If there's an epicenter for L.A. violence in recent weeks, the unlikely corner of Seventh and Main streets could be it. It's unlikely because the area boasts a bevy of new, loft-dwelling residents who have started to transform the edge of Skid Row.

Still, the streets have spoken: Recent violence at Seventh and Main and one block in either direction has included two shootings and one stabbing. On Thursday a man of about 50 was shot near the corner about 11 p.m., according to Los Angeles police. He was expected to survive.

Two suspects were picked up at Seventh and Spring Streets and detained for questioning. The previous night, last Wednesday, a drive-by shooter in a blue van sprayed the front of the Huntington Hotel, which is about a block south at 752 South Main St. No injuries were reported and, of course, nobody saw nothin.'

“We've had two shootings, one block apart, over the last two nights,” stated Lt. Paul Vernon, commanding officer of the Central Detective Division. “It's difficult to say whether the two shootings are related.”

A week ago Tuesday, we told you about the firefighter/paramedic who was stabbed inside the Hotel Cecil, nearly a block north of Seventh and Main, at 640 S. Main St. Sources told Fox 11 his story of responding to a patient call and then suddenly being stabbed doesn't add up.

The area, on the western edge of Skid Row and along the northern edge of the Fashion District, hasn't been without its problems, particularly in the last millennium. But in recent years police crackdowns on crime — including installing city security cameras in the area — have had an impact.

Vernon, meanwhile, warned that “we don't see very many shootings downtown at all. So we take every shooting very seriously, and we solve the majority of them.”

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