WTF Happened To Santa Monica, California?!
Let's discuss what's happening throughout Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California, the problems they're facing, and my thoughts on the entire situation – Enjoy! Add me on Instagram: GPStephan
Watch German In Venice video:
Check out my affiliate link to sign up and receive a $20 bonus when you start saving & investing with Acorns!
GET MY WEEKLY EMAIL MARKET RECAP NEWSLETTER:
The YouTube Creator Academy:
Learn EXACTLY how to get your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube, rank videos on the front page of searches, grow your following, and turn that into another income source: – $100 OFF WITH CODE 100OFF
My ENTIRE Camera and Recording Equipment:
For business inquiries, you can reach me at grahamstephanbusiness@gmail.com
*Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. This is not investment advice.
this is insane. my wife used to work a little off the promenade and it was packed like crazy back in 2012 all the time. i thought this would be a skewed view, but this is legit.
Thanks for watching, yeah – I really hope things turn around, I try not to be biased on takes like this.
Last time I was there was 2014 and I can’t believe what it looks like now. Insane to think how vibrant and fun of a place it use to be.
She probably voted for it.
You get what you vote for. When you finally move. Don’t bring your politics with you.
@@GrahamStephan I hope this video helps contribute to common sense again.
Idk why common sense and truth is even political at this point. I understand you can make an argument “political leaders use it to fearmonger for votes” but that doesn’t mean there is never again room for truth telling in the sector of this debate. It’s just flat out true this place is being destroyed.
I live in Chicago – there is a noticeable homelessness/crime problem here, but the sheer level of the issue in California we saw when staying in Santa Monica last year was just so many levels worse. It’s genuinely unbelievable unless seen firsthand.
Give Chicago time, and they may catch up if not for the weather. Same type of politicians.
You get what you vote for. When you finally move. Don’t bring your politics with you.
If Chicago had California weather, I’m sure it’d be the same if not worse. The weather out in Cali is too perfect for all
Be quiet! I’ve seen/been/tasted Chicago. It’s 100 times worse and that weather don’t help much either. If ain’t from those junkies/hobos/gangs in Chicago, it’s from the weather. You get it from both ends of the floor.
homeless people are forced to get a job in Chicago or else they’ll freeze to death but in California the weather is always nice so they can stay homeless without the harsh weather
I was born in 1987.
I miss the good old days with all the smiles and laughs.
We used to have a word that I feel no longer exists. It’s called being neighborly.
It still exists. I just can’t tell you where because we are full and not accepting applicants at this time
@@timb787 Yup. My neighborhood is the same way. Lots of old people and young families and very nice people, but houses don’t stay empty here long at all!
@@timb787😂😂😂
“OBEY!!” -newsom
@@timb787Who is John Galt 😉
Also – when I was living there last year, I posted on the LA reddit that they should crack down on crime and move the homeless out of the city and into centralized housing areas outside of the city. I had 100 comments within 10 minutes, people called me inhumane and a Nazi and an idiot and some person recommended psychological counseling for me, and I was permanently banned from the entire LA reddit group for simply proposing that we stop tolerating this horrendous situation. Yeah, I got canceled from Reddit. That’s how bad LA is. I’ll never live in LA again until it gets cleaned up.
I’m banned from ALL of Reddit
Lol crazy
@@Meowhsss now that’s impressive. What did you do?
@@mikeshafer Replied to debates with facts and the truth. Reddit is terrible now, X is much better for free speech, used to be reversed.
Reddit is a shitshow for Kids
Aside from Santa Monica, LA as a whole is experiencing some terrible moments with homelessness and crime. Nothing is working, not even $24B, and we have very poor leadership. People keep voting in the same type of leadership and we go backwards and backwards and the problem gets worse and worse. The mismanagement is truly remarkable. We have a very soft approach to the solution and most people have come to terms that ‘hey, this is just life now’. I refuse to accept that. It shouldn’t have to be this way.
CA has had about 130-170k fluctuating homeless levels since the 90s, even when Republicans ran the state.
If you want to see where it all started, go look at what happened when Ronald Reagan shut down the state mental hospital system and tens of thousands of the mentally ill and addicts were unleashed onto CA streets.
San Francisco in the 80s and early 90s had open gang warfare.
East Palo Alto was the murder capital of the US.
Now it’s a gentrified neighborhood and SF has one of the lowest murder rates of US cities. Meanwhile, most Red states have way more crime. (Oh, right, it’s the governors fault when it’s a Democrat, but when the state has a GOP governor, then it’s Democrat mayors at fault)
@@RayCromwell If voting democrat was the solution it would have worked by now, no matter how bad a city is, it doesn’t take 30 years to fix it.
Yes it is the democrats fault because take a look at cities with a republican super majority in every branch, crime is practically non existent.
Any statistic that claims crime is higher in republican cities and states is leaving out major details like, crimes aren’t counted by statistics if they aren’t considered a crime or they aren’t reported to police. People all over California leave their car doors open, so thieves don’t have to break a window to get in. Those crimes don’t get reported.
Also when a crime is a misdemeaner in california but a felony in texas, the crime stats are going to be skewed.
