Exclusive | Los Angeles Sunset Strip is now on struggle street. The Post walked it for a week heres what we found

Los Angeles’ most iconic party destination is a shadow of its former self as businesses flee and plummeting footfall leaves it in jeopardy, The Post can reveal.The Sunset Strip, a stretch in West Hollywood once known as the “the sexiest mile-and-a-half in America,” now has dozens of “for lease” signs and boarded up storefronts up and down the street.Both locals and workers said was in crisis mode, with fearing it has “lost the soul” that made it one of the most famous destinations in the country.Data from the council show Sunset Strip is one of the most expensive places to base a company in the city, narrowly edged out by Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Melrose Avenue down the road in WeHo.This combined with falling footfall and changing consumer habits since the pandemic has seen the street almost unrecognizable from its heyday.The California Post walked the Sunset Strip over the course of the last week and found empty lots, desolate stores, a dearth of shoppers and even homeless people now living in doorways.Several business owners said the downturn began after COVID, coupled with rising rents and an affordability crisis that is driving out nightclubs and mom and pop shops that made the street famous.Sofi Mamo, the owner of A Divine H20, said the strip has changed for the worse, warning rocketing rent and vanishing landmarks no longer make it the hub for tourists and locals.She said: “A lot of the businesses are struggling to break even because the cost of living is rising and the rent is rising.Since opening A Divine H20 nearly two decades ago in the Sunset Plaza, Mamo told The Post her rent is now “three to four times more.”She added: “I think every small business, every mom and pop, all the small businesses are in danger of extinction.“People used to just come here to experience culture.It kind of lost the soul.

There were so many landmarks that people just go and experience.”Last year’s State of the City from West Hollywood City C...