skid row(1931) and "skid road"

[David Lonergan]

You are right about the earlier edition; there's also a 1980s version.
It has been a long time since I read it, but I believe he wrote that the
Seattle skid road was the original--the skids that logs rolled down on
their way to the bay--and it obtained its present meaning due to the
homeless people sleeping in its vicinity.

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