@@RayCromwell Imagine if all those red states/cities were run by the blues they’d let the blacks/browns own everything by inaction so they could get a little more green. The reason this segment hits is because Commiefornia like other blue areas has been able to hold back the real problem in their rich areas by price controls, but the free range criminals are expanding due to their previous locales being too poor to support them.
@@RayCromwell I don’t need to debunk any of your lies, if you wanted to learn, you would be learning on youtube, and you would know better.
But people vote with their money, and they vote with their feet. Populations in democrat run cities and states are plummeting, and populations in republican cities and states are skyrocketing.
How ever bad you think our country is, people vote with their money and their feet. We live in the greatest country in all of human history. And the areas people are going to most are republican areas.
The moral of the story really: If it’s not good to raise kids in, it’s not good for you either, even if you don’t think so.
Politicians like Gavin newsom gov and kamala HARRIS the attorney general of California and state senator of CA. Destroyed the legal system and homeless
A crazy home less man long ago told me, “One day this world is going to take a sheit on itself.” I realize now he wasn’t crazy. He was sane and ahead of the curve.
Your comment is poetry.
It’s true. Even great civilizations collapse, because of greed and misuse. The rise of technology, housing vs salary rates, wealth gap in the past three decades is alarming.
he was crazy and ahead of the curve
the joker?
@@thanosianthemadtitanicpresicley
What Graham assumes you know is that Santa Monica used to be one of the most beautiful, walkable cities on the planet. Anytime you see movies about LA, you will see shots of the beach or the promenade. To be honest for the past 50 years, it’s only been for rich people, but it was a super welcoming environment for tourists. That’s all gone now.
Bullshit. You obviously were not there in the 80’s and early 90s.
@@Larameme Very presumptuous. What’s your point Lara?
@@euphoricmonk ummm, that it was really crappy and dangerous during the 70’s-mid 90’s and before that it was pretty middle class bungalows. So, def not “for the rich.”
I can remember my mother taking me to the beach there when I was very little.
@@Larameme I get that point, it really only became for the rich in the past 20 years, but north of Montana and next to the beach has always been rich.
The fact that everyone knows the reasons that area has declined, but can’t say on camera for fear of retribution tells you everything you need to know.
There are still riots from the 60s where entire neighborhoods and communities have NEVER recovered even to this day.
It is simply that difficult to build levels of trust in a community and the reality is that the trust between various LA businesses, government, consumers, investors…..is completely broken.
Only way you’ll restore the trust is for the entire state to turn conservative for one cycle and scare away criminals and the rioter demographic…..which is not going to happen. Sucks but hey, just like your grandparents might’ve told you about how amazing the 50s were or whatever, you’ll be able to tell your kids about the once Golden State. Then, they’ll simply roll their eyes because they just don’t know what it was like
What’s the reason? Genuine question, I’m not from America and totally out of the loop.
@@AlfiePT i guess homeless its overun by them and drug additcs
@@AlfiePT Rioters/far left-anarchist types could potentially harass you and threaten you and your business for speaking up.
If you speak up too much, you’ll get labelled as rightwing agitators on the social media space. Otherwise, news media coverage isn’t going to listen to you at all so the social media space is the only avenue you have to talk about it.
@@AlfiePThonestly same, I don’t know the reason aswell.
If someone tells you please let me know, man.
I lived in Cali 10 years ago. I lived it. I meet my girl friend back in Florida. I was so excited to take her to California for vacation. We got to Santa Monica and it TOTALLY changed. I was so embarrassed because i kept saying how great it was.
California was so much better off when Republicans were in charge.
I stayed a night in Santa Monica in 2021 and honestly it felt somewhat normal compared to LA and Hollywood. But for real I don’t get how the politicians actively encouraged this.
florida is next, plenty of democrats moving here.
You were right in a way. It “was” great. 🍻
No one calls it “cali”.
As a European, I have been coming to LA regularly for the past 17 years (mostly for work) and it saddens me to see the state of the city now. It used to be my favorite place in the whole world and I always dreamt of relocating some day in the future. But now I am not so sure. I don’t know what happened to your great nation, so much poverty, division, anger, violence. Makes me sad – I hope things eventually get better.
Where are you from in Europe? I spend a lot of time in Europe (here now)- Europeans must be disgusted when they see LA now….
Yes Europe knows nothing of the woke crap that got SM here. 🤣
@@kavnsted well, Europe is also going through its moments right now! Nothing against emigration as I myself have lived abroad aa well. But illegal immigration ia getting out of control and so are house prices, low paid jobs and everything getting more expensive.
I just came back from Europe (CZ, Germany, Austria, Hungary) and while some places had graffiti, there was no trash or homeless to be seen (unless it is very well hidden). I also learned that there were free college options there, which is unheard of in the US. More education and social services for citizens (mental health/drug recovery) is needed here. The ultra rich / billionaires don’t get taxed their fair share in America, which could solve many of these problems (all left over from the trickle down from Reagan in the 1980s, which closed all of the mental hospitals). I was thinking when I was there that Europeans have no reason to want to come to America now, like when my grandfather grew up, we now want to live in Europe. 😪
Identity politics and political correctness fed into the division and delusions we face today, exacerbated by social media and political organizations focused on content that highlights divides between groups and polarized views.
