Santa Monica, California decline

[pete clemenza]

So we're not going to talk about the policies that contributed to this mess?

One thing is, developers wanted to build a few residential high rises in Santa Monica years ago. Not for the homeless but for the general population. SM was on track to get a little "Miami-like" with some tall residential properties, but the NIMBY's in the city blocked all that and shut all that sh*t down. That's another reason why the foot traffic is nearly gone.

Then add in Covid & inflation killing off the area's restaurant/bar/retail scene, plus more homeless moving in.. they're triple screwed. Not to mention, the adjoining mall was redone to make it upscale and that flopped. Don't mix the happenings of Santa Monica with the rest of LA and California. They did alot of this to themselves.

 

[JLova]

California is over... gotta blame the govt and late stage capitalism...

Seems like it. Doesn't Cali have high min wage?

 

[JLova]

So we're not going to talk about the policies that contributed to this mess?

Hence why I made this thread. The biggest contributor IMO are government policies. The left has no concept of economics. I'm not a champion of either side but it's clear that all sense has left politics.

 

[CouldntBeMeTho]

Ton of homeless people live there. You're guaranteed to see a schizo talking to people that ain't there every time. The people that live in those houses on the beach have to look before they step outside. It's that bad

 

[Clayton Endicott]

I live here in SM.


It’s a legit shyt show.

No lie, three days last week I walked past human shyt near the promenade downtown. I have been followed and harassed crossing the street by homeless and mentally ill.

Mad buildings are for sale and for lease. And FYI, my rent is going up next month…

Damn. Santa Monica always seemed dope to me.

 

[Patrick Kane]

This country is fukked.

I don’t know how people can see this happening across the country but particularly in the richest states and think this is the “new” normal. This should not be acceptable.

How are politicians not being PRESSED at every turn since people voted them in and this is what is happening on the streets of their cities?

My city (Toronto) is also going to shyt with many of the same issues reported in the video. Just not as bad as California But it’s slowly getting there and who knows where we’ll be in 5-10 years if we don’t combat this.

Something fundamentally “broke” in the world after COVID. I don’t know how to explain it though

 

[Bunchy Carter]

I live here in SM.


It’s a legit shyt show.

No lie, three days last week I walked past human shyt near the promenade downtown. I have been followed and harassed crossing the street by homeless and mentally ill.

Mad buildings are for sale and for lease. And FYI, my rent is going up next month…

Santa Monica use to be a cool spot to chill and kick-it. They use to have a good club scene on main st and other places in SM, but all the clubs closed down.

 

[Jean toomer]

People don’t seem to realize the lasting repercussions of COVID. People lost family, livelihood, and social connections. Businesses unable to recover. This is not surprising really.

 

[ORDER_66]

Seems like it. Doesn't Cali have high min wage?

Yeah... now.... but what good is that if you cant even afford to pay rent???

 

[beejus]

I don’t know how people can see this happening across the country but particularly in the richest states and think this is the “new” normal. This should not be acceptable.

How are politicians not being PRESSED at every turn since people voted them in and this is what is happening on the streets of their cities?

My city (Toronto) is also going to shyt with many of the same issues reported in the video. Just not as bad as California But it’s slowly getting there and who knows where we’ll be in 5-10 years if we don’t combat this.

Something fundamentally “broke” in the world after COVID. I don’t know how to explain it though

Seattle is pretty bad now too. Portland is even worse and truly feels like it's just zombies walking around.

 

[JLova]

Yeah... now.... but what good is that if you cant even afford to pay rent???

That's the thing, high ass minimum wage just pushes up prices. They have 0 concept of economics.

 

[2 one 3]

Santa Monica use to be a cool spot to chill and kick-it. They use to have a good club scene on main st and other places in SM, but all the clubs closed down.

Yup…

It’s beyond dead breh…

One night I believe in April I was leaving work and got called back to the office because three German tourists had just been stabbed by a homeless person. I walked past their traces of blood and shyt on the sidewalk.


There have been a few attempted murders some actual murders on Main Street and potential rapes at the pier


It’s wild out here now

 

[Marc Spector]

let me break it down for y’all
Capitalism absolutely destroyed our middle class.

Americans by and large built postwar wealth in the manufacturing sector.

Those jobs are gone.

Those same unskilled laborers had children…. And their households dissolved once the jobs left. The children of these laborers grow into adults who are raised in broken homes… and they are just as unskilled as their parents.., but they don’t have the job that their parents did because those jobs are gone.


So they turn into the streets and they become addicts and they go where the drugs and resources are.

Oh to add insult to injury, that piece of shyt Ronald Reagan lead the charge in the defunding federal subsidies for mental health facilities. these people that are hopeless, unskilled, and mentally ill due to trauma do not have easy access to mental health resources and often time wind up in jail which doesn’t provide any help, at all.

The I5 corridor is one of the biggest drug and human trafficking pipelines in the world. And the temperate climate of the West Coast along with the liberal cities makes it a comfortable Haven for the addicts. but the problem is scaling out into the Midwest and south because the lack of jobs and resources is now a nationwide problem and cities are the last Haven for resources in this country.

 

[Marc Spector]

California is one of the most hardest hit states because it’s the biggest, it has the best weather, it has the most wealth and it has some of the biggest population… but conversely housing is unaffordable and there is no real stable middle class in California.

The problem hits three fold out there because you have people from other states who go there for the access to drugs and resources, people who go out there to make it and fail spectacularly, and the native population of people who fall through the cracks.

 

[Wig Twistin Season]

Only question is where to go.

It seems like everybody is running to Texas or Vegas. I know my next move is going to have to be on the West Coast. I was in the Pacific Northwest for two years in Portland. Washington, possibly but idk the same shyt is going on in every major city across America just at different levels

I’ll be in Arizona next and when my youngest is done with college I’ll be in my mid 50s and deciding where I’m going to spend the last part of my life.