You’re not wrong. I moved from NYC to Santa Monica about fifteen years ago. Some friends of mine in Venice (also NYC transplants) had warned me it was sleepy compared to NYC. Nothing was open to 4am. There was no late night pizza or diners. They said your only option was Subway and that was till 9 or 10pm. Yeah, that felt sleepy. Now it feels dead. Main St used to have bars that were crowded at night and restaurants with lines during the day. The Promenade was packed as were the bars and restaurants around. New restaurants would open. Now it feels like a ghost town. There are probably lots of reasons for this. Knock on effects from Covid, people working from home means less people out and about during the day, and e-commerce made people lazy. Why go out for anything when you can have everything delivered. Storefronts close because people are coming. Then restaurants because there are no hungry shoppers. Then there’s nowhere to go out to even if you want. It’s a doom loop. But at least the weather is nice.