While walking around in downtown Los Angeles last Friday, I was struck by how similar the Los Angeles of 2006 is to the Los Angeles depicted in Blade Runner in the way that the rich live high up in the buildings, and the poor and destitute live on the streets. Downtown Los Angeles has had a bit of a housing boom since 2000 with lofts sprouting up everywhere, but down in the streets, the sidewalks are still cluttered with heroin addicts who shoot up in plain view, homeless tent cities, Shitter’s Alley, garbage, and other forms of poverty. The downtown lofts are elegant and expensive, starting at $2.50 per square foot. The Skid Row of downtown LA is the most desolate and hopeless example of a ghetto I have ever seen. It’s apparently the largest Skid Row in the US, covering 50 square blocks and housing 11,000 residents. Before the City spends money to “gentrify” the area, they need to come up with a solution for the people who are living in this urban wasteland.
Speaking of Blade Runner, I somehow found myself at the Bradbury Building on Friday.
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