WTF Happened To Santa Monica, California?!

Don't steal from my store.

Recent violent attacks in Santa Monica and a growing homeless population have shaken neighbors and businesses. A series of high-profile crimes over the past several weeks became part of a showdown between the city and businesses as to whether this sign is true. I immediately called the police around 2:00 a.m., and they showed up around 4:00 a.m. The system's broken; nothing is being done about it.

So, this is Santa Monica. It's the city I grew up in; it's where I spent most of my time as a teenager, and it's even where I bought a house on the same street I grew up on before moving to Las Vegas. But as you're about to see, what used to be a thriving, vibrant culture and economy is now a barren wasteland of empty buildings and crime. Apparently, it's gotten so bad in recent months that I didn't even believe it myself until I saw what I'm about to show you.

Even though this is going to be unlike any other video I've ever done, I'm going to walk you through the city firsthand, share what it used to be like from someone who lived here, speak with the locals to see what they think about the recent events, and then I'll leave it up to you to come to your own conclusions. I'd also like to thank German and Venice for bringing this to my attention because, before I saw his video, I had no idea just how bad things had gotten.

For those unaware, behind me is the Third Street Promenade. Think of this like the major business hub of Santa Monica, home to some of the now most expensive real estate in the country. But it wasn't always like that. Surprisingly, today Santa Monica is safer than just 2% of U.S. cities; it's ranked one of the top 10 most dangerous places in the United States, and your chances of being a victim of a crime here are nearly 1 in 100.

So, this used to be Crepe Cafe. I remember this place would always be packed on the weekends. On weekdays, there would always be people out front eating food. You can see now that they closed down. And then over here, right across the street, this building used to be my bank. This used to be HSBC, and they shut down when COVID happened; they turned off a lot of their offices. But this all used to be really popular lease space that also is vacant right now.

So, we're not even about 50 ft away from that, and we have three more vacancies here. This used to be a Hollister; we have another vacancy next door to it, and then another vacancy across the street. It seems like a lot of these businesses have shut down. We also have another right here that I just missed that's for lease. What's kind of remarkable is that 40% of the Third Street Promenade right now is vacant. 40% of all of this space right now is completely empty, and they can't lease it.

I also used to remember, for the longest time, there used to be street performers here, and now it's quite empty. Hold on; I mean this is what it's turned into. How has this been normalized? You think of what this does, though, for businesses. Like, no one wants to open up here; people don't feel safe here. If you're just walking down the street and some guy comes up and is shouting in your face and wants to fight you…

And then, right behind, of course, we have the infamous Apple Store. This was also turned recently into a public safety kiosk, again in one of the most expensive areas in the entire country. You have a public safety kiosk just because of how many incidents they have around here. You know, truth be told, I actually don't know what a public safety kiosk is. Should we ask?

“Hey, hi! I'm just so... I'm curious. What is a public safety kiosk?”

“It’s just basically a substation. People have questions, or if something happens…”

The owner says a similar smash and grab happened in February. Other stores along the promenade, like Lids, tell Eyewitness News they've been victims of the same crime, even though a Santa Monica Police Department public safety kiosk is right in front of the store now.

I will say there's one store that has been here ever since I was a kid in the '90s; it was Puzzle Zoo. At one point, they occupied both stores, but they had to downsize, so now they're taking half, and the other half is taken up by Lids. But that store has somehow survived for probably about almost 40 years now, even though across the street, you have two more vacancies here.

I also got to say it's quite remarkable when you compare how it used to look like back in, like, 2018 because you could go back on Google Street View and see precisely what was here, how many people were here, and then you see this change.

Oh, this is a fun one! So this is now for lease; guess how much they're asking for this? It's 1,500 ft²; it's on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Third Street, so it's like a kind of prime location. They're asking $30,000 a month! So just think about that. If you're a small business, you're probably spending $30,000 a month in rent, then another $30,000 a month in overhead costs. To just break even every month, you need to bring in $60,000!

