I grew up in Santa Monica and went back to visit recently. There is so much money there now it's insane. You don't realize it until you live somewhere else, but there are so many expensive vehicles, the people in tshirts are in really expensive tshirts, all the buildings are freshly remodeled, the roads are smooth. It seems everyone there has bought into the California aesthetic. It's a beautiful place but everything is a bit unnervingly nice.
I have been seeing this in my hometown of Atlanta over some years since I moved away. Obviously the new wealth is absurdly imbalanced, but overall the economy is booming and every time I go home there's a bevy of new glass-and-steel condos and brand new Model Xs and Panameras outnumber Civics and Accords 10 to 1.
On the one hand I'm glad to see the city thriving, but on the other it feels inauthentic and the vast sums of money seem to strip the place of what makes it unique.
