On a recent quiet Monday afternoon in downtown Long Beach, the proliferation of new housing developments amid century-old brick office towers was striking. The wide boulevards of downtown, which are home to both national chain restaurants like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and spirited independent eateries (consider the somewhat unnervingly-named pizza joint The 4th Horseman, or the charms of Anna’s Joint deli and bar), combine the walkability of a pre-car city with the lingering miasma of the post-pandemic commercial slump. Simply put, it bears all the markers of a city on the cusp of a population explosion.
Unlike some of its other coastal peers, Long Beach is purposefully welcoming not only higher density housing but also adaptive reuse projects, as evidenced by the recent approval of the 110 and 115 Pine Avenue projects (as well as the conversion of 400 Oceangate into market-rate apartments). Even better, most of these developments are being built near mass transit.
“We updated our general plan to focus on new housing and new development to be located most intensely along major transit stops and commercial corridors well-served by bus service,” Planning Bureau Manager Alison Spinder-Ruiz of the Long Beach Planning Bureau explained to LA Digs via phone. The plan is focused on taking advantage of changes in state law, such as AB-2097, which make it easier to build denser housing projects within a half mile of a major transit stop without having to provide a minimum number of parking spaces for future residents.
Although additional parking spaces may sound good in theory, their inclusion can often dramatically increase the budget for new development projects, thereby adding yet another barrier for creating much-needed housing. Plus, when attempting to create a walkable downtown, it helps if people are actually walking.
“Transportation tends to be the top form of emissions,” Spinder-Ruiz continued, alluding to the fact that the transit-oriented development is contained within a broader effort to help reduce adverse climate impacts. She also mentioned that adaptive reuse is an excellent solution to an overabundance of commercial office space. “Commercial vacancies do continue to be an issue in downtown, so from our perspective it’s important that our regulatory framework has that option to be able to do adaptive reuse.”
In 2023, the Metro A line’s northern terminus was extended to Azuza via what had formerly been known as the Gold Line’s route. This 48.5-mile stretch, which is the longest light rail route in the world, now makes it possible for commuters to travel without transferring from Azuza through downtown Los Angeles to the final stop in downtown Long Beach.
The city’s bus system is fairly robust, too—well-traveled lines such as the 61 tend to run every ten minutes, helping commuters easily access far-flung parts of the city. The sheer size of Long Beach—it is slightly over 80 square miles, and features not only land but significant stretches of water due to its port—makes it the second largest city in Los Angeles County, and the 44th largest city in the United States.
According to ridership figures provided by LA Metro, the A line had an estimated ridership of 67,490 people during an average weekday in February 2025, which is an increase from the 61,342 weekday riders in Feburary 2024, and nearly double the pre-Azuza extension ridership figures of 36,979 per weekday in February 2023. Even during times of disruption, this particular transit corridor runs relatively smoothly, making it an excellent spine for continued development.
On Monday, March 10, a fire near the Pico station in downtown LA had led to some disruptions in the A line’s service, but passengers were still able to get where they needed to go with relatively minimal wait times. Several stations, such as the Artesia and Willowbrook/Rosa Parks stops, also have easily accessible bus bays directly adjoining the stations. Passengers can quickly disembark from the train and hop on a bus without having to navigate traffic or stand awkwardly on an unshaded street corner (an unfortunate yet frequent feature of the LA Metro bus system at large).
Long Beach is surprisingly accessible via transit from Los Angeles’ Westside, as well—the C line, which is slated to connect via the K line with the LAX People Mover when it finally opens in 2026, joins the A line at the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks station. This easy, car-free access to LAX and downtown Los Angeles, combined with a central city core that is eagerly welcoming more housing, seems to indicate that Long Beach has a very populous future.
