The miserable decline of America’s most glamorous metropolis laid naked… and the ultimate straw that sealed its destiny

It was a pop culture paradise in the early 2000s, with throngs of fans lining the streets every night in the hope of spotting their favorite stars.

But the glitter is gone in Hollywood, according to one expert who says the City of Angels is officially dead.

‘In the year 2000, It was just a utopia. Everybody wanted to come to LA. Everyone wanted to party in LA,’ Real Estate Agent and native Angeleno, Makan Mostafavi told the Daily Mail.  

‘The economy was great, everyone had money. Nobody complained about rent or payments or bills or any kind of headaches. Everybody was well off. Everybody was happy. Nobody had any kind of stress and everybody just had a great time.

‘[Now], when you do go out, everyone around you is so stressed out from rent bills, just stressed of everyday life, with everything that’s going on – the homeless, the crime, the high taxes, the just terrible road conditions.

‘It’s just not as fun anymore.’ 

And unlike the manic scenes inside the clubs that left partygoers with wild stories, he claimed young people today are standing around on their phones, aware that letting loose too much could end up all over social media the next day. 

He remembered the times when it was cheaper for him and his friends to eat out on a night on the town rather than making food at home. Dinner would cost each of them around $80 and they’d pop over to the clubs to chug $8 beers.

Nowadays, he estimates it would cost $250 a person for dinner, and drinks can be as high as $30 a pop. 

He said the high of LA’s nightlife scene was from 2000 to 2015 and you needed to know the club promoter or be ‘someone’ to get inside the best clubs. 

Anyone standing in line wouldn’t stand a chance of actually getting inside, he said. 

But now, he claims lines move freely, there’s never a long wait and pretty much anyone can get in wearing whatever they want as the dress code has turned more casual.

‘You could go in in sweats and in flats,’ Mostafavi told the Daily Mail. 

‘I mean, I even joked they might even let me in with shorts, you know what I mean? As long as it’s like yoga shorts, they might let me in. 

‘Back then, that was the highlight of it. You got dressed up. The women got dressed up. You would go out clubbing to meet the opposite sex, to meet people, and have a great time, and then party afterwards, and go to other parties.’ 

He said the clubs also used to be the breeding ground for hookups and relationships, but that isn’t as common anymore. 

‘It’s just not exclusive anymore. Anyone can get in and there’s just not enough people.’

Recently, he went to Break Room 86 around 11.30pm and there were three people in the bar. The bouncer told him it was too cold, no one wanted to come out.  

‘That would have never happened back in the day, like 10, 15 years ago. It didn’t matter if it was cold, raining, snowing, clubs would be packed. Everyone would be having a good time,’ he said. 

Mostafavi, who has lived in LA since the 1980s, said Los Angeles’ crime, homelessness, and drug problems are the culprits of the dying nightlife scene. 

Women hide their nice jewelry and bags, leaving them at home for safekeeping, rather than risk a thief trying to rob them while on a night out. Men keep their Rolex watches out of sight too, the real estate agent, who has 34,000 Instagram followers, claimed. 

Mostafavi claimed robbers have gotten smart too, now bringing the screwdriver that unlocks the Cartier love bracelets. 

‘It’s comical,’ he said. 

In 2025, there were 1,393 armed robberies, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. It was slightly down from 2024, which saw 1,856. 

Overall crime was down in the county, which still saw 60,400 violent crimes take place last year. 

‘It’s a broken system,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘If they [the government] can take care of the crime and homelessness and help improve the economy, there’s no way [nightlife] would not improve. It would definitely improve.’ 

The City of Angels saw many historic establishments suffering and shuttering in the past year. 

Cole’s French Dip, which is credited with creating the iconic sandwich, is on the brink of closure. 

It announced it would close in August 2025 due to a multitude of issues but mainly because the economy had sucked it dry. 

It later moved its closing date to the end of 2025 due to customer support, and has since pushed it back again. 

‘While we absolutely can’t keep Cole’s going in its current iteration, and we will have to close soon, we can’t thank you enough for your patronage and support of our historic venue,’ its website read. 

Le Petit Four, a restaurant, also shuttered its door last year after 40 years as it couldn’t keep up with the rising price of things, including minimum wage. In 2016, minimum wage was $10, now it’s $17.87. 

‘In order for us to survive, we would have to sell $80 steaks,’ the general manager, Luc Mena, told NBC Los Angeles in March. 

The concert hall, Mayan, which had been open since 1927, closed, as well as, Sunset Boulevard hotspot LAVO that shuttered on New Year’s Eve.

Other noteworthy restaurants, such as Rosaline and The Den, have also closed down. The Den had been on Sunset Boulevard for 16 years before shuttering. 

Restaurant patronage dropped five percent between January and August 2025, OpenTable data shared with The Hollywood Reporter showed. 

‘It has been a difficult run for LA restaurants,’ Resy owner Pablo Rivero told the outlet. ‘Even in the best of times, these businesses operate on tight margins – any disruption can shake the foundation, and LA has had a wave of them.’