The Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles (formally the Warehouse District) encompasses Temple Street to the north, Sixth Street to the south, Alameda Street to the west and the Los Angeles River to the east.  The Arts District was not always the upstanding neighborhood it is now, it was the Warehouse District.  It was filled with older, industrial railroad buildings and was occupied by squatting artists.

Moving from Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Long Beach and other communities, artists started to set up camp, sometimes illegally, in larger loft spaces in previously abandoned warehouses Downtown.  The artist living in these buildings would have to hide or disguise their living situations from inspectors from the fire department and other government officials.

When the government finally realized that the artists were not going to move away from their beloved loft spaces in 1981, the government passed the Artist in Residence ordinance (AIR).  AIR allowed artist to legally live in buildings that maintained building and safety standards. 

A side effect of the AIR was an increase in loft prices.  What once sold for 30 cents or less per square foot was now $1.00 per square foot.  Another side effect was an increase in demand for galleries.  By the 1980s there were so many galleries in the Warehouse/Arts District that there were bus tours of the area for tourists and natives alike. 

In the 2000s there are over 1200 live/work loft in the area and hundreds more in the surrounding communities.  By the turn of the 21st Century, the popularity of the neighborhood started attracting more wealthy residents looking for the "artist lifestyle." However, many of the recent residential developments have been done by real estate developers, as opposed to artists themselves.  

The area has a new sense of vitality. Tattooed kids and the painters from the old days (which in these parts, means the '70s and '80s) frequent the same hangouts, murals provide splashes of color, lush rooftop gardens hint at the residential growth, and hip coffee joints and restaurants do a good business.