My granddad used to pick up homeless guys and teach him a trade in construction. He helped a lot of young homeless men out of the streets and make a living for themselves.
It seems a no-brainer to have a federal jobs program that employs people to build (and learn to build) affordable housing, to help solve the homeless problem. I am guessing that there are real estate lobbyists that like things just the way they are, and besides, the pentagon needs every last nickel, screw the homeless and working poor..
@@toidIllorTAmIdo you understand how government subsidies work? Bottom line is, poverty is used as a tool of control in this country . Always has been, always will be
Very informative. Thank you! It's amazing that every resident of Los Angeles County knows what Skid Row is, but yet never knew what Skid Row was.. And to not understand what Skid Row was, is to not understand it at all....
You're right... I had absolutely no idea what Skid Row was, which is why I clicked on this video. And I'm so glad I did because now I do. I'm 44 years old and never knew this about my city. This was wonderfully educational. They just don't teach you this kind of thing in school, sadly.
Anyone who enjoys this kind of video should think about studying Public History. You go deep into these issues and it's incredible to learn the motivations of the good and bad characters that have shaped the modern world
The Spanish displaced the Native people, then they were displaced. Look up Roman history they took over almost all the known world at that time. They kept slaves, systematic genocide. Yet somehow they get a pass when they made Nazi Germany look like rookies.
I'm just trying to find out if there will ever be a solution to clean up these areas! I live about an hour away from Kensington avenue in Philadelphia and it is horrific! People losing limbs over the drug TRANQ IT IS EATING PEOPLE ALIVE!
They are not fleeing so much as being sent by judges in small towns .It works like this the judge will say "We have this nice warm jail cell or a bus ticket to nice warm Ca it is your choice."
This was posted eight years ago. I would love to see an update on the public policies he has talked about - have things gotten worse or better? (My hypothesis is that things have gotten worse but what do I know I am just a regular citizen.) I wonder why more basic Americans aren’t concerned about public policy? I went through American public schools, college and graduate school and I don’t know anything about it.
Americans are taught that all problems are solved at the Federal level, in D.C., by Congress and the White House. They are not taught about city, county, and state government in school. And that is where all of the most impactful decisions are made. To be educated in those matters, at a city, county, and state level, takes individual effort. Most people are too busy working 2 jobs and living pay check to pay check to have the time it takes to be well read on those subjects. Everyone looks to Congress every time there is a problem and the people at the lower rungs of government, who are always eye'ing a seat at the big table in D.C., do things that impress other politicians and lobbyists, not their constituents.
Very interesting analysis. I have to imagine that the impact of leaded gasoline was also important here. Lead spewed in exhaust poisoned the brains of a lot of young people (there's tons of research on this, look it up) and made them more inclined to commit crime. Just imagine if you grew up in the inner city around a lot of truck exhaust in this period! But because the US banned leaded gas in the mid-1970s, by the early 1990s you had a whole generation of kids who had grown up without that influence. As a result, crime rates fell dramatically (crime in LA is down 75% from the early 90s) and that led to people wanting to move back into the city (like the "arts district" as mentioned here). I doubt that skid row can survive that change. The real estate location is just too valuable.
Good report i didn't know the Storie of sky row 💙 thank you for opening My eyes to this Very painful Inviroment for People to call Home America has so Many super rich People's that Could help People like them Good blessed Them all 😢😅 How do they do When the weather changes from hot to cold and The heavy rains. When im in my Bed i thinking of all this people and Fell Sad for them.
So this all stemmed from the beginning of the Railroad and it all unfolded in to agriculture to needing hotels residential homes, then 2nd ww men needed for work in military... Thanks alot Railroad you turned an insect in to a growing Ugly monster.....geez
Nice history lesson, but it’s from the agency that stole half of downtown LA. City Redevelopment Agency is responsible for some of the most shameful practices of removing the poor and elderly from their own property and giving us such urban ‘hits’ like the LA Convention Center- the largest convention center by acreage of any in the country. Good for them for addressing the history of hot-topic skid row right now, but just know that there used to be thriving- though poorer- neighborhoods all over downtown. They took the land from the poor and give them a Jumbotron. Interesting that they want to talk about skid row, as if all of poorer downtown was skid row. The CRA is possibly the most powerful unelected civic body in the State. There are other voices to this history.
