Photos: Downtown L.A. is now DTLA

Los Angeles’ skyline glitters at night. The Downtown Center Business Improvement District heavily pushed the use of the hashtag “#dtla” on Twitter when the social networking site formally adopted hashtags. Now the Internet teems with the initialism. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Jan. 19, 2015 3 AM PT

Shorthand for “downtown Los Angeles,” the initialism DTLA crept into the Angeleno lexicon over the past several years, a hashtag-friendly name that initially gained traction online and then bled into real life.

Friends gather for a selfie using a remote on a cellphone at 2nd and Spring streets during a recent Art Walk in downtown Los Angeles. They said they would be using the #dtla hashtag on their social media sites.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Patrons enjoy a food truck stop during Art Walk in downtown Los Angeles. The abbreviation DTLA captures the ethos of the emerging downtown, with its trendy lofts and burgeoning nightlife and arts scene. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Street artists stop by a booth and sign a guest book using their artist logos. The initialism DTLA is not just a thing with newcomers. The name has also become an essential piece of the rebranding of once-drab, now-hip downtown L.A. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Art lovers take in the works along Spring Street during a recent Art Walk. Dozens of businesses have tacked DTLA onto either end of their names. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

DTLA stickers are posted to a pole on Spring Street. Places often adopt new names when they gentrify, such as SoHo in New York City and SoMa in San Francisco. Like DTLA, the shorthand becomes synonymous with the area’s revitalization.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Hare Krishna devotees chant along Spring Street during Art Walk. A fairly obvious abbreviation, DTLA had been tucked away in the L.A. vernacular for years. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Muralist Robert Vargas, right, paints portraits on Spring Street during a recent Art Walk. When Twitter’s character limit placed a new value on pithiness, DTLA stood out as the shortest way to refer to downtown. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Patrons dine at KazuNori at 4th and Main streets during a recent Art Walk. When Instagram created a global audience for photos of cocktails and beet salads, DTLA became a way to specify in which city’s downtown the pictures were taken. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Galleries exhibit their collections during a downtown Art Walk. Now, more than 30 businesses in Los Angeles feature DTLA somewhere in their names. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)