Those new residents moving into downtown Los Angeles are transforming the demographics of the formerly downtrodden enclave, according to a new report released Monday by the Downtown Center Business Improvement District.
The survey, conducted by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., found that residents who moved into downtown apartments and condominiums built since 2000 have median household incomes of about $90,000. Almost 8 percent of residents have median household incomes over $200,000.
By comparison, U.S. Census Bureau figures for median household income in Beverly Hills was $70,945 in 2000. The median household income for all of Los Angeles County was $42,189 in 2000, Census data shows.
A total of 2,128 survey forms were distributed in 16 downtown residential developments built since 2000. A total of 370 forms were returned, representing 588 residents. Males made up 53.8 percent and singles made up 56.8 percent of the responses. (According to LAEDC estimates, there are about 23,894 downtown L.A. residents altogether.)
Just under half of those surveyed have jobs downtown, with the largest percentage of those jobs 22.1 percent in the business and professional services sector.
Of the new residents, 20.6 percent said they lived in “Mid-City” prior to moving downtown, and 19.3 percent arrived from outside of California. Another 14.7 percent used to live in West Los Angeles or Beverly Hills. About 60 percent of those surveyed said they were white; 17.1 percent said they were Asian or Pacific Islander; 8.3 percent said they were Latino and 5.2 percent said they were black. About 90 percent of the new residents interviewed said they lived permanently downtown.
The survey also found that the number of business establishments downtown had risen to nearly 13,000, from 10,332 when last counted in 1991. Private-sector employment was at 201,000 jobs, slightly below the 204,000 counted in 1991. But given the exodus of large public companies from downtown in the years following the last count, the survey called the current number of jobs “extraordinary.”
In addition, there were nearly 250,000 government jobs in the downtown area.