Week Four • From The Glamorous to the Dejected Skid Row

Covering roughly 4.31 square miles is an area located in downtown Los Angeles known as Central City East, more commonly known as Skid Row. My exploration of Skid Row was a mix between a driving and a walking trip. My first observations of this area wasn't of Skid Row itself, but of the surrounding streets that make up the Garment District (officially known as the Fashion District).

The first, and obvious, characteristic of the Garment District was the vibrancy of color in the form of fabric, clothing, and other products.

As you can see in the pictures above, all of these stores on this street and adjacent streets are "bargain" and low deal shops. They are far from the expensive designer labeled fashion and products found on Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills (which was where I focused last week's post). These stores are clearly targeted towards low income families/individuals and people who are just looking for a good deal. One thing my ears picked up while I walking down the streets of the Garment District is the voices of people haggling storekeepers for a lower price than what was listed. I thought this was very interesting in the fact that this definitely wouldn't pass in the shops found on Rodeo Dr.; you just don't hear people haggling for a lower price on designer label, they automatically pay the base cost because they can easily afford it.

Of the many consumers in the Garment District, I found that most were Hispanic or Latino. Coming in second in respect to number were people of color, then Asian, and lastly very few white. This racial demographic is the complete opposite from what I saw on Rodeo Dr. and the surrounding streets/residential zones in Beverly Hills.

The Garment District, however, was more of just a brief stop, my main focus being Skid Row. As my dad and I drove into the area known for its high number of homeless persons, the first thing to enter my head was how awfully dreary it is. Quite frankly it was dull, cast in a depressing shadow, and far from a happy vacation spot. But despite knowing this and expecting it, seeing it first hand was a whole different experience from just reading and seeing pictures about it.

Moving more into the middle of Skid Row.

Unlike Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills, this area barely had any trees and the few it did have seemed just as disheartened as the people "living" there. Quite vastly different from just a few streets over was that the majority of people lingering in Skid Row were colored, specifically of African American origin. The second thing I noticed was how there were police officers and public safety personals riding around on their bikes. I saw none of this on Rodeo Dr. which leads me to conclusion that this area filled with poverty, unfortunately, breeds crime.

Another observation I made in regards to the layout of people in Skid Row was how the areas around buildings providing some sort of public service (food, shower, bathroom, rescue center, etc.) were the most densely populated. There would be sections of streets that were bare, with maybe a few people here and there, but majority of them congregated near these service buildings and near each other.

As we slowly drove around the streets that make of Skid Row, it was hard not to compare what I saw there to what I saw on Rodeo Dr. The social differences were on completely different sides of the spectrum. This instantly reminded me of the object relations theory conveyed in David Sibley's "Mapping the Pure and Defiled".

According to the editor's introduction to Sibely's writings, the object relations theory expresses that "individuals as well as groups form positive identities of themselves through a process of excluding other individuals and groups thought to be deviant. Through establishing physical, psychological, and social boundaries, the polluting Other is kept at bay, and the Self is constructed as whole and pure."

While the racial and economic segregation between Rodeo Dr. (Beverly Hills) and Skid Row may not be, at present, purposely or lawfully enforced, it is clear that each group has been, in a way, forced into their 'respective' niche. Because of their low to no income, "residents" in Skid Row are not financially able to live comfortably in the glamour of places such as Beverly Hills while people in well-off to wealthy areas stray far away from locations that are heavily populated by homeless people in dirty, run down streets with hardly to no consumerist and quality lifestyle services.

Much like how Sibley describes Europeans' desire to be as far away from the "uncivilized blacks", these sections are distinctly separated from each other even when only about twelve miles apart. They in no way overlap or impede on the other and it feels exactly as if it's "Us" versus "Them".

On a final note, I wanted to end this on a short story of what occurred during my exploration of Skid Row. After taking the above photo, I had just hopped back into the car and closed the door when an African American woman approached me. She was clearly not happy, having assumed I was specifically taking a picture of her. She was quite enraged, calling me by derogatory names, demanding why I was taking a picture of her, and ending it all with a rather hard hit to my car window with her umbrella. Despite my calm and polite reassurance that I wasn't photographing her, she walked away still in anger, spitting "bitch" in my direction as I looked back at my dad in surprise.

It was an encounter I should probably have been expecting, but nonetheless did not. However, it made me think about something in regards to the mental health of the people living on the streets of Skid Row (and really any location overwhelmed with poverty). This woman was definitely psychologically ill in some way or possibly just pushed into paranoia and depression. But it made me realize that every person living in poverty was sure to be in the same position, that poverty changed them negatively and maybe even drastically; or just as so, perhaps it was their mental state itself that lead them into a poor lifestyle and on the streets. Whichever it may be, the fact still stands that areas like Skid Row are clear examples of the social, racial, and economic injustice that exists in our world.