skid row

Meanings

1. An especially dilapidated section of a city, characterized by abandoned or run-down buildings and vices such as drug dealing and prostitution, and frequented by homeless people.
2. A situation of great desperation or misfortune.

1. Alternative letter-case form of skid row.

1. Several neighborhoods in the United States and Canada associated with crime, homelessness or the lumber industry:
2. A neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, United States.
3. A neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States.
4. A neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, also called the Gateway District
5. A neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States, also called the Bowery
6. A neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States, also called Old Town-Chinatown
7. A neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States.
8. A neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada called the DTES, commonly referred to as East Hastings.

Etymology

An alteration of skid road (“road along which logs are dragged or skidded; (Canada, US, informal) downtown streets where loggers go for recreation on their time off”). In 1852, skid road was first applied to a slum area at the loggers’ part of town in Seattle, Washington, USA, and before 1900 it had come into common usage in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Over time, the variant skid row came to refer to a district or slum frequented by alcoholics and hobos, even in areas without a lumber industry.