America’s coastal liberal cities — New York and Hollywood — are facing the same problem: their respective residents are leaving.
Hampered by continued coronavirus-induced restrictions, which have sparked an intense economic downturn in recent months, New York City is seeing a record number of apartment vacancies, Fox Business reported. The picture is just as dark in Hollywood, where, according to the Daily Mail, the rich and famous — who make up much of Tinseltown’s tax base — are fleeing the metropolitan Los Angeles “in droves.”
None of that was made any better by the often violent protesting and rioting that unfolded in both areas. The Black Lives Matter demonstrations, which involved thousands of people packing the streets, occurred while large gatherings — including church services and funeral services — were banned in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. The destructive rioting wreaked havoc on both Los Angeles and New York City, as well as other metropolitan areas around the country, and was met with little to no restrictive action by progressive lawmakers.
In parts of the Big Apple, real estate agencies are staring down a record 122% increase in vacancies. There were a staggering 13,117 vacant apartments across Manhattan in July, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants.
New lease signings have fallen by about 23%, causing a drop in median rental prices from $3,521 in July 2019 to $3,167 last month. The current number of vacancies is the highest it has been in the 14 years the company has put out its annual report.
Other boroughs are experiencing increases in vacancies, too, though none quite as staggering as Manhattan.
According to the Hartford Courant, more than 16,000 New Yorkers switched their residences to Connecticut during the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in earnest in March. Other New Yorkers moved to states like Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and even California.
As for the Golden State, the head of an L.A.-based moving company told the Daily Mail the progressive Hollywood is seeing “a mass exodus” of its wealthy residents.
“Liberal politics has destroyed this city,” said Watford Moving & Storage executive Danny O’Brien, who was born in London and is now planning to relocate to Tennessee. “The homeless encampments are legal and there’s nothing the police can co. White, affluent, middle-class folk are getting out. People don’t feel safe anymore.”
The unrest across Los Angeles following the police-involved killing of George Floyd in May has only further exacerbated the city’s homeless situation. The rioting, too, has only further damaged private property across the metropolis.
One former Beverly Hills publicist, Ed Lozzi, said the homeless problem in Los Angeles “has been escalating for years” and it has only been “exacerbated by weak politicians making bad decisions.”
“Hollywood has always been the wokest of the woke,” he said, “so politicians have done nothing to stop people sleeping on the streets. It’s not illegal and the weather’s nice, so they keep coming.”
Lozzi continued, “When I first arrived in L.A. 40 years ago, the town smelled of orange blossoms. Now, the streets stink of urine. There is a beautiful park in Westwood, but you can’t go there because there are people slumped on the ground and you stop on a carpet of needles.”
He went on to tell the outlet the exodus “is real,” noting the number of elites and middle class residents he’s seen leave the California city. Some, Lozzi added, are even “taking losses on the sales of their homes to get out.”
Comedian and Spotify podcast host Joe Rogan announced in July he is working on leaving California and heading to a “redder” state.
“When you look at the traffic, when you look at the economic despair, when you look at the homelessness problem that’s accelerated radically,” he said, “I think there’s too many people here. I think it’s not tenable.”
“I don’t think it’s manageable,” he explained. “I think every mayor does a [expletive] job of doing it because I don’t think anybody could do a great job of it. I think there’s certain things you’re gonna have to deal with when you have a population of whatever the [expletive] L.A. is, it’s like 20 million-plus people.”