They Gained a View and Lost a Commute : Downtown: Getting to work is easy from the high-rise apartments and condos in Bunker Hill and South Park. But some complain about a lack of grocery stores and activities after dark.

Stuck in traffic on the Harbor Freeway alongside dozens of other teeth-gritting commuters, Carol and Daniel Mishell looked out their car window one day and saw a banner on a luxury Downtown high-rise that read: “If you lived here, you’d be home now.”

It sounded good to the Mishells. So the couple moved out of the expansive Palos Verdes Estates home where they had raised three children and into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium in the Skyline complex at Flower and 9th streets.

Seven years later, the suburbanites-turned-urban dwellers gush about living Downtown, particularly the convenience of walking to upscale restaurants and the new Central Library, the security of their complex and the general hustle and bustle of the metropolis.

“I love it here,” said Carol, 61, as she stood on the balcony of her 11th-floor apartment, looking out over the complex’s gardens and pool below, Grand Hope Park to the east and the Variety Arts Center to the west.

“At the stage my husband and I are in life, to make a (lifestyle) change is stimulating and exciting, rather than staying in the same environment.”

Hundreds of other professionals who work Downtown or in neighboring business districts have likewise forsaken the misery of commuting for the luxury apartment and condo complexes in the Bunker Hill and South Park neighborhood.

While they often sacrificed open space, yards and the convenience of nearby grocery stores and mini-malls, many say it’s a fair trade for five-minute walks to work, residency in luxurious buildings with resort-like swimming pools and 24-hour security, and for some, a breathtaking view of the Downtown skyline.

Living in high-rises with names such as the Metropolitan, the Promenade and Skyline, these residents epitomize the type of upscale urbanite that developers and city leaders for years have sought to attract, in hopes of revitalizing Downtown and reducing commuter traffic.

Indeed, the roughly dozen residential high-rises that have cropped up over the past two decades have apparently filled a need. Property managers at various apartment and condo buildings say they have maintained occupancy rates of 87% to 97%.

Monthly rents typically range from about $650 for a studio to $1,400 for two bedrooms. With the recession, condominium prices have dropped to about $90,000 for a one-bedroom unit, according to local brokers and homeowners. However, luxury condo owners also must endure monthly association fees of $300 to $400, which pay for security, parking, groundskeeping and maintenance.

There are negatives to living Downtown. Most every Downtown resident’s No. 1 complaint is the lack of large grocery stores nearby. The Metropolitan management has organized a Thursday night grocery shopping outing, with a shuttle van that drives about a dozen tenants to markets in Pasadena to stock up on goods.

And although residents said crime is not a big concern, they cautioned against walking through Downtown at night.

High-rise residents interviewed all cited the proximity of their workplaces as the key reason for moving Downtown. For Daniel Mishell, professor and chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the USC School of Medicine in East Los Angeles, the move cut a nearly three-hour round-trip drive that he made for 18 years to only 20 minutes.

Besides easier commutes, residents also praise recent public transportation improvements Downtown, such as the addition of the Red Line subway. “I use Dash (a local city bus), which is wonderful, and use the subway (to go to Union Station) if I want to take the train to San Juan Capistrano to meet my sister,” said Carol Mishell.

While some residents agree with critics who complain that Downtown shuts down after dark and on weekends, others steadfastly maintain that there is much going on in the neighborhood during leisure hours. They cite theaters and showcases such as the Variety Arts Center and the Music Center, numerous museums and art galleries, the bustling, neighboring communities of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, and the openings of the expanded Central Library and Convention Center.

Michael Tande, 31, a resident of the 270-unit Metropolitan building at Flower and Olympic streets, said he enjoys going to the IMAX Theater in Exposition Park, a few miles away, and said “the restaurants are terrific downtown--The Water Grill is one of my favorites.”

Although the Mishells usually go to their longtime second home in Palm Desert on weekends for tennis, swimming and other sports activities, Carol still promotes the many events Downtown, saying she actually feels that she sometimes misses out by being away.

Efforts have been made within some of the apartment complexes to provide social activities, amenities and services to keep residents busy during evening and weekend lulls. The management staff at the Metropolitan regularly organizes tenant parties, offers a Downtown shuttle service and provides a free continental breakfast every weekday.

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Metropolitan tenants have also formed a co-ed softball team and often arrange to meet in groups at the oasis-like complex pool at lunch on workdays, said tenant Joel Lenamon, a 38-year-old banker who walks six blocks to work.

While the rental units tend to draw single and younger professionals, the condominium complexes have a wider array of residents, typically don’t organize regular group activities and offer a less “swinging” lifestyle, as Carol Mishell put it. Mishell said the eclectic mix of neighbors in the 200-unit, 10-year-old Skyline complex includes USC students as well as homeowners of all different ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

As in the suburbs, efforts are made to encourage residents to get involved in the neighborhood and community. For instance, a Residents Against Graffiti group, which gathers to paint out graffiti on Downtown streets, has been formed for residents of Skyline and the neighboring Metropolitan, said John Kelly, Skyline association manager.

Although the Skyline complex also provides such amenities as racquetball courts, a large pool, barbecue grills and a recreation lounge that can be reserved for group parties, Carol Mishell said she seldom uses them.

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Instead, she prefers to walk her two dogs in the neighborhood, shop at nearby malls such as Broadway Plaza and Seventh Marketplace, and meet her two daughters, who work at City Hall, at a Downtown eatery for lunch. She said she spends most of her days in the comfort of her home, reading on the balcony or taking care of family paperwork.

“I actually enjoy the limited space; it’s very manageable and like a cocoon,” she said. “When I was a kid, in the 1940s, I would take the streetcar from Pasadena to Downtown L.A. to visit my father’s office. We lived 24 years or so in Palos Verdes Estates, but now I’ve realized I’m an urban girl at heart.”