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

The YouTube Creator Academy:

My ENTIRE Camera and Recording Equipment:

*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.

[shck]

paying $6m to live in a place where you don't feel safe walking around is insanity to me

[mikeshafer]

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.

[christ.]

Soft on crime is the problem. When you're kind to the cruel you're cruel to the kind.

[raphaelprotti]

"Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as to not offend the imbeciles" - Fiodor Dostoyevsky

[Augmentx]

That 20% crime drop makes sense when you realize 40% of the shops left.

[georgeftw]

the fact that people are afraid to say something because its “offensive” or “politically incorrect” and just let their city get to this point is tragic.

[stephengamber]

Santa Monica is like when your beautiful creative girlfriend starts taking drugs and goes downhill, but still claims she has no problem. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

[Eliel]

When people are not willing to speak out against criminal behavior, they will be ruled by it.

[kspencerj]

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.

[EmsFitVenture]

As a former crime analyst, it is wild to hear law enforcement say there is no point in reporting it. You cannot track issues or trends without reports. That screams that they want to say they have lower crime rates because they tell them not to report it.

[Jbriggs]

Imagine voting for this repeatedly, and then being surprised by it.

[philipl]

I'm from New Zealand, but spent quite a bit of time in Santa Monica in the early 2000's. Such good memories, and so sad to see it like this.

[Timithos]

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.

[thesoundofthenorth]

The part that really hit me was "people don't want to share their opinion out of being politically incorrect. They're too scared to share their opinions." This is the current state of our beautiful North America and makes me sad. Why have we gotten to a point in society that people feel scared to share an opinion?

[jimmypoole]

Compassion for criminals is cruelty to law abiding citizens.

[MCMilitaryForce]

I visited LA a few times recently, it was homeless people everywhere. I'm from NYC so I thought we had it bad, but it's a whole new level in LA with every other block. They really got to fix this problem. I used to think LA was a great place when I was a kid

[pre]

The people involved in the 2014 P14 law passing for theft under $950 should be held accountable

[gabepoirot]

so if you say that they should crack down on crime and move the homeless out of the city, you will be labeled as the "extremist, insensitive, intolerant etc", and you won't want to go on Camera. No wonder everyone wants to leave California. People have had enough!!!

[austinjrb]

It's not just Santa Monica, it's all of Los Angeles. Check out all the malls and lively pockets we used to have. Our malls are emptying out, the homeless crisis has EXPLODED to the point that downtown LA has more homeless roaming the streets than residents living in the luxury apartments they beg, scream, and yell in front of. The Walk of Stars in Hollywood is now effectively the Walk of Drugs and Piss (the smell is inescapable). Rodeo Drive, a street infamous for designer stores, has AT LEAST half of their buildings vacant and boarded up for lease. Again, the malls are emptying out and businesses are leaving with no intention of coming back and no prospective replacements, along with many production companies (with multi million dollar filming projects, movies, television shows, ect) moving out of the state because of more attractive tax benefits in places like Atlanta, Texas, and Nevada (among others).

California is on borrowed time. People still think we're some cool city to be at and our reputation is ahead of our current state of affairs, but it's catching up. Videos like this are bringing awareness to the reality of our situation. It's sad, so much potential being wasted. So many resources being mismanaged. So many good people and lucrative businesses run off. Just heartbreaking as a native whose watched up close the decline year by year.

[GNoMe]

Glad to see the shout out to German In Venice. I've been watching his content for a while and it's great. Unfiltered, honest, and informative about what it really looks like on the ground.