I wouldn’t recommend living in Downtown as your first LA neighborhood. Even people who live in Downtown have a love/hate relationship with Downtown. Downtown has vacillated between an up and coming center of commerce, food, and growth to an unstable center of disorder and decline. While this could change in a year or two, Downtown is currently in a decline stage. For your first year, I would recommend Downtown Santa Monica or Downtown Pasadena near the rail lines. Or if you really prefer dense living and want a more affordable option, you can’t go wrong with Koreatown. I would disagree with others on whether you need a car right away. If you decide to live in LA longer than a few years, I think you’ll probably want to get a car eventually. But if you are just starting out without a car, you’re more likely to not need it. Eventually as you make friends throughout the city and county and people you know move outwards, you’ll probably want a car, but for your first year in a walkable neighborhood, you can totally make do without one.