Hollywood apocalypse: why the rich and famous are fleeing Los Angeles - ForumDaily
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Hollywood apocalypse: why the rich and famous are fleeing Los Angeles

Celebrities and wealthy people are leaving the city en masse, because of the liberal policy of the authorities, it has turned into a dump filled with drug addicts and violent criminals, writes The Daily Mail.

Photo: Shutterstock

Gold's Gym has become synonymous with the Hollywood dream. Located just a few hundred meters from the ocean on the sunny Venice Beach in Los Angeles, Gold's Gym became the backdrop for the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron, which told the world about a young, unknown Austrian bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger who was preparing for the competition. "Mister Universe".

The film turned Schwarzenegger into a human sensation. He became a global superstar, married a Kennedy woman and became governor of California.

Today, Gold's is in the midst of a post-apocalyptic scene that has engulfed much of Los Angeles, turning the Dreaming City into an urban nightmare from which people are fleeing in droves. An impromptu campground of fluttering tarpaulin and cardboard boxes surrounds the gym on all sides.

Drug addicts and the homeless, many of them clearly mentally ill, walk the palm-lined streets like zombies, all within three blocks of multimillion-dollar homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Stolen bicycles are piled on sidewalks littered with broken syringes.

TV reports are filled with horror stories from all over the city; about women being assaulted during their morning jog; or about residents returning home to find strangers defecating in their front gardens.

Today Los Angeles is a city on the edge. “For Sale” signs are posted on nearly every suburban street as the middle class, especially those with families, flee to safer suburbs and many choose to leave the area altogether.

British-born Danny O'Brien runs Watford Moving & Storage.

“There is a mass exodus from Hollywood,” he says. “And a lot of it has to do with politics.”

His business is booming.

"August has already set records and we're only halfway through the month," O'Brien says. — People are leaving in droves. Last week I moved a big name in the music industry from a $6,5 million mansion on Sunset Boulevard to Nashville."

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O'Brien, 58, who came to Los Angeles from London 34 years ago, plans to move to Tennessee himself.

“Liberal policies have destroyed this city,” he says. — Homeless camps are legal, and the police can't do anything. Prosperous white middle class people are leaving. People don't feel safe anymore."

With movie studios still closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and businesses just starting to remove wood planks erected in the wake of citywide riots following George Floyd's death when he was arrested by white officers in Minneapolis, Los Angeles is now experiencing an exodus of wealthy white residents.

Lou Ferrigno became friends with Schwarzenegger when both worked at Gold's. Although he may not have been as famous as Arnie, Ferrigno starred in The Incredible Hulk and became one of the richest bodybuilders in the world with a fortune of $ 12 million. President Donald Trump named him to his Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition in 2018.

But Ferrigno, for all his impeccable connections, grew tired of what he describes as "dramatic decline" in Los Angeles. He and his wife Karla recently sold their home in Santa Monica for $ 4 million and moved into a 7146 square foot (664 square meters) mansion two hours north of Los Angeles.

“One morning, around 7 o’clock, I opened the curtains in our beautiful house in Santa Monica, and from there three bandits with tattoos on their faces were looking at me sitting against the wall. They made dirty jokes about me and were vulgar. I made a sign that I was going to call the police, and they just laughed, clicking their tongues and showing me their weapons,” Carla recalls.

“I had to put my house up for sale after 40 wonderful years and move north. We were lucky to get out. Now we are in a great place and very happy,” her husband joined the conversation.

Renee Taylor, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and actress, recently sold her Beverly Hills home after half a century in it, and moved to the East Coast.

“I feel so sad for my friends back in Beverly Hills who had to suffer through the looting and riots,” she says. “I left just in time.”

The virus only made the situation worse. Homeless camps are set up in one of the most recognizable tourist destinations.

The stretches of Hollywood Boulevard dotted with shining stars representing those who have fulfilled their dreams of fame and fortune are more reminiscent of a Third World slum than the heart of America's second largest city.

Outside the Chinese Theater, where Marilyn Monroe and other on-screen icons are immortalized with their handprints on concrete, the Michael Jackson and Superman lookalikes, who usually pose with tourists, have been replaced by beggars.

Meanwhile, visitors take pictures of the large Black Lives Matter logo painted in the middle of the street.

The beach car parks in Santa Monica, one of the most popular places, are packed with destroyed motorhomes, each housing several people.

