Los Angeles - What It's Really Like Now 🇺🇸

[blues music] [Peter] Good morning guys from high above Downtown Los Angeles through the haze you can barely see it.

It's been in the news a lot lately.

It's a very much misunderstood place.

It's a beast of a city.

So the goal today is to get into different neighborhoods talk to different people get all sorts of types of perspectives to get a better understanding of what America's second most populated city is like now.

Let's do this.

[music continues] [cars honking] [Peter] Here we are, Rodeo Drive.

Known as one of the most expensive streets in the world.

For those high-end shoppers this is the place.

And not long ago it was fields.

Farm fields.

It was right at the turn of the century that it turned into commerce.

Obviously it didn't start like this.

It started a little more simple with hardware stores and more middle-class community type stuff.

This is the Maybourne Hotel.

-Oh okay.

Right here is the Sweet Garden if you follow me.

-Oh you're an ambassador.

Yes sir. I'm Jose Aguilar. My pleasure to meet you sir.

Peter, Jose, nice to meet you.

-This is one of the unique hotels that they have in Beverly Hills.

-Do you love it? Beverly Hills?

I love everything about California.

How's crime right now? Is it pretty-- To be honest with you sir crime is everywhere.

Even in our own backyard.

-Even in Beverly Hills?

Most likely sir.

-Less of it here then? -Less but you know it's unexpected.

-They sneak behind things and you never know.

But the Beverly Hills Police Department, they're on track.

And they will make sure-- -They don't mess around? -Exactly sir.

So yeah a lot of people don't understand that Beverly Hills is a separate city from Los Angeles.

-Totally different police department. -Different. They don't play games.

-Jose… -My pleasure to talk to you.

-Appreciate it. -My pleasure.

All right, before we really jump into this video I want to explain that many outside of the region, people here know this but most of the country and world doesn't.

There's the City of Los Angeles 3.8 million people.

Then you have LA County, roughly 10 million people in 88 cities.

And then you have Greater Metro LA.

So you're going to include Riverside County, Ventura County, Orange County.

And now we're up to 18.8 million people.

Now when you take that number 17 million people is the size of Finland, Norway, and Denmark.

Roughly 17.

Greater LA Metro area is bigger than the population of those three countries.

When we talk about economy it's on par with Indonesia, with Switzerland, with the Netherlands.

We're a bit early here. That's why nobody's sitting down yet.

A bit early for lunch.

Yeah Switzerland, that to me was surprising.

They have less people but still that's such an economic powerhouse.

So when people say LA quite often they're wrapping it all into LA County and the cities within LA County like Santa Monica, Malibu, Beverly Hills.

[Peter] What's up you guys?

-You guys live here? -No.

-Where are you from? -Ireland.

-Ireland? -Ireland.

Some Irish perspective. How is it? What do you think?

We've only been here two days but it's good.

-Yeah? -It's a lot warmer than Ireland.

-Are you guys drinking yet? -Not yet. Not today not yet.

What do you think of this 21 and over BS in America?

-You're not having it huh? -We're 21 so we don't mind.

Oh you are? Okay cool.

We get away with it, it's grand.

-All right guys, take care. -Thank you cheers.

[Peter] Here's some budget food. Have you been here?

[Peter] Okay guys. This is…

-See ya. -See ya.

This is a high-end grocery store.

So let's check out what this is like.

It's called Erewhon.

I believe I got that right. Very famous place.

We got a $10 brownie.

Got all sorts of cheeses.

This is if you want designer groceries, high-end groceries, look at this place.

You can get your Wagyu New York steak.

$63.

I'd say four meals in there.

In December they're gonna have the $20 strawberry.

-What's so special about them?

They come from Japan.

-Japanese strawberries, 20 bucks? -Yeah.

For one.

[chuckles] Thank you.

Got some expensive snacks here.

Some $5 dense nutrient bars.

Some fruit.

And guys we're going to do what I love to do best which is jump to the other side of the tracks.

Nothing like the juxtapositions to make it interesting.

