The Origin of the Term "Skid Row"

The term is no longer used by the media and is considered politically incorrect because of its negative connotations. However the term is still widely understood to designate the area of any town where conditions are particularly poor.

The term originated in Portland and other logging towns in the Pacific Northwest. Faced with the difficult chore of dragging felled trees out of the forest to the mill, loggers built "skid roads" – roads paved with "skids," usually railway ties or heavy wooden planks. The loggers discovered that the logs were far easier to move down the roads if the "skids" were greased, and the saying "grease the skids" became a popular metaphor to describe speeding up a process.

"Skid Road" also became associated with the part of town where the loggers typically lived. These areas were characterized by bars and flop houses, and the "skid roads" were magnets for poor, often alcoholic, transient workers, said to be "on the skids."

Burnside street, now Portland's busiest street, was used as a skid road. Loggers would "skid" logs down Burnside and load them onto boats on the Willamette River. Over time the term "skid road" evolved to "skid row."