The Churning of Skid Row: A Genealogy of Development, Gentrification, and Displacement

The last two decades have seen striking changes to downtown Los Angeles's population. While phrases like “renewal” or “revitalization” pepper the discourse around new urban investment, the reality has been a shocking displacement of those living in single room occupancy (SRO) hotel units—and in tents throughout the area known as Skid Row. Beneath the competing interests of affordable housing advocates, on the one hand, and the public relations campaigns of the private and public sectors, on the other, lie the very real material and discursive forces that are taking the lead. Collective memory is often too short to see historic trends, yet to approximate a grasp of them is to gain ground in a seemingly chaotic present. Through a depth approach to journalistic sources, power analyses, and stakeholder interviews, this article investigates and interrogates the various discourses at play in gentrification media—government, financial interests, individual actors, and judicial bodies. Its purpose is to illustrate systemic causes of urban oppression and trauma in order to inform future attempts to both understand and intervene in the uprooting of communities.