Authorities have even installed portable toilets in the streets to prevent homeless people from using private property.

The Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, home to some of the most prestigious residential buildings in the city, has been renamed West Hood (literally, “Western Ghetto”) by local residents due to rising crime.

Noted publicist Ed Lozzi says: “The city was changing before the coronavirus brought us to our knees. The homeless problem has been escalating for years, exacerbated by weak politicians making poor decisions. Politicians did nothing to stop people sleeping on the streets. It's not illegal and the weather is good so they keep coming. Insufficient housing, inadequate mental health care. Add COVID-19 and you have the perfect storm.”

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“When I first came to Los Angeles 40 years ago, the city smelled of orange blossom,” Lozzi continues. “Now the streets stink of urine.” There's a nice park in Westwood, but you can't go there because people are lying on the ground and you're stepping on a carpet of needles. This is where the elite and middle class are leaving. People are losing money selling their homes to get out of here.”

The gap between rich and poor has never been more pronounced. Just meters from Gold's is the huge headquarters of the internet giant Google in Los Angeles. The car park is located in a building designed by architect Frank Gehry, shaped like giant binoculars. Private security guards roam around as a group of employees drive into the complex in their Tesla, Porsche and Range Rover.

Charity worker Robert (he declined to give his last name) monitors the operation of two portable toilets opposite Google's headquarters. He was recently released from prison, and this menial job is the only one he can get. He says two people have overdosed in the bathroom in the past two weeks.

“I have an anesthetic pen that brings them back to life after an opioid overdose. Since the beginning of August I have had to use the pen twice. The situation is terrible. I don’t blame those who can afford to leave the city for this,” he says.

About 66 people in Los Angeles are now sleeping rough at night, up 000% ​​from last year.

The pandemic has made many in Hollywood realize that they don't need to live in Los Angeles or anywhere near to keep working.

Talent manager Craig Dorfman relocated to upstate New York.

“A lot of people in the industry are looking at their lives and saying, ‘You know, I never really liked Los Angeles. Where would you like to live? I can do what I want from anywhere,” Dorfman says.

Fashion stylist Leah Forester and her husband, film producer Bill Johnson rented a house and moved to the Mexican beach town of Carey with their two children.

“We wanted to be in the healthiest, most supportive, and most serene environment possible so that we could have some sense of control over our immediate environment and our destiny,” argues Forester.

Comedian Joe Rogan, who makes $ 30 million a year from his self-titled podcast, left Los Angeles for Texas and says: “When I look at traffic jams, economic despair, increasing homelessness ... I think there are too many people here. ... And I don't think it's manageable. "

Ironically, the Malibu celebrity enclave, home to activist stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, has cracked down on the homeless with local laws prohibiting people from leaving their mobile homes along the beach overnight.

"They've spread the homeless problem to other parts of the city, like Westwood and Venice," said publicist Ed Lozzi. “This is a classic case of 'not in my backyard.'

Meanwhile, some of the biggest stars are developing contingency plans in case the situation worsens. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson recently adopted Greek citizenship and told friends that they intend to spend more time in Europe.

Producer Dana Brunetti, the business partner of disgraced actor Kevin Spacey and producer of the Fifty Shades of Gray films, received Italian citizenship "because Italy is part of the EU and that gives me a lot of options."

Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban live in Los Angeles, Nashville and her native Australia.

“They spend a lot of time in Nashville. There they can give their children a normal upbringing. They were talking about getting rid of the house in Los Angeles,” the source says.

When news broke recently that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had decided to settle two hours north of Los Angeles, in the prestigious community of Montecito, the news didn't shock anyone.

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One Oscar-nominated writer said, “They've seen enough of Los Angeles to still want to raise Archie in a place like this. Los Angeles has always attracted beautiful and talented people from all over the world who come here looking for fame, money, or both. Now the streets look like Haiti after the earthquake: dirty, dangerous, no work. Even when studios start opening, people prefer to work from other locations. "

The most recent famous person to leave Hollywood is Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, a favorite of showbiz stars. Actor Robert Downey Jr. admitted that it was Musk who inspired his portrayal of Tony Stark, the eccentric billionaire inventor in the Iron Man films.

Musk recently sold his four-home complex in Bel Air for a total of $ 62 million and is rumored to be considering moving to Texas, where he is building a new $ 1 billion Tesla plant.

“When the real Iron Man leaves Hollywood, you know it's over,” summed up a source at one of the major studios.

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