"What Ever Happened to Skid Row?"
From: Kev
Date: 3 Feb 97
This is something that has been troubling me for some time. Back around twenty years ago, when I was a youth, we'd drive down to Union Station in Chicago to pick up my grandma and we'd see all these drunks on West Madison St. For blocks and blocks there was nothing but flop-houses, gin joints, temporary-employment agencies, and the like.
Now, there's nothing there but a huge yuppie highrise complex
and a bunch of loft apartments. Where the drunks went, I can't tell
you.
And the phenomenon isn't restricted to Chicago (obviously). I
remember seeing similar stretches in downtown St. Louis, Kansas
City, and Detroit. Hell, in one city I remember visiting at about the
age of twelve, there was a Skid Row where I saw several guys with
no legs scooting around on little square wooden platforms on wheels.
But I've visited all these cities since and haven't seen the Skid Rows.
A couple of cities where I know such places still exist are Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas. In Phoenix, you have this stretch near the convention center where all your good old-fashioned street drunks hang out. (At least they have nice tans.) In Austin, you have Sixth Street, with all the bars where slumming U of T students go on one end, and all the youthful redneck drunks who look like cast-offs from the movie "Slackers" drinking booze out of paper bags at the other. But otherwise, many American cities are disappointments for those who seek out Skid Rows. Fack, even the Bowery, in New York City, was a disappointment when I visited a few years ago. No drunks to be seen. (Except for yours truly, of course.)
Kev
From: Jane
Date: 03 Feb 97
KevNJon wrote:
This is something that has been troubling me for some time. Back around twenty years ago, when I was a youth, we'd drive down to Union Station in Chicago to pick up my grandma and we'd see all these drunks on West Madison St. For blocks and blocks there was nothing but flop-houses, gin joints, temporary-employment agencies, and the like.I love the guy who hangs out under the Gardiner Expressway at Bay St. in Toronto. (for those of you who dont live in toronto, which is 99.9% of you, Bay St. is like Wall St in NY, except it's in Canada. Anyway, I work there, and don't hate me for it, but I digress.) this guy who hangs out under the Gardiner Expressway walkway, I call him "the Fluteman". He has a flute, and a music stand, and he plays the fackin flute all day long while turning the pages of his music sheets. The only problem is, fluteman can't read music. So fluteman plays these aimless, wandering notes, trying to pretend he's sight reading, meanwhile, he's just blowing and pressing random buttons. He does this every single day, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.Now, there's nothing there but a huge yuppie highrise complex and a bunch of loft apartments. Where the drunks went, I can't tell you.
Well, there is no moral to this story. So that's all. All hail the fluteman.
Jane
From: Gonz
Date: 03 Feb 97
Kev wrote:
A couple of cities where I know such places still exist are Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas. In Phoenix, you have this stretch near the convention center where all your good old-fashioned street drunks hang out.I thought the Skid Row of Phoenix was actually in Tempe, on University Ave, between Rural and McClintock. On any given night, you can find a drunken bastard wandering the stretch of road in search of the tattoo / piercing place.
Gonz
(Oh wait. That's where I live. Never mind.)
From: Kev
Date: 05 Feb 97
Gonz wrote
I thought the Skid Row of Phoenix was actually in Tempe, on University Ave, between Rural and McClintock. On any given night, you can find a drunken bastard wandering the stretch of road in search of the tattoo / piercing place.Never made it to Tempe when I was in Arizona last year, Gonz. But tell me if I'm wrong in saying that there is about a block-long stretch near that convention center of yours where proud street drunks with nothing to hide hold forth. I hadn't seen so many fiercely proud public drunks in one place in Christ knows how long. Came to the point where I was crossing the street to avoid them. Funny thing is, I was avoiding them in order to save change to spend at that fine Irish pub connected to the old hotel where I was staying. On the final day, the very hospitable bar-keep insisted that I have a couple of Tulamore Dews before going to catch my plane. And fack knows I needed it. I hate flying, and do it agreeably only after getting good and soused. The Tulamore Dew helped me hie me way back to Chi-town.
Uh, what was my thesis here?
Kev
From: Liam
Date: 05 Feb 97
Kev wrote:
The Tulamore Dew helped me hie me way back to Chi-town.Perhaps that Tulamore Dew helps make life tolerable.Uh, what was my thesis here?
Liam
How can the make such a delightful beverage in such an odd little town?
From: Dave Kelley
Date: 03 Feb 97
Kev wrote:
[snip a good description of Skid Row] A couple of cities where I know such places still exist are Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas.... In Austin, you have Sixth Street, with all the bars where slumming U of T students go on one end, and all the youthful redneck drunks who look like cast-offs from the movie "Slackers" drinking booze out of paper bags at the other.Thanks for the good thoughts about the hometown, but I'm afraid Austin's Sixth Street has been moving progessive upscale for the past few years, to the point that no one with any real drinking ambitions will go there. It's great if you wanna be a "Girl Drink Drunk" and suck down fruity sugarwater with a clever name, but that's about it. It's doing everything it can to be Bourbon St. without the soul.
On the other hand, Austin has developed a warehouse district which caters to the hardcore booze lover, with two brewpubs, a world-class beer bar, several serious drinking bars, and a number of sleep-friendly doorways all within three blocks.
On the road, I've found a few decent skid rows, but over the years they've all been slowly gentrified to death. Deep Ellum in Dallas, Chicago's Rush Street, NYC's Bowery, San Francisco's Tenderloin... All victims of this country's insidious (and insipid) move toward becoming one giant theme restaurant. There's a fackin' House of Blues in the French Quarter, a Hard Rock Cafe in Key West, and that's just the tip of this ugly-ass iceberg.
Skid rows, and the bars and the people who populate them, are a part of our CULTURE. It's up to us, each and every one of us, to seek them out and revel in them, because as long as Disney's in business, real America is dying, my friends, dying fast, and once it's gone there'll be no bringing it back except in sanitized cartoon form.
From: Dave
Off to find the scuzziest bar I can...
From: Oso
Date: 04 Feb 97
Dave Kelley wrote:
DaveYou summed it up beautifully, Dave. There should be places for those that want to get "girl-drink drunk", although they should be no more than 30 percent of the market. The rest of the bars should server alcohol, plenty of it, and facking cheap!
Off to find the scuzziest bar I can...
Who is ruining our drinking culture? Is it the people that bring us microbrews that place decent beer beyond the means of the masses? Is it the yuppie scum that take over affordable neighborhoods and drinking establishments and turn them into meccas of polished brass and mahogany floors? Or is it the guy that stops patronizing the neighborhood bar and instead drops his money at some trendy microbrewery?
I don't have the answers, and this post is most likely influenced by the current state of ADB. All I know is: people need to get fed-up with the situation, make the changes that need to be fucking made, and get back to what we do best.
Oso
wondering if people know what it is we used to do best