Skid Row: Poverty In Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California, a beautiful city known for its glamourous celebrities, beautiful palm trees, huge Hollywood sign and luxury homes. California is home to millions of people and has many tourist attractions. Los Angeles is known for its scenic beaches along the Pacific Ocean, but it is not known for having poverty and homeless roaming around. The city that is home to the iconic “Hollywood” is filled with glamour; the glamourous nature of this city does very little to cover the dark side of poverty. Poverty is a great issue in California that people seem to overlook such a great problem. Instead of fixing the problem, the Los Angeles Police Department tries to contain the homeless population to fifty blocks of poverty a neighborhood known

However, according to LaChamber.com back in the 1870’s Skid Row was a place of work. Railroads were new in America by the 1860’s and helped stabilize families economically by providing (predominantly males) a job. Many of the railroad workers migrated to downtown Los Angeles. As railroads became a great demand, a lot of the railroad workers left their home and began living in Los Angeles. By the 1880’s a lot of small hotels began to open as well as bars and whorehouses, because the area was predominantly single male workers it gave the males a place to live and some entertainment. As of the 1930’s the Great Depression occurred causing many people to migrant Midwest and south of California. A lot of these people did not have money for homes, they were known as “bums” and “homeless.” As time progressed, World War II occurred, followed by the Vietnam War. Once both wars were over, the population in what is known now as Skid Row prolonged. Many of the veterans began to settle at Skid Row because they were emotionally damaged, needed an easy way of finding drugs and cheap alcohol. The communities surrounding Skid

According to Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space written by Mike Davis, “official policy has transformed Skid Row into probably the most dangerous ten square blocks in the world (289).” Skid Row has a great population filled with adults, teenagers and with children. The new generations are the ones suffering in poverty because this is what they are growing up in, majority will think that there is no way out and have a “hood mentality.’ For Skid Row to be known as one of the most dangerous ten square blocks in the world and be close to Downtown Los Angeles is really terrifying. If the population were to continue growing, then all of downtown will soon be predominantly dangerous. According to the article, as night time approaches, many of the homeless seek for a safer environment, however the Los Angeles Police Department attempts to contain them. The police department feels as if the homeless will get comfortable in all of Los Angeles resulting in poverty all over the city instead of ten square blocks. Homeless people are extremely restricted in their hometown. Los Angeles has gotten rid of benches in the parks and bus stops and made the sitting accommodations to where people have to sit on the benches instead of laying down. Resulting in “bums” not sleeping anywhere, but where they are allowed, Skid Row. Restrooms have been a restriction as well. Los