History of Skid Row - Followup Questions
Skid Row street at night, 1965.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Business Improvement Districts and their Security Efforts
I assume that that's the point being planned. They're directed primarily to the provision of marketing, safety and security, and cleanliness. Clearly, their primary focus is with the industrial and commercial population. They're not intentionally out there to drive the residential population away, although there's obviously going to be an impact on the population that's on the street. It's going to play out, I would say, at this point.
There has been some sense that as an area brings in a business improvement district (BID) and it starts to clean up, that it kind of forces the street population to go to an area that doesn't have a BID. I think that the experience with the BID’s we've had so far suggests that that's what's happening. But as the proliferate, anything is possible.
One of the things that certainly we're not encouraging is that people get pushed away. One, because it's inhumane, and two, because it only puts them in another area that we're responsible for, so it doesn't save us anything. But that is an issue that's going to have to be played out.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Basis for Retaining Skid Row (“Containment”)
It was because of the experience in other places where you physically wipe out the neighborhood but you don't wipe out the people, and that there was a sense that, one, it was not a real humane thing to do to the people in the neighborhood, and two, it didn't solve the problem, it just moved it somewhere. And that it was at least easier to deal with if it was in an area that you knew and if you planned for it than to just wait and see where it popped up and have to react to it.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Financing Shelters
CRA’s involvement was one piece of it but at least when we were involved we were funding some shelter beds at the Weingart Center, we were funding shelter beds at Skid Row Development Corporation and a few other places. We had a program that funded 420 beds, give or take. We were up to 467 at the maximum. We had a few at sites outside downtown in South Central Los Angeles and in the Mid-City area. There were about five or six locations, so it was less than 500 beds -- over 400, less than 500. Then there were some others that were funded by others.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Basis for CRA Funding of Shelters and the Limitations on CRA Funding at Present
It was litigation. It was properly what we refer to as the “Bernardi Lawsuit” against the approval and adoption of the Central Business District Redevelopment Plan. That litigation, named for former Councilman Ernani Bernardi, one of the litigants, resulted in a stipulated judgment that validated the redevelopment plan and established a lifetime “cap” of $750,000,000 on tax increment receipts in the redevelopment project area. It also proscribed redevelopment area in a geographic area called “Map Book 5151,” essentially the heart of the Financial District around Fifth and Flower Streets. Then there was litigation between the City and County, I think it was like 1984, that I referred to earlier, where the two parties sued each other over who was responsible for the homeless population, who had caused increasing homelessness in Skid Row, with the city accusing the county of doing so by cutting off general relief and other services, and the county blaming the city for displacing people by its code enforcement and redevelopment activities. In addition, under threat of litigation to prevent CRA’s assisting in the rehabilitation of the Central Library (located in the Map Book 5151 area), the CRA agreed to fund the approximately 420 shelter beds referred to above.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Job Opportunities in Central City East
In the short term, there are a whole lot of opportunities because they're almost all very small businesses. They're mom and pop operations, and if they employ one other member of the family, that's about as far as they go. They're all very small. So, you'll find one or two jobs at best in each of those businesses. As some of the businesses evolve and some of the growth is in areas other than toys, electronics, silk flowers and some of those very small businesses, such as more growth in the larger food business and some related things that may be happening there, job opportunities will increase. There are new buyers who have recently taken over the Ryckoff plant at Seventh and Alameda Streets, and you will probably get in that area larger businesses, and I think there will be some additional opportunities.
The reasons that you don't want to lose the industrial base is that there are several thousands of low-income people employed here, which gets into a whole question of homeless vs. welfare to work vs. bottom level not on welfare people. All of them are competing essentially for the same piece of a job market, if there is competition for anything.
If these industries move out of this area, there are several thousands of people who don't have access to transportation to get to where the businesses would be likely to go.
