Skid Row is an Official and Very Real Place
When I was younger I thought “Skid Row” was a mythical or metaphorical space, created from a song, a book, or a poem. It was only when I visited Los Angeles that I found that it wasn’t just a long gone city district now enshrined in myth. Discoveries like this are all part of coming of age in an insular community like Fairbanks, once you get out there are constant revelations as reality bumps up against small town assumptions.
Skid Row is very real, and it’s officially designated due to a court case against an anti-camping ordinance. So just like the Favelas in Brazil where the poor bump up against luxury mansions just across the wall, we have places in the US where the ghetto or the urban hobo camp meets the gentrification projects.
As Downtown LA Grows, So Does Urgency to Fix Skid Row : NPR
MP3 Audio
In the hot midday Southern California sun, the place stinks of urine, human excrement and garbage. Last year, there was a major outbreak of tuberculosis.
” A sense of shame is really motivating people to finally address this issue …
- Blair Besten, Historic Core Business Improvement District
A lot of people want to fix Skid Row, but how it’s done is extremely controversial. And as downtown Los Angeles develops, it’s a problem that’s become more and more urgent.
Leah, who didn’t want to give her last name, sells cigarettes along Skid Row. She says she’s seen some changes lately.
“The cops are starting to crack down more, I guess ‘cause they want to clean up down here to make it better for people to live,” she says. “But this is Skid Row; it’s always going to be Skid Row.”
More: As Downtown LA Grows, So Does Urgency to Fix Skid Row : NPR