So get in the car, cruise downtown.

[indy rock] Well guys you can see the difference outside of Beverly Hills and what the sides of the roads look like here.

I don't even know what neighborhood we're in but on the way to downtown and gotta say just getting on that on-ramp it's quite grubby and trashy.

All right, this is LA for ya.

Traffic.

And you gotta love this about California.

You can… if you're a motorcycle rider the cars don't like it but you can go legally between the cars.

And it comes from an old law and it's because I used to have a motorcycle when I lived in California.

It was something around motorcycles would overheat if they were sitting in LA traffic.

And so correct me whoever knows this better than me correct me if I'm wrong here but the motorcycles were therefore allowed to go between the cars so they could keep air going around the engine so they wouldn't overheat.

[woman] Look at his camera, bro. Yeah it's just a big deal.

Is he serious? That is so cute.

It is cute. Not me the camera.

But you were telling me all the bathrooms, they don't let you go around here?

-They don't and I don't know why. -[man yells off camera] It's bullsh*t. They lies and say that they're out of order but they're not.

It's bullsh*t. They lies and say that they're out of order but they're not.

I tell them to go around the corner and whip it out.

-That was your advice? -He said he ain't doing that sh*t.

He gon' hold it.

-Okay your gas is crazy expensive.

Yes, very expensive.

You gotta be rich to live out here.

-You do huh? What's rent like?

$10,000.

-Take care.

All right guys. Just trying to take a roadside urination break and it's becoming quite challenging.

None of the gas stations will let me in.

And here's another neighborhood.

I don't know where we're at. I'm guessing north of downtown a little.

Look at these trees. That's beautiful.

Like she said, you gotta be rich to live here.

Not everyone's rich obviously but the prices on gas or housing.

I mean housing is one of the most expensive I believe in the country.

What is it? New York, San Francisco, and then LA?

Something like that.

So the thing with this city to pull together all these neighborhoods is a lot of driving.

So the camera's off most of the time.

[hip hop] Looking pretty rough down here these days.

Little historical context, Skid Row has always been bad.

I remember being at the Greyhound station up here when I was 18.

It was pretty sketchy.

But it's gotten worse I would say.

There are a lot of organizations down here providing food.

Providing the basics to get by.

So looks like something going on there.

"No Chance Foundation".

I'll check that out actually.

You can see here we have a shower stop Van.

We have a shower trailer will pull up tap into the water and there's a shower.

I mean does the leadership look at this?

Do they ever drive down here?

Do they understand what's going on?

Imagine the kids that gotta grow up in this.

That's rough.

[loud rap music outside] Got the cautions on. Parked in the red.

And I'll probably get a ticket for a illegal parking.

You guys come out here once a week?

So we come out here once a week.

-Every other… Yes sir? -Need pickles.

Need pickles?

So every other Thursday we come out here, we set up.

We got dog food, we got hygiene, we got food.

We just come out once a week on every other Thursday.

-How's the situation right now?

It's what you make of it.

Everybody here has a different story, a different past, a different future.

So we're the No Chance Foundation.

We take people who feel like they have no chance and try to give them a chance.

-You work for MTA?

Yeah I work for MTA. I used to drive the 720.

We used to come up this way and then 5th Street.

So for seven years I used to come here then growing up I had family here.

Still now I got family out here somewhere.

-Tough to get them off?

It's a choice. Some of them want to, some don't.

-There was a stop on MacArthur Park. -Okay.

I talked to a guy. His wife had passed away.

She was living in the tent.

When she passed away they found $300,000 in their tent.

All from panhandling over the years.

I asked him, "Bro, why won't you just go do something?"

He don't want. They don't want the responsibility to play by the rules.

They want to get what they can and how they get it.

So everyone here can get housing through the city?

Yeah. You go to apply for it.

They got places where they can shower, they can live there.

All they have to do is abide by the rules. Be in by a certain time, get a job.

Some don't want to.

And that's what people from the outside can't understand.

It's a lifestyle here. It's a social world.