A fellow from the Inland Empire, who's name is Richard Meruelo, bought the Ryckoff buildings. One of his businesses is a furniture manufacturing business, so, I think he's bringing that in, but he's looking for mostly food-related businesses to come in there. That property is immediately adjacent to the wholesale produce market, so it would be a logical extension for activity there.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Something on Businesses
The price certainly had something to do with it, but that type of business does require industrial zoning.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Makeup of Local Business Operators; Job Training
It varies. Many of the smaller merchants are Korean; a lot of them live in Koreatown. There are quite a few that are ethnic Chinese. Some are from China and some are ethnic Chinese from Korea. They live generally in Koreatown, down the Crenshaw Corridor and the ones who are doing real well are down in South Bay.
A couple of places have done training programs, some related to their shelter and some more related to people that agreed to go in their programs. The food missions have done that. The government had an incubator program where they tried to bring in and get some small business formation and provide opportunities for local residents to get trained and have jobs in some of these businesses.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Transients looking for Day Work
There's a known quantity of populations that are clustering at some of these other sites, like down around Pico Boulevard and Main Street.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Evaluation of Progress under CRA
CRA was one of the first players to come down here. I think when you look in terms of where was the neighborhood when we started and where is it today, it's measurably better. It's got a long way to go to be a nice neighborhood, of that there's no question, but if you look back to what it was in the late 1960’s, the late 1970’s, even the early 1980’s, crime stats are a lot less than they used to be. Violent crime is a lot less than it was. There are a couple of thousand fairly decent places for people to live. There are a number of very well run places for people to live. There are parts of the world that there's no problem walking through.
From the perspective of where it started, there's been a lot of improvement. There's nothing from that perspective. Is it finished? No. Is it a lot better? Yes. Should it get a lot better? Yes. Is it going to get a lot better? Let's hope so. CRA has spent about $100 million in the area, most of which went into the housing stabilization, some of which went into the operation of public facilities such as the parks and into the shelters. Eighty ($80) million of the $100 million went into housing, and the investment I believe has been worth it, in terms of not only what they do for people who live in them, but for having stabilized parts of the community because of the clustering. A couple of blocks around some of those locations have, in fact, begun to create, as it were, a neighborhood in this area.
I assume that that's the point being planned. They're directed primarily to the provision of marketing, safety and security, and cleanliness. Clearly, their primary focus is with the industrial and commercial population. They're not intentionally out there to drive the residential population away, although there's obviously going to be an impact on the population that's on the street. It's going to play out, I would say, at this point.
There has been some sense that as an area brings in a business improvement district (BID) and it starts to clean up, that it kind of forces the street population to go to an area that doesn't have a BID. I think that the experience with the BID’s we've had so far suggests that that's what's happening. But as the proliferate, anything is possible.
One of the things that certainly we're not encouraging is that people get pushed away. One, because it's inhumane, and two, because it only puts them in another area that we're responsible for, so it doesn't save us anything. But that is an issue that's going to have to be played out.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Basis for Retaining Skid Row (“Containment”)
It was because of the experience in other places where you physically wipe out the neighborhood but you don't wipe out the people, and that there was a sense that, one, it was not a real humane thing to do to the people in the neighborhood, and two, it didn't solve the problem, it just moved it somewhere. And that it was at least easier to deal with if it was in an area that you knew and if you planned for it than to just wait and see where it popped up and have to react to it.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Financing Shelters
CRA’s involvement was one piece of it but at least when we were involved we were funding some shelter beds at the Weingart Center, we were funding shelter beds at Skid Row Development Corporation and a few other places. We had a program that funded 420 beds, give or take. We were up to 467 at the maximum. We had a few at sites outside downtown in South Central Los Angeles and in the Mid-City area. There were about five or six locations, so it was less than 500 beds -- over 400, less than 500. Then there were some others that were funded by others.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Basis for CRA Funding of Shelters and the Limitations on CRA Funding at Present
