Cecil Hotel/ Skid Row

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Maxiwill

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Hi so like a lot of people I recently watched the Cecil Hotel documentary on netflix.

I found it pretty scary as I'm a big baby, but also interesting.

I do think the elisa lam case was a personal tragedy.

I know in the series they kind of make out like the hotel is located in the middle of skid row but from what I've read online skid row is actually about a 10 min walk from there, although skid row residents did stay there. That being said videos I've seen there is a lot of homeless people around the hotel and tents etc. Also almost every video shows the amount of rats on the street 😳

I've also become really curious about skid row, and the historian who is featured in the doc (dr. Doug mungin) has a published dissertation about skid row and I read some of it. It's really fascinating.

I've watched quite a few videos on YouTube and recently a few people have bribed security to get into the hotel. As a large empty building it is a bit creepy but I don't really believe in the paranormal.

There is also a YouTuber who lives across from the Cecil and he has live streamed it all night a couple of nights this week.

I'm just wondering if anyone here is interested in the cecil or skid row and what your thoughts are?
Has anyone visited?
 
I'm watching this but shelved it after a few episodes as I felt it dragged a little, might revisit when I've the time. Buzzfeed did an episode on Elisa they focused more on the creepy side of things. I think its very sad rather than paranormal but I guess it will always be unexplained apart from the various theories.
I'd be interested in the YouTuber you mentioned and the dissertation. I hadn't known much about skid row previously but it wouldn't be somewhere I'd like to visit. I've been to LA a few times but didn't bother with it, I did see a lot of poverty and homeless people though, especially around the tourist traps.
Rodeo drive was particularly sad, if you can believe that.
 
BigMavis said:
I'm watching this but shelved it after a few episodes as I felt it dragged a little, might revisit when I've the time. Buzzfeed did an episode on Elisa they focused more on the creepy side of things. I think its very sad rather than paranormal but I guess it will always be unexplained apart from the various theories.
I'd be interested in the YouTuber you mentioned and the dissertation. I hadn't known much about skid row previously but it wouldn't be somewhere I'd like to visit. I've been to LA a few times but didn't bother with it, I did see a lot of poverty and homeless people though, especially around the tourist traps.
Rodeo drive was particularly sad, if you can believe that.
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Hi yes I didn't love the documentary myself and the creepy side of things, but I've always been amazed by cities like LA and new York, maybe because they are so different from where I am from. I suppose I found the human side of the story more interesting than the paranormal.

The dissertation is here https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1693/
I can only imagine how sad it would have been to see those people, and especially having read about the history and how skid row came to be, my heart is breaking for the residents of skid row and other homeless peple who without a doubt ended up and are forced to stay there through no fault of their own.

A lot of people say LA is not a nice city, not glamourous at all and very dirty. Would you go back?

The YouTube channel is Peet Montzingo he's also on tik tok.
 
Charles Bukowski writes a lot about Skid Row in his books. He was a drunken bum there for years (There's probably a good chance he stayed at the Cecil)

I went looking for documentaries on Skid Row but could only find news shorts or really recent ones just interviewing various people.

In order to read a full on book about it I'd probably have to visit it myself. Maybe I'd go to the hotel but it's mythology has become massive now.

BigMavis said:
I'm watching this but shelved it after a few episodes as I felt it dragged a little, might revisit when I've the time. Buzzfeed did an episode on Elisa they focused more on the creepy side of things. I think its very sad rather than paranormal but I guess it will always be unexplained apart from the various theories.
I'd be interested in the YouTuber you mentioned and the dissertation. I hadn't known much about skid row previously but it wouldn't be somewhere I'd like to visit. I've been to LA a few times but didn't bother with it, I did see a lot of poverty and homeless people though, especially around the tourist traps.
Rodeo drive was particularly sad, if you can believe that.
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Do you mean as in the crime will remain unexplained? All the theroies were blown out of the water in the last episode on the Netflix doc. Far too much time was given to the Sleuths which hurt it I thought.
 
I finished the Netflix series the other day. I thought it was gross how much screentime they gave to Youtubers and "websleuths." That skinny guy was particularly distasteful. He seemed obsessed with Elisa, in love with her, absolute CREEP. And the footage at the end where he got a friend to film himself touching her grave, absolutely sick.
 
I must watch the end @Warpaint I got fed up with the theories around Lam, and yes, I do think that particular case will remain unexplained. Personally I think she was ill and somehow got herself in there.
@Maxiwill I will go back if I have the opportunity. I did a few tours and visited Hollywood forever cemetery. The last time we stayed in a hotel that was allegedly haunted :ROFLMAO:
Thanks for the link to the dissertation.
 
It didn’t need to be so many episodes but the whole story is terribly sad. I run an online publication about true crime and it’s been covered in great detail there. The web sleuths were too featured, the whole thing was far too dramatic in my opinion. I think she screwed up her medication and accidentally killed herself, I don’t believed there’s anymore to it.

The marketer in me mentally clapped that they split the hotel in two and rebranded it though. That was very clever.

i think the issue with skid row is that it’s between the hotel and the sights of the city, so they have to walk through it. I’ve not looked at it in much detail but that’s the impression I got.
 
There's a body language guy on YouTube called Derek Van Schaik, who I really like, and here's his analysis of the elevator footage:


There's another youtuber called German in Venice, who lives in Venice Beach and makes a lot of videos about LA in general, and the homeless situation.
He's a really likeable guy and his videos are very informative.
 
www.google.com

The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel Completely Glosses Over the History of Skid Row

Netflix's Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel centers on the death of Elisa Lam, but it completely glosses over the history of Skid Row.
www.google.com www.google.com

This short article briefly explains why Skid row is pretty much irrelevant to the elisa lam case, and I think like the websleuths and Internet detectives is something that shouldn't have been given so much screentime in the netflix series.
Of course it's a very important topic but as the article points out "It's incredibly irresponsible of Netflix to peg this "eerie murder mystery" on a place where people are simply trying to survive."

