey League LA Kings and the American Football Association’s Avengers. Across the street is the Nokia Theatre LA Live, one of the premier concert venues in Southern California.

Further out and in the north-west quadrant of downtown – and a pleasant escape from the urban hustle and bustle – is Exposition Park, a graceful and spacious complex of gardens and museums, the grandest of which is the Natural History Museum of LA County. Now almost a century old, it is one of the finest museums of its kind in the US, well known for creating groundbreaking (and crowd-pleasing) exhibitions. Towering ‘Duelling Dinosaurs,’ complete skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops in battle, greet visitors when they enter the majestic Grand Foyer. This is an ideal destination for families – or anyone awed by the wonders of the natural world.