The correct term is “Skid Road,” because the original was a literal road, Yesler Way in Seattle. “Row” probably came into use because some careless reporter got it wrong.
Prof. Spivac can't help but generalize. Solutions don't come from perceptions of who skid row is generally meant for. Generalization is a large part of the problem. Sending people out of skid row is simply farming the problem out to people who usually aren't qualified to deal with it. The behaviors won't just dissipate when it comes to criminals who've pretty much taken over. It pains me to think so many lives have been wasted because of a criminal mentality leading people to ruin and making escape impossible for them.
A great history lesson on the Los Angeles area and so well spoken you just want to listen to this gentleman. He calls it the way it is without adding any political cliches.
I just want to point out that the presenter was incredibly well spoken and eloquent. Part of my work is in the public relations field, what I wouldn't give to have his speaking skills.
I’ve made a lot of documentary films on local things such as this. My guess is that Donald Spivack’s speaking skills are at least in part due to immense knowledge of the subject. When you know something inside out, and mix that with a natural ability to speak and attention to detail, speaking this well can look (but isn’t) easy.
I was born and raise in skid row we lived on 7th and san pedro. I also went to 9th st elementary. All the families that lived there would have their kids either go to 9th st or to a place called para los niños. Thank God for alot of those programs that are in place to help out the folk that need it.
God bless you, @josepartida95. I pray you and those you love are well and in a good place. My adult son has schizophrenia, and being misunderstood and not helped by his family here in Maine, he left here 3 years ago. He ended up in Skid Row in LA for awhile. It's a rough place to live, but he got by. I'm sure it was not an easy place to grow up in.❤
I grew up in the LA skidrow area between 1957 to 1973. The Los Angeles CRA (Comunity Redevelopment Agency) forced us all out of our homes. We were all scattered into the wind. It was a relatively tight knit group of residents. We all knew which resident would always take up the leadership if there was ever a serious situation affecting the entire neighborhood.
This is from 8 years ago... since then the crisis of Skid Row has spread like a cancer to every community in the LA County area due to the lack of responsible local governmental authority.
How embarrassing to watch such an insightful, nuanced video only to comment something so ignorant and baseless. Do you actually care about the real world?
His name is Donald Spivack. A very well educated and plain speaking gentleman. Nice job. on a very tough subject. I grew up hearing the term Skid Row, and I never thought it was a literal neighborhood designation. A very sad and hopeless part of city life that exists now everywhere.
by looking at Skid Row in its current condition, i would say that whoever is in charge of the situation there has failed tremendously and does not have any grasp on how to handle the illness it is.
@@absurd_patience turn N.Dakota into a Homeless Reform State and ship all sidewalk sleepers there. use federal funding for mental health, education, rehabilitation for that one state and they get released from that state by passing several standards tests and multiple evaluations and sign offs with employment of some sort and a housing plan they must adhere to. repeat offenders get sent to an Alaskan or Chicago facility.
I agree that outlying communities need to put up housing & services when servicing families with children. Skid row is no place for children. I took in my husbands step nephew when we married after the boy suffered extreme tragedies down there where his mother had been raped & eventually killed.
So this guy had a job with a 30 year time span, his whole function was to fix Skid Row, and he’s sitting here talking about the 90s being the last time a decision was made. What the hell did he do this whole time? Just another totally ineffectual California government employee.
The very first thing that should be done is to get the mentality I'll people back to a facility that can maintain their needs Retract Ronald Regans move to abolish these kinds of places. That would help enormously. After this is accomplished, then we can get a better view of the next step. One of the biggest deterrence is our government.