It’s all about what you’re willing to tolerate. California tolerates everything, and ignores victims.
If you’re soft on crime. and soft on drugs, this is what happens. It’s not rocket science.
@@addd21323 actually, the states that are harsh on crime also have the highest poverty rates. Look at Alabama and Louisiana.
@@kaylayoung3672dude, do NOT compare SANTA MONICA to any city in Alabama or Louisiana to make a point. It’s embarrassing what this state has done to what used to be beautiful cities (San Francisco is another example).
There is a bigger issue. Crime and homelessness is a symptom.
@@kaylayoung3672 Decisions like whether to prosecute petty theft or drug-related crimes are generally up to the county DA, not the state, meaning it’s influenced by the local government. The majority of people living in poverty in Alabama are found in urban areas that are predominantly represented by democrat officials at the local level who are not tough on crime or drugs. Cities like Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile. Which surprise surprise, also suffer from lots of crime and drug issues.
@@YoLyrick he already said it…. DRUGS..
who would have ever guessed that that removing penalties for crime, drugs and other behaviors would have resulted in more crime, drugs and other behaviors?
Imagine my shock 😮
well, at least the statistics show that crime is down! and that’s all they care about.
I’m from Santa Monica. Many many things have gone wrong over the past four years but the collapse started with Black Lives mattering more than anyone and anything else. The riots and looting masquerading as “mourning” that took place in downtown Santa Monica were unconscionable. I watched from my window off Wilshire in complete disbelief. I was still a liberal at the time and couldn’t help imagining what kind of iron-fisted cutthroat military response would be taking place if the mostly unpeaceful rioters were whyte men in MAGA shirts rather than a certain ‘entitled to everything, accountable for nothing’ demographic. I watched BLM rioting/looting/burning chaos unfold and read tweets from LeBron in his 46-million-dollar ivory tower completely detached from reality about how his family couldn’t leave the house because “the whyte man was out there.” I left in October 2020 and never looked back. People still won’t be honest about any of this because there are elite-controlled government powers at play buying it all up for pennies on the dollar. LeBron will probably get a cut.
It’s a sad situation. I hate to agree with you, but I do. People should feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods, but they can’t. Things are getting worse because you can’t say that crime is worse in certain areas where certain kinds of people live, and if you say that you’re deemed racist. You’re absolutely right about that, and that’s terrible because we can’t hold criminals accountable. They say it’s because of poverty, but poverty isn’t the issue. I have family and friends from poor Middle Eastern countries and they don’t have crime like that. Jordan is a poor but well-educated country but violent crime is virtually unheard of. Poverty doesn’t drive criminal behavior. I’m so sick of hearing that excuse.
Don’t come to Philadelphia. It’s just as bad as Santa Monica. Drug users are literally everywhere so we’re blind to them. People are always fighting and stealing. Everyday someone gets shot and killed. Children are raped and murdered. It’s horrible. Even petty crime like package theft is rampant. You can’t even get your groceries delivered to your house because someone will steal it if they get to your door before you do. I’ve even had the delivery guys steal my packages and say it was delivered (Uber Eats, Walmart, and Amazon). I don’t get anything delivered to my house. I have to ship it to a friend outside of the city and drive there once a week to pick up my packages. I’ve heard of people having Uber drivers take screenshots of their addresses and driving by their houses to see if they were home before checking the place out. It’s terrible. Don’t come here. Take your family to a safe city. Don’t even come to learn about the history. Someone will probably try to steal your car or vandalize it.
Worst part about this is the people not speaking up on fear of being canceled online but will tolerate a crackhead destroying their property in real life
I don’t think their concern is about the online reactions. People will go after your job/livelihood and you could make yourself, or your business a target.
My wife and I used to go on date nights at the Promenade, now we avoid it, because of the homeless, drugs and lack of restaurants… Make California Great Again
Graham,
You are an amazing content creator and while you don’t make content like this you’ve done an amazing job putting this outrageous situation to light. There are so many creators creating so much of this content and we’ve become numb to it just because it is perceived as dramatized and repetitive because thats what those creators do. While its entertaining it doesn’t get the message across quite the way you did. I hope more quality content creators who have the kind of influence that you do shed a light on this situation so that california can be restored to its former glory. God speed.
I lived in LA for 10 years and left a year ago for Florida, there was an attempted break-in when my pregnant wife was home alone in the middle of the day. The cops did nothing and took 45 minutes to get there. (three blocks from the police station) We left almost immediately. We both work in the film industry but it just wasn’t worth it anymore. The gaslighting of the city saying the crime was going down when you can see it on the streets every day is absolutely insane.
Same. I moved to Mexico. I feeler safer in Mexico- (which is insane to say outloud), but it’s true.
I went there in 2018. Even then I couldn’t believe how many cracked out homeless people there were on the streets, in what were clearly affluent areas. I was on edge the entire time. What was even more strange was how everyone else was ignoring it as if it was just normal everyday behaviour. I had no intention returning to LA after that. I can’t imagine what it’s like now.