Comparing San Francisco's Tenderloin and L.A.'s Skid Row

"Like the Tenderloin, Los Angeles's Spring Street corridor was once a neighborhood of SROs pressing up against Skid Row. Today, despite the economic downtown, downtown Los Angeles is home to an interesting mix of affordable "micro-lofts" like the Alexandria (left), service providers, book stores, barber shorts, art galleries, cafes, and home to about 40,000 residents, many of them new to downtown living.

Here, though, the similarities end. Hollywood and, to a lesser extent, downtown L.A., have thrived by embracing development, including an element of gentrification."

Writer John Buntin discusses the anti-gentrification sentiment in San Francisco's Tenderloin, and how that attitude is likely to hold the neighborhood back from cleaning itself up.