" It's one of the poorest areas in the world, and approximately 8,000 to 10,000 individuals currently reside there. "Almost all of our homeless services are located in this one area, so the only really place to go if you're homeless and want assistance is Skid Row, and it's become a dumping ground," Skid Row historian Dr. Doug Mungin noted. "After people are released from prison or jail or from a mental facility, they are dropped off on Skid Row because the city wanted to make sure that these types of people remain separated from the rest of Los Angeles."
The docuseries paints Skid Row as the reason for the decline of the Cecil Hotel by exploiting the stories of former Cecil Hotel residents...However, the show fails to point out the history of Skid Row's connection to systems of white supremacy and how that's ultimately led to addiction, crime, and mental health issues over the years."

Maybe the lockdown is getting to me but I just found this really sad at the moment 😢

@PaddyDomino I will definitely check out the German in Venice channel, had a quick look there and the videos look right up my street.

It's obvious from this thread and twitter that the netflix series didn't impress many people but its a story that is very intriguing until you see the bare facts laid out and realise it was just a tragic death most likely caused by mental health issues.
 
Me and my friend went to LA and stayed in Korea Town, Downtown about 15 minute walk from the Cecil 2 years ago.

We had no idea how dangerous the area is, we just stayed there because it was cheap. Got threatened a few fair times by the homeless. It’s so sad seeing them all living out of tents and cardboard boxes. Like actually heartbreaking. The conditions are filthy and they get very little support. Most of them kept themselves to themselves but a few were very hostile and could tell we were tourists.

We’ve said when it’s safe to go abroad again we’ll scope out the Cecil. I would like to volunteer at any nearby soup kitchens over there for a couple hours too.
 
We watched it, thought there was a lot of weird stuff going on but by the last episode we were like ah okay, yes we see why that's the conclusion....
 
klakstrom said:
It didn’t need to be so many episodes but the whole story is terribly sad. I run an online publication about true crime and it’s been covered in great detail there. The web sleuths were too featured, the whole thing was far too dramatic in my opinion. I think she screwed up her medication and accidentally killed herself, I don’t believed there’s anymore to it.

The marketer in me mentally clapped that they split the hotel in two and rebranded it though. That was very clever.

i think the issue with skid row is that it’s between the hotel and the sights of the city, so they have to walk through it. I’ve not looked at it in much detail but that’s the impression I got.
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BIB - I did wonder about why you had the Bundy pic
 
On Elisa Lam's blog she said she had ADHD and was on medication for it. I have ADHD and maladaptive daydreaming; 77% of people with maladaptive daydreaming have ADHD. When I'm daydreaming and acting out what I'm thinking, if I'm on my own, I may look like Elisa Lam body-language wise. I don't think her body language is sinister, mysterious or paranormal. She looks very much like she had maladaptive daydreaming and was acting them out, thinking she was on her own. I think she would be very humiliated for this footage to be seen by the world.
 
jewelkitty said:
I finished the Netflix series the other day. I thought it was gross how much screentime they gave to Youtubers and "websleuths." That skinny guy was particularly distasteful. He seemed obsessed with Elisa, in love with her, absolute CREEP. And the footage at the end where he got a friend to film himself touching her grave, absolutely sick.
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He was beaming with delight and almost relishing in the details. He was very creepy when he said no one would hear screams from the roof.
I said to my friend I think he’s involved.
 
I have not been to skid row. But I have been to LA and was shocked at the poverty that I saw and all the tent cities. I have never seen anything like it before, it was sad. You could be on a nice street one minute then turn left and be in a very very poverty stricken area.
LA was not for me. I found it a very sad strange place. Santa Monica was the same. A huge amount of homeless people and tents set up. I have nothing against homeless btw, I just found it sad. Many of them clearly had very bad mental health. I wouldn't go back to LA.
I love San Diego though. A really beautiful area of California.
 
I hadn't really read much around Elisa Lam except a few snippets on Buzzfeed articles, but the Netflix series was so incredibly disappointing. I feel like the first few episodes built it up and I was fully expecting a 'Dont F*ck With Cats' type mystery with all the websleuths.

Then as soon as they started talking about the TB test and her name I knew they were all fruit loops 😂 but I persevered thinking there must be some big twist coming and then they basically just explained it all in the last 10 minutes and you see the sleuths going 'yeah maybe we took it too far'

I was absolutely INCENCSED. Why did I spent hours listening to them all wittering on then? As soon as they mentioned her bipolar and the meds I knew it'd be a psychotic episode (I have bipolar). Honestly the biggest waste of time.
 
I went to LA two years ago, it's an absolute dump. Really did not enjoy it. Hollywood is such a disappointment, I felt very unsafe walking about there, the homeless people there had visible weapons! It's very intimidating. San Francisco is the same.

San Diego is beautiful though.
 
Readread said:
I went to LA two years ago, it's an absolute dump. Really did not enjoy it. Hollywood is such a disappointment, I felt very unsafe walking about there, the homeless people there had visible weapons! It's very intimidating. San Francisco is the same.

San Diego is beautiful though.
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I wanted to go to San Francisco for years but everyone I know has said they were scared while there walking down the street.

Yes, San Diego is my fav place ever. If I won the lottery I would buy a condo in La Jolla or Point Loma. Haha.
 
I have family in Orange Country so I love it there! Also loved San Diego when we visited, I like parts of LA like Santa Monica, Venice, Redondo Beach but yeah you have to be very careful you don't end up in the wrong parts of town
 
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