Right. It's a community. It's its own community.

So here there's programs and there's things that help these people here and they don't want to do it.

Some really like the luxury of not having to do something.

Like my brother here. He's sitting under the tree.

Doesn't have a care in the world.

We feed him, give him clothes. They have no reason to do anything.

Some of them like the fact that that goes on but we not here to judge.

We just here to give that helping hand.

-Do you find anyone really genuinely happy?

Have you met anyone out here?

Yeah. If you walk down 5th Street there's another park on 5th and San Julian.

If you walk up there if you walk down 7th Street.

Majority of the people you see will be laughing, will be joking, will be having fun.

So the next street over there's a street full of mobile homes.

About eight of those, there's kids.

If you walk down that street you'll see the kids outside playing.

They have no care in the world, no responsibilities.

You can't… We live with the stress of paying rent, paying bills, going to work, taking care of kids.

They don't have that.

And they like that.

[Peter] So you were saying down here recently it's changed a bit.

Yeah it's changed due to the Trump administration.

-The raids?

The raids yeah. They haven't been… They're literally… like the Home Depot and all the stuff that's down this way, you'll see them gearing up going straight through here 20 cars deep to go do a raid.

So it's not like it's prevalent as out there down here but I'm guessing a lot of people are pretty much scared to be down here.

-You notice a difference? -Yeah it's not a lot of vendors down here.

The bus stops are cleaner. There's not as much people on the bus.

It's a whole different ballgame out here right now.

-Interesting.

A lot of people are living in fear just to be… -They're staying low? -Yeah staying way low.

If they have a job then they'll probably take the chance to go to work.

-Okay, so watching the protests on TV, you saw the Waymos burning and whatnot.

People were saying those are the illegals.

I'm like no they're not 'cause the illegals are hiding. Right?

Yeah, no. The people that are protesting aren't illegal because if you're protesting and you're illegal then you're going to go to jail.

So it makes sense not to… You know what I mean?

-Yeah, yeah, that's what I was thinking.

And I get both ends of it but it's like… -Yeah what's your take on the situation?

I mean the country is based on immigrants anyway.

So that's my spiel but it's the law coming.

It's the law but… I mean… -You know what I mean? -Right.

It's Catch-22.

-And it just gets totally polarized.

Yeah it's going to get worse as far as the protests I believe.

You think so? It's calm right now right?

Yeah it's been calm lately 'cause I guess the initial push is real… [slaps hands] real strong and hard.

So it hasn't been… At least down here it hasn't been like that 'cause there's still a lot of the influx like the Venezuelans and the Guatemalans that came over with that little deal where they got the money. They're still here.

-How did you guys feel about them getting money to come over?

I mean it didn't really affect me because I work.

So it's like I don't… You know?

I can understand how some others are upset about it if they're trying to get benefits and then you have someone else get this lump sum of money and give them all this stuff.

They got the wool pulled over their eyes because it's like you're here now.

You're not a citizen and now you're in threat of going back to where you're from.

It's like you got that little chump change or whatever.

Now you got to go back. You know?

-Yeah.

Did you grow up around here?

I grew up by Crenshaw High School. I went to Crenshaw High School.

-Crenshaw? Okay.

What are you doing out here?

I'm just working. We service the restrooms. -Oh okay.

That in itself is a show.

-I bet. -Yeah. If that toilet could talk.

That'd be the best interview you could ever give.

-So you're cleaning, keeping everything together?

Pretty much cleaning.

-Thank you for doing what you do. -Yeah.

[hip hop playing on the street] A lot of drugs going on.

Oof, what a smell.

You see the city workers out here.

These guys are cleaning up and it's a wild scene.

As the guy was saying back there you got families living out of these RVs and this is the world they're growing up in.

-How you doing sir? -All right.

Yeah the streets just got taken over.

You got this woman over here with her grocery cart.

And then you got this guy down here near the post.

And you're down here long enough it sort of becomes normal and, uh, it's not.

