In 2002, Long Beach was portrayed as a grimy and dilapidated city in the Robert DeNiro film, "City by the Sea." Elovich told the Herald upon the movie's release that Long Beach residents were due an apology. He and other city officials held a press conference lashing back at the portrayal of Long Beach in the film, loosely based on the 1996 murder committed by Joey LaMarca.

"In the '40s and '50s, people wore dinner clothes on the boardwalk at night to go to some of the more famous hotels," Elovich said in the 2007 interview. "In the 1980s, property values went through the roof and the city got rid of every boarding house in town. A big project with a Waldbaum's knocked down a lot of less-than-desirable houses and it went from there to having condos on the beach."