petescafe: Most of the photos of the West End you see are from the redevelopment era, when most of the businesses had been forcibly closed. Of course, if you forcibly run people out of a neighborhood and don't allow anyone to move in, it's going to look like an utterly run-down ghost town, but before that social engineering was done, the West End was the most densely populated part of the city.
If you are interested in seeing some of the photos, go to the SAMCC online database:
http://www.sacramenities.com/history...g/catalog.html
Use the search term "West End" and you'll see some urban street scenes that look straight out of a Dashiell Hammett novel. Very "film noir."