Drone flies through Skid Row at night.

[diablo rojo]

"I respectfully disagree."

I had a group of ten-year-old black kids throw parking lot pebbles at me as I walked into the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There is no shithole area of LA that even comes close to the nasty bunch of 'brownstones' I drove past on my way to Pat's/Geno's. No offense but I don't think you've seen all that Philadelphia has to offer...

I've driven my truck down those very streets, and even parked there to go to Gino's. I know what you're saying. I'm certainly not saying that Philly is any shining example of cleanliness and humanity. I'm just saying that LA is, as a whole, the worst.

[VaderTT]

I very briefly got out of the rental car. My shoes were making velcro noises with every step, because they were sticking to the pavement. I've never had that happen anywhere other than a movie theater in my life. There were addicts stumbling all over the street, and a big group of about 30 of them were hassling passersby. No way in hell I was walking through that shit!

They have had safe injection sites and other shit down there for two or three decades. So now you have a junkie paradise, where they can smoke and shoot whatever their heart desires, in plain daylight, without fear of cops or hassle. The city of Van went full retard with that idea and weed is still a bigger deal, thanks Harper!

[VaderTT]

These pictures don't do it justice.

[Sean88gt]

I've heard of it, but never been there. Why don't the cities get more involved? Is this their way to just keep the problem isolated?

[LaserSVT]

My sister told me she was buying an Apartment in Oakland. I had no response. Shes a skinny white girl that dates hipster douches. Why the fuck Oakland?

[Trip McNeely]

My sister told me she was buying an Apartment in Oakland. I had no response. Shes a skinny white girl that dates hipster douches. Why the fuck Oakland?

So she can live near Todd Shaw.

[VaderTT]

My sister told me she was buying an Apartment in Oakland. I had no response. Shes a skinny white girl that dates hipster douches. Why the fuck Oakland?

A lot of Oakland is very nice.

[Trip McNeely]

Just remember Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis are also from Oakland.

[LaserSVT]

I hope so. None of them half beard, 50's hair, flannel shirt wearing, denim jacket with tons of crap that means nothings, hip chain, pierced face Pabst drinking douches would wet himself if she lived in a bad area.
I was told there are good areas but its California. Cali has nothing good.

[white88]

There are some really nice areas of Oakland but for the most part it's a shithole.

[inline 6]

Just remember Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis are also from Oakland.

"tha whistles go WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Trip McNeely]

"tha whistles go WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It's only in tha mon'in. You sposed to be up cookin brefas.

[BLAKE]

I've heard of it, but never been there. Why don't the cities get more involved? Is this their way to just keep the problem isolated?

It's a strange conundrum. It's hard to identify a comprehensive solution because the main cause of the issue is that the vast majority of Skid Row inhabitants are mentally unstable. Drugs aside, they're literally insane. The options are either institutionalize them, which there isn't an infrastructure for, or set up an area (as they have here) that acts as an open-air asylum. Weird as it sounds, many of the homeless prefer staying that way. Most actually aren't homeless, and instead live in government subsidized one-room shithole apartments on skid row.

I don't pretend to know what the fix is. The options appear to be either maintaining the status quo, or displacing them and gentrifying the area, but they'll just go somewhere else (Venice beach or similar). As it stands, skid row has a hundred year history of being the place where the crazies, hopeless drunks and druggies situate themselves and conduct their pitiful lives.

The big-hearted intellectual (left) solution would appear to be setting up a vast institutional/asylum system, or at the very least, maintaining skid row and pouring money into it to help the hopeless.

I'm personally conflicted. Many social issues can quickly and coldly be written off with "screw those that don't have the balls or brains to make something of themselves", but most of these people don't have all of their marbles, so there's this grey area where you either put them away or let them sort themselves out. Either is ugly, painful and expensive in different ways.

[John -- '02 HAWK]

the vast majority of Skid Row inhabitants are mentally unstable. Drugs aside, they're literally insane. The options are either institutionalize them, which there isn't an infrastructure for

A bigger problem is our actual legal system. The courts wont declare that somebody is mentally incompetent just because the wont take their prescriptions.

[John -- '02 HAWK]

BTW Some one should do a drone fly through of similar areas in the dfw