Hollywood business owners upset over city's removal of planters used to deter homeless encampments

Business owners and residents in Los Angeles criticized the city's decision to remove planters that locals said greatly reduced crime in the area.

"I think it's a really terrible thing that they're doing because those planters were there to keep the encampments away," Hollywood resident Jacqui Antebi told NBC4 Los Angeles.

Crews of workers removed the planters along Highland Boulevard in Hollywood on Monday after the city found that the planters were erected without proper approval from the government. Local business owners and residents initially put up planters in May to prevent homeless encampments from taking over the area, according to the report.

"We understand the frustration that local businesses feel about this issue, and we encourage residents to follow the legal process and work with the city to obtain the proper permits to install community beautification projects in the public right of way," a spokesperson for Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez told NBC4.

"This the first time I've been able to walk down the street in years because it's been filled with drug dealers, homeless people. It's been unsafe. I almost got ambushed once just trying to walk home," Antebi said of life after the planters were placed on the street.

Some business owners pointed to the massive reduction in crime after the planters were erected in May.