Los Angeles Dodgers Clips Thursday, June 21, 2012
LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPS THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2012 YAHOO! SPORTS Dodgers' Josh Lindblom follows 'obsession of serving' to L.A.'s Skid Row, food and faith in hand By Tim Brown LOS ANGELES – On the corner of 6th and Crocker in downtown Los Angeles, in a neighborhood the politicians call Central City East but the residents know as Skid Row, the backs of our throats were coated in disinfectant vapors. These came from the tanker trucks inching along the curb, and the hoses waved by men in hazmat suits whose task it was to wash away the needles, condoms, human waste and whatever else had fallen into the gutter over so many cold, desperate nights. The denizens of those gutters stood nearby. They seemed unmoved by the city's effort to power‐spray and freshen their stained and weary corner. They held sacks and backpacks and watched the plodding truck, its guardians and rubbery tentacles. They leaned against shopping carts whose contents – blankets, recyclable bottles and clothes, but hardly any food – were piled to overhead. The odor and taste of the decontaminant, and whatever it was that was building in the backs of throats, they couldn't bother with that. Dodgers reliever Josh Lindblom speaks with Charles, a St. Louis native living temporarily in a nearby shelter. …By last count, more than 4,000 people lived on Skid Row's streets, hidden in its alleys, leaning against its tired buildings, in a 4‐ by‐10 foot block plot. On a morning in mid‐June, maybe a couple dozen were on the corner of 6th and Crocker, watching the truck and waiting on the vans that would roll down from a hilltop in nearby Echo Park, bringing hot food, fresh fruit and water.
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