The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship

This chapter examines the harsh conditions and “human wreckage” (127) of Skid Row that Lopez continues to write about. Lopez goes on a ride along with paramedics late one night to Skid Row, where they have been called to take care of a 25-year-old woman who overdosed. Lopez stops in to see Ayers, who is sleeping in the Lamp courtyard. Lopez rides back with the paramedics, and they take the woman into the emergency room, but she does not survive.

A few nights later, Lopez notices a woman named T.J., a sex worker, crying because one of her clients has just died in an outhouse where she works. The outhouses are used for sex work and sometimes for housing.

Lopez receives a call from the mayor, Anthony Villaraigosa, in response to the articles he has been writing about Skid Row. The mayor comes to meet Lopez on Skid Row and speaks to many of the people there. By the end of the next week, the mayor “adds Skid Row to his fix-it list” (132). He plans to add funding to housing and services for the area.