That's not true, Skid Row is an area of itself. Sure there's homeless all over Los Angeles and other cities in L.A. County. But nothing like this heavily populated area of Skid Row.
CA cities like SF Bay Area and LA are main tourist attractions for the homeless. Many homeless are from other states, and were given one way tickets, or many heard of the free handouts being given, which attracted them to come (of course, better weather). Millions of dollars (possibly a couple billions) were spent to assist the homeless. The unfortunate thing is, many organizations helping the homeless benefited from the fundings given to them. It was a way to create a job security for themselves, which why they protect the homeless and ask for more funding needed. The answer to this is to use most of the funding to assist the homeless, and send them back to the community of their origin. The burden can’t be put on these high concentrated communities. And the organization need to be held accountable for the funds used.
Great history review, and very sad. A society's greatness is measured in how those at the bottom are cared for, or not, in this situation. Now we have skid rows in multiple cities. We are not doing great.
Curious of your example of a great society that is exemplary in how "those at the bottom are cared for"? The greatest societies have no safety net so you must take part and not drain. Even today, the most progressive societies are embracing suicide, abortion, and child abuse. To clarify: the low sentences for harming a child show our values around protecting them.
But it’s also important for a society to do everything they can to limit and encourage those at the bottom to uplift themselves and not encourage or enable personal destructive behavior
This man is very intelligent. So knowledgeable about this subject matter. It’s amazing how vast his knowledge base was. And is. Really interesting. They need to really listen to him. Believe him. Now.
It’s even worse now. I wonder how bad it will get? There’s already chaos and lawlessness, how much lower can it go? Its hard to fathom what else can go wrong.
A lot worse. The government forcing business closures will cause poverty on huge scales. Add to that people like bill gates buying up farm land and not farming will result in lack of food. That’s already happening. The government is not your friend
This David Spivek road a government paycheck, virtue signaled and got nothing accomplished for Skid Row. Like most of the idiots in the Hell hole called California.
I once sang there at the Res ue Mission for these guys when I was 19 with a friend of mine, Dean McClure, who would go to sing and preach to them about Jesus. It seems that nothing ever changes. There will always be a need for support and help. Now at 78, I hope even my small contribution so many decades ago helped at least one person.
The Rescue Mission, Midnight Mission, Gravy Joe -- they all endeavored to aid and comfort a lot of people. Anyone who detracts from the "religious" aspect is mean-spirited and clueless. I have always benefited greatly from those with more of "Jesus" in their souls than the sort of desperate ignorance we have at present. I am not a dedicated soul. But I keep my own faith, and let others do the same. Peace.
“Communities of high tolerance” is an interesting term. In my observation, all of the cities I have lived in and paid taxes in since I left suburban New Jersey at age 20 in 1974 have functioned as “communities of high tolerance” for the more affluent “regions” they exist within. Every region in America seems to need the low-income communities on the “wrong side of the tracks” that absorb the destitute working poor and mentally ill. Well off people have sexual abuse, mental illness, substance abuse issues and business / livelihood failures also. They just also have resources that can cushion the fall and keep them from landing unhoused and on the street.
Curious photo @10:35. Spivack talks about violence while showing damaged cars suggestive of a link, but abandoned cars were used as shelter and there is nothing presented to indicate a link between the cars and any violence. Photo is at Fourth and Omar Streets from 1954. Car in foreground has been burned out. Accidentally? Intentionally? By a homeless person or by someone opposing homeless sleeping in jalopies? So maybe there is violence related to the image, but if so you can't say by whom. There's a building there now, but people are still people sleeping on that very corner. How is concentrating services in one location for a very large region ever not a problem? As long as every part of a region has a skid row to push people to they will without regard for the capacity of the skid row's services. Sidenote: Skid Row is in the shadow of the iconic LAPD City Hall but rarely do you ever get a perspective of their spatial relationship from pop media.
