How downtown Los Angeles became a boarded-up ghost-town with hoards of drug-smoking vagrants
https://nypost.com/2025/08/17/us-news/how-downtown-los-angeles-turned-into-a-crime-ridden-eyesore/
https://archive.is/9VYC6
How downtown Los Angeles became a boarded-up ghost-town with hoards of drug-smoking vagrants and dozens of shuttered storefronts
LOS ANGELES — Downtown in the City of Angels is looking more and more like a ghost town.
The famed Los Angeles neighborhood has become a shadow of its former glory — with rows of boarded up shops, chain stores leaving in droves and hoards of drug-using vagrants sparking major safety concerns for shoppers and business owners alike.
The Post can reveal that there are more than 100 vacant storefronts in the area’s Historic Core, which was the rip-roaring heart of the downtown shopping and entertainment district.
The area’s Art Deco buildings and lavish theater marquees are still there, but they now overlook busted windows, boarded-up storefronts, and throngs of homeless people smoking drugs from glass pipes in broad daylight.
Around one-third of commercial spaces sits empty, according to research firm Avison Young — a higher vacancy rate than Detroit.
Even the most stalwart businesses are being driven out by crime, record-high rents and an ever-shrinking pool of Angelenos with any reason to be downtown, according to business owners.
Macy’s shuttered earlier this year as part of a massive corporate downsizing, leaving downtown without a department store for the first time in 150 years.
Retailers Vans, Theory, Paul Smith and Acne have also vacated the nabe. In 2022, Starbucks closed one of its downtown locations, citing safety concerns.
The downtown Adidas store, which was looted during the anti-ICE riots this summer, remains boarded up and closed following the break-in.
“Everything is different now,” he said. “You used to have people partying in the street. Students would come in from the colleges. They’d get a haircut and go out and have fun.”
>hey did you guys here about the wonderful job Gavin Newsom is doing?
https://archive.is/9VYC6
How downtown Los Angeles became a boarded-up ghost-town with hoards of drug-smoking vagrants and dozens of shuttered storefronts
LOS ANGELES — Downtown in the City of Angels is looking more and more like a ghost town.
The famed Los Angeles neighborhood has become a shadow of its former glory — with rows of boarded up shops, chain stores leaving in droves and hoards of drug-using vagrants sparking major safety concerns for shoppers and business owners alike.
The Post can reveal that there are more than 100 vacant storefronts in the area’s Historic Core, which was the rip-roaring heart of the downtown shopping and entertainment district.
The area’s Art Deco buildings and lavish theater marquees are still there, but they now overlook busted windows, boarded-up storefronts, and throngs of homeless people smoking drugs from glass pipes in broad daylight.
Around one-third of commercial spaces sits empty, according to research firm Avison Young — a higher vacancy rate than Detroit.
Even the most stalwart businesses are being driven out by crime, record-high rents and an ever-shrinking pool of Angelenos with any reason to be downtown, according to business owners.
Macy’s shuttered earlier this year as part of a massive corporate downsizing, leaving downtown without a department store for the first time in 150 years.
Retailers Vans, Theory, Paul Smith and Acne have also vacated the nabe. In 2022, Starbucks closed one of its downtown locations, citing safety concerns.
The downtown Adidas store, which was looted during the anti-ICE riots this summer, remains boarded up and closed following the break-in.
“Everything is different now,” he said. “You used to have people partying in the street. Students would come in from the colleges. They’d get a haircut and go out and have fun.”
>hey did you guys here about the wonderful job Gavin Newsom is doing?
