I was thinking the exact same thing when I was at that point. One thing is not to worry too much about levelling up a whole bunch - the enemies are really, really strong in this area. Stronger here than what the enemies are in the next area. If you want to level up easily, though, do this:
Through the EVS, go to the U-TIC battleship (the one you raid as Junior)
Keep heading right until you encounter the doors that required you to blow up the generators to get in to. In the room in the top-right corner, there should be a guy who doesn't attack you until you go to him called Ace Pilot. He'll start out on foot and really easy to kill, then he'll go into his AGWS, which is still not much of a challenge. He's easy to kill and gives pretty good experience and money.