Santa Monica: From Top Tourist Attraction to Boarded Up, The Reality vs the Rhetoric

Our video opens with footage and photos of Santa Monica in February 2020. The beauty of this top tourist destination and the happiness of the 23,000 people that visit it daily is apparent.

In March, that is replaced with empty beaches, deserted piers and empty streets. The “two week” quarantine we were told we had to undergo to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic dragged out to two months.

Just as Santa Monica got the green light to reopen – with onerous restrictions – the seaside resort town was the site of several Black Lives Matters protests, several of which turned violent and resulted in massive property destruction and looting. Every store on the famous Third Street Promenade was vandalized and looted along with most of the stores and businesses in Santa Monica as a whole.

We won’t enter the debate here as to how the BLM protests turned destructive. We’re just showing the result. Nor are we entering any debate on the cause. George Floyd’s death was murder and that isn’t up for question. Black people do matter and do deserve completely equal rights, opportunity and justice.

A Santa Monica business on posh 4th Street attempting to operate after a long coronavirus quarantine and Black Lives Matter looting

A picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth millions. We skip the rhetoric and political correctness pouring out of the media on both the coronavirus quarantine and the protests and simply show you what happened to Santa Monica regardless of the stated intentions of our health “experts,” politicians and protesters.

Of note, as I was finishing this video the California Governor announced that we could be looking at a new round of lockdowns. The businesses barely made it through the first. The looting caused them another serious setback and a second lockdown would put all of them out of business permanently.

When I see the end result of the two seemingly disrelated events, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a powerful, unseen force working behind the scenes working to divide and conquer us. Watch the video, see the end result of the first few months of 2020 and you decide.

A final note on this. If you have been considering travel to Santa Monica, keep your plans if possible. After the initial wave of violence, the protests turned peaceful and they have currently subsided. The city is repairing itself fast and where the stores are still boarded up they are covered with street art. While you will have to social distance, you’ll most likely find great deals on hotels and other travel necessities.

If you are concerned about the sanitation of the hotels, something I’ve always done is travel with a portable air purifier. Many are germicidal. Ones that release ozone into the air kill germs and viruses, but you will want to let the ozone run while you are not in the room and shut off the ozone about a half an hour prior to staying in the room. It’s a great time to go have dinner in one of the local restaurants while you’re doing this.

Visit this post to see the fun things to do in Santa Monica. As of June 23, the beaches are open though the Santa Monica Pier is still closed.

More photos and credits after the break…