It was litigation. It was properly what we refer to as the “Bernardi Lawsuit” against the approval and adoption of the Central Business District Redevelopment Plan. That litigation, named for former Councilman Ernani Bernardi, one of the litigants, resulted in a stipulated judgment that validated the redevelopment plan and established a lifetime “cap” of $750,000,000 on tax increment receipts in the redevelopment project area. It also proscribed redevelopment area in a geographic area called “Map Book 5151,” essentially the heart of the Financial District around Fifth and Flower Streets. Then there was litigation between the City and County, I think it was like 1984, that I referred to earlier, where the two parties sued each other over who was responsible for the homeless population, who had caused increasing homelessness in Skid Row, with the city accusing the county of doing so by cutting off general relief and other services, and the county blaming the city for displacing people by its code enforcement and redevelopment activities. In addition, under threat of litigation to prevent CRA’s assisting in the rehabilitation of the Central Library (located in the Map Book 5151 area), the CRA agreed to fund the approximately 420 shelter beds referred to above.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Job Opportunities in Central City East
In the short term, there are a whole lot of opportunities because they're almost all very small businesses. They're mom and pop operations, and if they employ one other member of the family, that's about as far as they go. They're all very small. So, you'll find one or two jobs at best in each of those businesses. As some of the businesses evolve and some of the growth is in areas other than toys, electronics, silk flowers and some of those very small businesses, such as more growth in the larger food business and some related things that may be happening there, job opportunities will increase. There are new buyers who have recently taken over the Ryckoff plant at Seventh and Alameda Streets, and you will probably get in that area larger businesses, and I think there will be some additional opportunities.
The reasons that you don't want to lose the industrial base is that there are several thousands of low-income people employed here, which gets into a whole question of homeless vs. welfare to work vs. bottom level not on welfare people. All of them are competing essentially for the same piece of a job market, if there is competition for anything.
If these industries move out of this area, there are several thousands of people who don't have access to transportation to get to where the businesses would be likely to go.
A fellow from the Inland Empire, who's name is Richard Meruelo, bought the Ryckoff buildings. One of his businesses is a furniture manufacturing business, so, I think he's bringing that in, but he's looking for mostly food-related businesses to come in there. That property is immediately adjacent to the wholesale produce market, so it would be a logical extension for activity there.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Something on Businesses
The price certainly had something to do with it, but that type of business does require industrial zoning.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Makeup of Local Business Operators; Job Training
It varies. Many of the smaller merchants are Korean; a lot of them live in Koreatown. There are quite a few that are ethnic Chinese. Some are from China and some are ethnic Chinese from Korea. They live generally in Koreatown, down the Crenshaw Corridor and the ones who are doing real well are down in South Bay.
A couple of places have done training programs, some related to their shelter and some more related to people that agreed to go in their programs. The food missions have done that. The government had an incubator program where they tried to bring in and get some small business formation and provide opportunities for local residents to get trained and have jobs in some of these businesses.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Transients looking for Day Work
There's a known quantity of populations that are clustering at some of these other sites, like down around Pico Boulevard and Main Street.
RESPONSE TO QUESTION - Evaluation of Progress under CRA
CRA was one of the first players to come down here. I think when you look in terms of where was the neighborhood when we started and where is it today, it's measurably better. It's got a long way to go to be a nice neighborhood, of that there's no question, but if you look back to what it was in the late 1960’s, the late 1970’s, even the early 1980’s, crime stats are a lot less than they used to be. Violent crime is a lot less than it was. There are a couple of thousand fairly decent places for people to live. There are a number of very well run places for people to live. There are parts of the world that there's no problem walking through.
From the perspective of where it started, there's been a lot of improvement. There's nothing from that perspective. Is it finished? No. Is it a lot better? Yes. Should it get a lot better? Yes. Is it going to get a lot better? Let's hope so. CRA has spent about $100 million in the area, most of which went into the housing stabilization, some of which went into the operation of public facilities such as the parks and into the shelters. Eighty ($80) million of the $100 million went into housing, and the investment I believe has been worth it, in terms of not only what they do for people who live in them, but for having stabilized parts of the community because of the clustering. A couple of blocks around some of those locations have, in fact, begun to create, as it were, a neighborhood in this area.
Photograph from the Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library. Copyright Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States