I don't get how any company could survive here unless it's a loss leader—unless you just put your business here for the exposure and then lose money on it. It doesn't make any sense. So, we're about to cross the street. This entire building used to be the Gap; they rented out all four stories, and they extended through the end of the street. This has been empty for a very, very, very long time. I believe they closed down during COVID, and they decided it just wasn't worth it anymore to stay in business here.

I believe shoplifting took a hit on them, but also just they weren't getting as many sales in person, and with the state of how the promenade is, it makes sense. Why put a store here? Why pay the rent when it's just not making any money? This also used to be a really popular restaurant; it looks like they've closed down, and whoever the new owner is, or maybe it's the existing owner, decided to renovate it completely, so it'll be interesting to see what this becomes.

I'm also really uneasy about recording in public, so I'm doing my best. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe if you appreciate me going outside of my comfort zone for this. I really don't like it; you can see there's people all around, and I'm terrified inside, but I'm doing it for you.

So, this used to be a lot more prevalent in Santa Monica, with street performers. People would really come from around the country to be able to perform on these streets and perform in front of a crowd, but now it's incredibly empty. Like, this is the first person that we've seen in a block and a half who's performing. It's pretty sad to see the state that Santa Monica's become.

So, what's really interesting is that we've spoken to a few business owners and people who work here, and not a single person wants to share their experience on camera, but they'll gladly talk off-camera. Everyone is afraid of almost being public about how they feel about the situation because they're afraid of either retaliation or being cancelled for having thoughts that aren't politically correct.

But it seems, though, that a lot of people feel the exact same way about what's going on here; it's just they're too afraid to speak about it. So, this used to be the food court. There used to be a McDonald's in here; there was a Chinese food that was really good. And then upstairs used to be a whole bunch of restaurants, and I think this closed in 2020, and it hasn't reopened since. Again, it's probably because the rent is so unbelievably high.

But there is some good news in the fact that across the street, it seems like Barnes & Noble is opening up, so perhaps a few of these businesses are beginning to move back to the area. The last block of the promenade has always been the most difficult for businesses because people tend to gravitate towards that side. So this is somewhat neglected, and that's why it's hit especially hard because you have three vacancies in a row on this side.

Across, you have another vacancy on this side, and then a few stores down, you have one, two more empty buildings on that side, which makes it really difficult because why would you want to move your business in here when there are just empty businesses next to you? It gets a lot less foot traffic.

“See you before, bro! Hey, hit the like and subscribe!”

“I've seen you before, bro. Have a great day!”

“Thank you!”

“Yeah, you too! Like and subscribe. Thank you! This guy's amazing, thank you!”

So, you're probably wondering what happened. Well, it's really the perfect storm. The first reason is that people are shopping a lot more online, so there's less of a reason to have a storefront out here like this. The second reason is COVID; businesses were forced to shut down. They weren't allowed to operate, and as a result, businesses lost a lot of money and had to close.

So I think from all the closures here, this one resonates the most with me because I used to come here as a kid in the '90s, and this used to be a Barnes & Noble. Then, my understanding is that in 2018, they doubled the rent. Barnes & Noble said they couldn't possibly sell that many books to be able to pay the rent, so they left. It was then taken over by WeWork; we know how that turned out—WeWork went out of business, and since then, this building has sat empty.

Now, a big problem with a lot of the real estate that's here is that the building's value is really tied to the amount of rent they receive. So if a developer decides to lower the rent, all of a sudden, they take a lower rent— their building is worth a lot less. Then when you have one building that's worth a lot less, that acts as a comp for other buildings next to it to also be worth a lot less. So in a sense, they're almost forced to keep their rents high just to maintain their value.

In terms of how much it costs, it's very expensive: rents here on the promenade start about $5 to $6 a square foot, and they go as high as $20 a square foot. So that means sometimes for a 1,000 ft storefront, you could pay anywhere from $7,000 to $20,000 a month. Or if you have 3,000 ft, even at $6 a foot, that's $18,000 a month just in rent alone that you have to make up for with street traffic that just isn't here anymore.

