Skid Row

:For other uses of the word Skid Row see Skid Row (disambiguation).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The American term skid row is used to refer to the rundown area of a city where alcoholics and vagrants congregate. There is a formally identified Skid Row in Seattle and Los Angeles as well as informally identified districts in almost every major American city, such as The Bowery in New York City. The term was memorialized in the song Skid Row from the musical Little Shop of Horrors.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The first skid row was Skid Road (Yesler Way) in Seattle, where logs were skidded into the water for delivery to Henry Yesler's lumber mills. After the onset of the Great Depression, the area went into decline, and skid row became synonymous with being a bad neighborhood.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia, with a Skid Row on the north end of Main Street, also traditionally holds that their own Skid Row was the first. Seattle and Vancouver are geographical and cultural neighbours, and their Skid Rows went through roughly parallel development.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Seattle's Skid Row today has been gentrified, and in 1970 was designated as the Pioneer Square Historic District.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Los Angeles's Skid Row, in an area of downtown Los Angeles known as Central City East, is home to one of the largest stable populations of transient persons in the United States. Informal population estimates range from 7,000 to 8,000. First-time visitors to this area are often shocked by the sight of the cardboard box and camping tent shantytowns lining the sidewalks; the juxtaposition with the gleaming glass-sheathed skyscrapers on nearby Bunker Hill is quite striking. A common joke about the high prices of houses and taxes in Los Angeles city and county limits is that, "you can't even buy a cardboard box for that price" (with "that price" being a modest budget with which an individual seeks to secure housing). L.A.'s Skid Row is sometimes called the "Nickel," because it is centered on Fifth Street. Most of the city's homeless and social service providers (such as Midnight Mission, Union Rescue Mission and Downtown Women's Center) are based on Skid Row. While downtown Los Angeles has gone through a revitalization in recent years, it has mostly skipped over the Skid Row neighborhood.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vancouver's poorest neighbourhood is called Skid Row, or more commonly, the Downtown Eastside. It is wedged between Downtown, Chinatown and Gastown so tightly that tourists are always wandering in by accident (usually more alarming than harming). The human misery caused by drug abuse is shocking; politicians have won and lost on the strength of their plans to solve the problem humanely, without pushing the addicts into other people's neighbourhoods. Developers have had to take this sentiment into account also. The neighbourhood itself is quite colourful, full of strong politics, vivid murals, and interesting, dilapidated old buildings.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Compare Millionaires' Mile

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alcoholics: REDIRECT alcoholism...

Vagrants: REDIRECT Vagrancy (people)...

Los Angeles: United States...

Skid Row related Images and Photos (experimental)

Row Row Row	Preacher's Kid (DVD)	Preacher's Kid (Blu-ray)	Young Donovan's Kid
Park Row	In a Row	Rotten Row	Cannery Row (1982)
The Row Tiree	Row of Leaves	Park Row Leeds	Row of Trees I