Written by William Hale
Liberal policy and urban chaos has been pushing people out of California for years, but this exodus is especially prevalent in once glamorous cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Hollywood is known around the world as the center of entertainment and celebrity lifestyle, but recent trends in the media business suggest that L.A.’s status as the land of stardom is no longer guaranteed. The latest mogul looking to exit L.A. is Ryan Kavanaugh, adding his name to a long list of California bigshots who have taken their business to red states. Kavanaugh previously served as CEO of Relativity Entertainment, a media and film company. From Joe Rogan to Elon Musk, the Golden State is losing some of its most notable individuals due to a plethora of counterproductive policies.
Kavanaugh cites crime, homelessness, and anti-business policies as some of the main reasons for leaving, “I would never let my kids walk (alone) in Brentwood,” said Kavanaugh, “how many times do you have to be out in Los Angeles and see feces in the streets before you just don’t want to be here anymore?” It is not just the ultra-rich who are leaving, many who are in the middle class are leaving too. West Hollywood Resident Jake Lee, a former special effects technician, is leaving his career and moving his family to North Dallas. Lee said that the crime, COVID lockdowns, and tax policies drove him to Texas, “The final straw was this school lockdown that my (14-year-old) daughter had to endure for a year and a half through 7th and 8th grade, which was truly devastating”. Lee also said that remote learning lead to an increase in cyber-bullying among her classmates. The degradation of L.A.’s formerly flashy aesthetic is only increasing, as demonstrated by the sea of trash surrounding the railroad tracks in downtown L.A. Thousands of littered packages from looted trains passing through Los Angeles even provoked outrage from Gov. Gavin Newsom, “What the hell is going on?” he said. “I mean, it looked like a third-world country…”
On top of the general ugliness that has defined L.A. over the past decade, living and working in the city is not only dangerous, but expensive and impractical. California is the most regulated state in the entire country with over 390,000 regulatory restrictions, and when you account for the absurdly high capital gains tax (highest in the US) it becomes clear why Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX are now a part of Texas’s economy.
Photo Cred: Getty Images