So really, outside of any high-end restaurants or national retailers, no one could really afford what's here. The other issue is that a lot of these buildings were built in a time when a business could take over the entire store, but now we've shifted towards smaller buildings, and places like this are really difficult to subdivide. So what ends up happening is that you have a 3,000 ft place for rent, and they can't chop it up into smaller storefronts.

You're stuck either renting the entire thing or nothing at all. The other issue is homelessness. Right now it's reported that there's 117 homeless per 1 square mile, which is some of the highest in the country— and again, that's just what they could count. Now, the thing is, though, if you are homeless, I mean, look at where we are. It's one of the most beautiful places in the entire country, and that's one of the difficult parts because when I walk around here, it is so nice. The weather is perfect; the scenery is incredible. I mean, it's really one of a kind.

And I see why people want to be here so badly and how beautiful it is. Even for me, having left, there are aspects of Santa Monica and Los Angeles that I really miss just because it's so unbelievably gorgeous here. Now, in terms of solving the homelessness issue, California spent so far about $4 billion since 2019, and this behind us is an example of exactly that. This used to be a parking structure that was torn down to build affordable housing for the homeless.

However, the cost is through the roof. A lot of locals say that it costs way too much money at $125 million, which means every unit that's going to be built here for the homeless is going to cost about $1 million. Now, for context, if you want to buy your own condo here in Santa Monica, it's going to cost you anywhere between $1 million to $1.5 million give or take, or you could live here if you're homeless.

The other issue is crime. Petty theft under $950 is now considered a misdemeanor, and that's really impacted a lot of businesses. Prop 47 passed in 2014 and changed the way California handles certain crimes, making thefts of less than $950 chargeable as only misdemeanors. People look at the store owner and take it right in front of them and walk out. It has fueled a market of petty and repeat offenses with zero to low accountability.

After that, we have the rail line, which extends all the way from downtown to Santa Monica. The concern that I've heard from some of the locals is that this rail line makes it very accessible for people to travel from Skid Row to Santa Monica and back to Skid Row who otherwise wouldn't be here. Brock tells us Ali tried to steal his hat three times and eventually got it, shoved him, and also tossed a liquid at him. The couple turned to walk away; he took a bottle of some sort of liquid and threw it on him.

Brock says he and his girlfriend followed Ali while keeping 911 updated on his whereabouts, and when the man somehow toppled over, Brock held him down until police arrived. And of course, we can't make a video like this without discussing drug use. It was recently found that substance abuse affects about 75% of the homeless population. This is also reflected in the fact that Santa Monica is one of the top fentanyl death hotspots in LA County. Use of these drugs, combined with 78% of the homeless population suffering from mental health issues, is a serious contributor to violent crime incidents.

I would personally say, though, as someone who grew up here, I think the nail in the coffin was the 2020 riots that happened, and a lot of these businesses were broken into, and ever since then, it just seems like they've had a really difficult time recovering from that.

“I live in Santa Monica since 2017. Um, and I've seen it change a lot throughout the years, um, especially through the pandemic, which was one of the more interesting times, especially with all the riots and everything—they actually happening right down the street. I had seven helicopters right above.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, for a while we’ve had people try to break into our garages; we’ve had our garbage situations a mess. I've actually had a lock on our garbage outside just so it doesn't get crazy, and that was like something we had to do. We've had a break-in in our place. I have a buddy who lives a couple miles that way, still in Santa Monica, that has had a break-in. These are anecdotes again, but I don't think that anyone should have a rosy picture and should just pretend that, like, you know, this is the kind of neighborhood you can leave your door unlocked and then, you know, not have to worry about anything happening.”

“I hope we can figure it out; obviously, I've lived it my whole life; I've grown up here. I was born in ’90. I mean, it used to be a lot easier, going a lot simpler. I mean, you would never see houses go for the prices that they were, and everyone was in these kind of like, you know, single-level homes. And yeah, the homelessness is crazy; like, there was never to the point where they’re under every bridge, every freeway, you know, underpass. It's definitely deteriorated a lot where I've contemplated moving out. I do love Santa Monica.”

