skid row
The term skid row or skid road is used to refer to a run-down or dilapidated urban area. There are formally recognized neighborhoods named Skid Row in Seattle and Los Angeles. Informally, there is an identified skid-row neighborhood in almost every major North American city, such as The Bowery in New York City and the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, which like Seattle's was one of the original locations where the term was first coined.
Los Angeles's Skid Row, in an area of downtown Los Angeles also known as Central City East, is home to one of the largest stable populations of transient persons (homeless) in the United States.
The term "Skid Road" was in common usage in the mid 1800's, and referred to logging camps and mills all along the Pacific Coast Vancouver. British Columbia started off as a sawmill settlement called "Granville," in the early 1870s. By the 1960s, "Skid Road" was commonly used to describe the more dilapidated areas in the city's Downtown Eastside.
Yesler Way, Seattle, Washington, the street for which the term "Skid Road" was coined is still used to this day, although not for skidding logs.
Los Angeles's Skid Row, in an area of downtown Los Angeles also known as Central City East, is home to one of the largest stable populations of transient persons (homeless) in the United States.
The term "Skid Road" was in common usage in the mid 1800's, and referred to logging camps and mills all along the Pacific Coast Vancouver. British Columbia started off as a sawmill settlement called "Granville," in the early 1870s. By the 1960s, "Skid Road" was commonly used to describe the more dilapidated areas in the city's Downtown Eastside.
Yesler Way, Seattle, Washington, the street for which the term "Skid Road" was coined is still used to this day, although not for skidding logs.
Information supplied by: http://www.wikipedia.org