SKID ROW, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

'Skid Row' is an area of Downtown Los Angeles. The area, officially known as Central City East, is home to one of the largest stable populations of transient persons in the United States.^[1] Informal population estimates range from 7,000 to 8,000. First-time visitors to this area used to immediately see cardboard box and camping tents lining the sidewalks. According to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the official boundaries of skid row are Third and Seventh Streets to the north and south and Alameda and Main Streets to the east and west, respectively.^[2] Now, because of heavy involvement with the missions downtown (Union Rescue Mission, LA Mission, Midnight Mission, etc.), LAPD[1], and the Mayor's office, the landscape has dramatically changed from mid-2006 to current.
Still, the juxtaposition of 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 is that "you can't even buy a cardboard box for that price" (with "that price" being a budget that would pay for housing in many other parts of the country).
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 Union Rescue Mission, Downtown Women's Center, Frontline Foundation, and Midnight Mission, are based on Skid Row.
The name is official enough that fire engines and ambulances serving the neighborhood have historically had "Skid Row" emblazoned on their sides. On 1 June 2006, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that fire officials planned to change the legend on the vehicles to read "Central City East". Many residents supported the change, but it was opposed by firefighters and some residents who take pride in the sense that they live in a tough place.[2]
In 2005, 2006 and 2007, several local hospitals (including but not limited to Kaiser Permanente and Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center) and suburban law enforcement agencies were accused by Los Angeles Police Department and other officials of transporting those homeless people in their care to Skid Row. [3]
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References

References

1. John Edwin Fuder, ''Training Students for Urban Ministry: An Experiential Approach.'' Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock (2001).
2. The Ninth Circuit