“Me too, but I have contemplated moving out just for that reason because it’s just changed a lot. I’ve seen things just outside on the buildings when they shut down, saying, ‘Hey, we shut down because of Santa Monica city codes,’ and they’re like, ‘We’re still located in Hollywood if you want to come see us, but we’re no longer going to be in Santa Monica.’ What is Santa Monica doing about it?”

“I think they're just throwing money at it. You see, they do these frequent kind of clear-ups maybe like once every few months, but three days later, maybe even less, you'll see it just the way it is: the same amount of trash, the garbage, and then there are these nebulous housing projects in downtown LA, which, you know, you hear about them. You kind of occasionally you'll see like community letters come out like this is what we're doing, but it doesn't change anything. There's really no difference being made with these really insane projects, and the amount of money they're throwing at this is insane.”

“Yeah, it just seems to get more and more as time goes on, and more homeless, more spending on it, but everything's getting worse. I avoid the pier at all costs; I never go over there because every time it's just like very sad. And my car did get broken into recently—this was two months ago, I would say. And just on the street here.”

“So, I live in actually a really safe neighborhood, like off Wilshire; um, families, like really nice homes and everything, and I was just parked right outside my apartment, and yeah, just on a random Tuesday...”

“Did you file a police report on that?”

“So I didn't actually file a police report, but I did call the police and let them know what happened, and they basically told me that unless I had footage, then there’s no point of filing a report because they're not going to be able to identify who it was.”

“Yeah, so it's really interesting. I learned this the other night that according to these statistics, crime in Santa Monica has actually decreased, and one of the reasons why is because so many people fail to file a police report because the police either can't do anything about it, or because people don't want their insurance going up. And so a lot of businesses are experiencing, for them, increased crime, but they won't report it because there's nothing the police can do, and they don't want to pay more insurance, so they just let it go under the radar. Crime data shows that vandalism and burglaries have decreased in Santa Monica. Businesses are closing left and right because of all this looting going on.”

“She says when she called police, they suggested she called the store's insurance. The state tries to manipulate things a lot, right? I think there's a lot of rent control in the state that doesn't seem to help anything because once a place is rent-controlled, that person will never leave, so that housing will never be on the market again.”

“I think just everything in California needs to pop. Just once, you know, it's just been going up, up, up, up, up. Every recession, we just keep going up, up, up, up, up, and it's starting to show. I mean, look, overall, every time I drive into Santa Monica, I love it, right? I drive in, I drive coming from West Hollywood or other parts of the city, and I love coming back to this little pocket. A lot of things you have to deal with is the unfortunate part about Santa Monica, and I would not wish that on someone who's trying to have their first place here because it's difficult, especially if you have kids. I think if I had kids, I would highly reconsider where I was living.”

“The weather's nice, right? I think that's any, ask anyone; that's what they're going to say is like the main plus is the weather's beautiful. I don't really feel like I'm in danger being by myself, but I do worry if my daughter and my wife go out to like a park on their own because there's been instances where just like, yeah, there's this wild homeless guy there. Someone had to call the cops; it's a whole thing. You just don't want your kid to be exposed to that kind of stuff, and there really is no reason for them to be exposed to that. It's not acceptable.”

“Here's my honest feeling: if you are someone who, you know, at night, doesn't like to walk to their car alone, if you're someone that's maybe from like a small town that's really safe, where you feel comfortable going for a walk in the middle of the night, then you're going to be in for a culture shock for sure moving here. Like, there's definitely going to be things you're not expecting. But if you really love Southern California and you want to experience, like, in my opinion, the coolest part of LA, this is the place to be. But if you do get scared, and rightfully so, of your safety when walking around big cities, this is some of the worst that it's going to get, so you might not want to live here.”

“Let me know what you guys think of this down below in the comments section. I'll do my best to read as many of them as I can, and if you enjoy videos like this, just make sure to hit the like button and subscribe. Thank you so much, and until next time.”