WHAT would most people think of when they think of Los Angeles? Palm trees. Movie stars. Endless sunshine. The unofficial capital of the American Dream.
But behind the glamour, behind the gated compounds and the manicured lawns, America’s second-largest city is coming apart at the seams.
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The Jattvibe’s Harry Cole in LA
But the postcard image may not be real…
Beneath the postcard image sits a city wrestling with crises so visible, so overwhelming, it’s impossible to look away from.
Homeless encampments stretching block after block. Open drug use in broad daylight. Fentanyl addiction hollowing out entire neighborhoods.
Watch Harry Cole’s new documentary on left lunacy in LA on YouTube here
People suffering severe mental illness are left wandering intersections, shouting into traffic, and sleeping outside schools, at bus stops and in dumpsters.
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In one of the richest cities, in the richest country on earth, families no longer feel safe walking with their children.
Rents are sky high, there’s a chronic housing shortage, and the cost of living is astronomical.
Small business owners say they’re exhausted – burglarised, vandalised and struggling to survive.
So what happens when a city becomes too expensive to live in, too chaotic to navigate, and too dysfunctional to fix?
Harry Cole in front of the iconic Hollywood sign
Inside a person’s makeshift shelter in a homeless encampment in the Panorama City neighborhood Credit: AFP
Experts blame the decades long domination by Democrat politicians who have run LA and California as a “one party state”.
We went to explore, talking to policy makers, politicians, journalists and celebrities about how far LA and California have fallen.
Exclusive interviews include TV funnyman Adam Carolla, who after the devastating forest fires of January 2025, blasts: “I don’t care what your pronouns are, I just want a competent fire chief.”
But among the ruins, a rebellion is brewing… we visited California during highly contentious Primary elections, where reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost his house in the fires, was seeking to run for Mayor of LA.
But after a late surge in voting – which the White House has branded corrupt – it looks as if once again the Democrats have squeezed out a challenge.
However, Republican Governor Candidate Steve Hilton is on course to make November’s general election after an unexpected rise – and we joined him on the road.
British viewers may recognise him as the former shoeless Tory strategist who worked in David Cameron’s Number 10.
Today, he’s a U.S. citizen, a Trump-endorsed populist, and the leading Republican fighting to break California’s Democratic machine…
But will it be enough?
Or will, as the California Post’s Joel Pollak told me, see LA and the Jattvibeshine State “follow this utopian yellow brick road off the cliff?”