All over the World, every city can boast a " Skid Row " ... Real Estate prices hit rock bottom, hence the process of " Gentrification " is activated. Kings Cross , Sydney being a recent example in Australia. Although many Services still exist to cater for the underclass largely gravitating to the area Some say this is true in pockets, in others Apartments/Units can easily demand $1 - 3 m. All in all it makes for an interesting Social mix.
8 years ago, everybody seemed optimistic, but now it's just a big heaping pile of trash robbery and expensive living, which baffles me Why would people want to live there? Who pay $4000 a month for a studio and every time you go into your fancy apartment, you have to shuu way the vagrant.
Central you spend 30 years working in urban development and wow they. They didn't fire you because the evidence shows why we have this problems because they have you working on it for 30 years. I've lived here for 40 years. The city has only gotten worse they should have fired you a lot sooner
So should every city have its own "Skid Row" where folks are "deported" back to their original city? This video was from 8 years ago, where cities other than LA are getting hammered by homelessness. It would be nice to see an update on this.
Unfortunately lot of the old prejudices populated this video. The number one is alcoholism. It has been shown since the 70-s that alcoholism is a result of living on skid row, not a cause of, generally. The other is education. The long-held view that most of skid row residents are illiterate, was also shown false. In fact skid row had higher percentage of college educated residents than the general population, not rarely Ivy League or other elite college graduates among them. While the face of skid row is the elderly single male, there are also a lot of women - except they are much better at covering their tracks that they live on skid row. The crucial insight into skid row was found in breakthrough studies in the 70-s when the large skid rows of America, e.g. the Bowery of New York, that was home to thousands of residents and was a city of its own, was a social phenomena that drew national attention. What they found was that people who have no family, no relatives, are socially hard to fit, suffer from depression, are the most likely candidates for skid row, irrespective of education, jobs, gender or race. Thats why skid row is always with us.
I had a girlfriend when I was a teen who had a flower shop in Malibu and I would go to there at 5 am to buy flowers so that she would not have to go alone ,that was in 1979 nothing has changed except that there were many people who died during aids now there are different problems. The church has less money to spend on people now that they are paying settlements out to the people they harmed so less help is able to be given .
He did not mention the people who immigrated from China to help build the railroad and and Chinatown. Also people from Mexico who were farm workers during the bracero movement. And people from the Japanese community that were sent to internment camps. Also some people of color were not allotted their benifits from GI bill or were discriminated against when trying to find decent housing for their families. Also the closing of mental health facilities
His math was off at the beginning of this presentation. He said the natives were here for 10 thousand years, when the flood happened about 4 thousand years ago, and another couple of thousand years before any one arrived on to this side of the world.
Skid Row anywhere, not just LA, is or was a temporary haven for the displaced, a retirement possibility where one could achieve something like dignified poverty in old age, a resource base for the newly arrived or lost seeking reentry into "regular" society. For a host of reasons, according to a hundred theories, in spite of mountains of sociological, economic, and historical data -- none of the foregoing statements is true or even a possibility nowadays. Significantly, there is very little of a "regular" anything to reenter. Skid Row is a black hole, spiraling into sickness and death, filled with corpses, a buffet for disturbingly large and assertive rats. I have survived there on several occasions over the years. To the unenlightened: Congratulations. None of this would be possible without your earnest and dedicated participation
When you’re a little kid growing up in America, you think when you see these old Spanish missions you think wow how beautiful and wonderful and how great they were for the people they were not great. Everybody gets upset with Europeans for what they did to America, but if it wasn’t for us doing it, it would’ve been the Spanish because the Spanish completely’s subjugated and enslaved the Native Americans through the mission system. You don’t learn any of that in American history classes or at least in the classes I went to as a kid and people still white wash it and act like the Spanish for some wonderful people and we kick their ass and now that we stole their possessions that’s not true the Spanish and the Mexicans lost out in the Europeans one but now Latin America’s take him back over, literally threw illegal immigration
