From an article in a special Sunday design section, about a family that moved to Vermont from Los Angeles:
After looting broke out near Mr. Costey's Santa Monica studio in May 2020, he rushed to save his most valuable equipment by loading it into his car. It was around that time that living in the city "just kind of stopped being fun," he said. "We were, like, 'What are we doing here?'"
That's interesting that there was looting in Santa Monica, California in May 2020. The New York Times didn't pay much attention to it at the time, describing instead "peaceful protests" over the death of George Floyd. I searched the archives and did find a Times "California Today" newsletter dated June 1, 2020 that did say "Many of the demonstrations started peacefully and became violent, with widespread looting" and that "while many peacefully marched in Santa Monica and Long Beach, looters ransacked department stores and smashed windows."
What's mildly funny I guess is that if you are a Times-reliant reader who doesn't get the California Today newsletter, you've got to find out about the looting by reading a design section article two years later about the redecorated Vermont house house of a family that moved, instead of reading a hard-news article about the looting when it happened. Even now the Times reporting on the looting is frustratingly vague. It "broke out," like a rash on a teenager's face. Who did the looting and why? What was happening in May 2020 that might have resulted in looting? The Times can't bring itself to say. But one wonders how many other families reacted to the looting and violence that accompanied the Black Lives Matter protests by deciding to move elsewhere.