[laughing in disbelief] This is a problem. I've made…

I sort of gave up on making these types of videos in the last year or so but… It needs to come out and be shown that this is unacceptable.

It's just a huge, huge endeavor.

And I think cities across the country uh, just would rather have it like this than try to really go deep on the problem.

I mean when you go deep on the problem this is a big, big topic.

No one really grew up well here.

A few maybe.

But the average person didn't, you know, have a great childhood.

They have serious problems. That's what leads to the drugs usually and that's what creates this.

So… interesting place.

Then you got this Regal Hotel being renovated.

That's wild.

We have three buildings that we're rehabbing.

You know there's OD… I was kind of friends with a guy that was in front of us… OD'd.

It's just bad. Had a murder on Saturday right down San Julian.

-What's this gonna be?

-Hotel Regal. -This is gonna be an SRO.

Single room occupancy.

One room.

Um and they share restrooms and showers.

-Okay. So city housing basically? -City housing. That's what it is.

Okay. So worse than two years ago or pretty much the same?

I live in a loft in downtown on 6th and Main and so I've been around for a while.

And with the Fentanyl situation I absolutely think it's gotten worse.

-For sure. -Yeah, yeah.

Like this lady. She's like retirement age you know?

As a country this should be one of the top issues I think.

-Right? -Of course!

It's not going anywhere.

Listen to me. We're spending billions in these f*cking wars that have nothing to do with what they say they're for.

And look at our community, man.

It's just sad.

It really is.

Me and my wife volunteer at the Midnight Mission every Thursday.

I mean cause we… I just… we try to have to… That's the only way things are gonna change man.

Is is giving back and attempting… -So my theory… Tell me where you think I'm wrong here.

-I'm sorry you got work to do. -No. I'm the superintendent.

I put time into Kensington, PA, which is the worst probably.

Worse than this. I'd say next level up. This is about second worst.

-It's number two. Silver medal. -Yeah.

Uh the law doesn't work in the sense that we can't remove people from the streets in these places from my understanding.

When you're in the drugs you're not gonna want to go.

Correct.

And when you're getting given stuff you're gonna survive.

Food, clothing, they give them everything, healthcare.

So then it's never gonna go away.

So we need to we need to toughen up a little as a as a culture.

Okay, these people are having problems. We need to take them into rehab, into housing.

-They can't be on drugs. -Yeah.

Job training.

Some are never gonna get anywhere but some might come through. Right?

Yeah. No. It works. These programs work.

Like I said, me and my wife volunteer at the Midnight Mission So, you know, they have a drug rehab program there.

-Okay cool. -An educational program there.

And there's people that really want it. You know what I mean?

For whatever circumstances in their life they turn to drugs and alcohol and then they turn their life around and are trying to do something else.

So there's not enough of these programs. -The rehab right? -Yeah.

-And mental health. That's it. -Mental health.

-You see people screaming all day. -Yeah.

-It's it's the saddest thing in the world. -Yeah.

These are government buildings.

So we get paid prevailing wage because it's for the homeless.

-You get paid what? -Prevailing wage.

So it means like… So what I would usually make 30 bucks, I'm making 70 something now an hour.

So this is a job you want to be doing?

-Yes. Oh man. -Because it's for government.

-So this is this this is City of LA?

City of LA.

-And they're going to put who in here? -Homeless.

-Homeless. If they want to go in? -Yes.

But they don't because they want to be in the streets.

That's why Skid Row is how it is.

If they fix Skid Row there's no money for the government no more.

So if they're rid of the homeless, there's no money for the government.

So that's why they have them out here.

They bring bathrooms for them.

They bring food.

If you come… or if you actually would have came earlier they massage they feets right here for the homeless.

I'm not lying. They massage they feets.

-Did you get one?

I wish I would have. Man I work hard and I don't even get one.

They get food.

So is that crazy for you that you know that this will probably be really nice.

It will be redone and then a lot of the people won't even want to go in there?

No because they've got to be drug free or they've got to follow the rules or they've got to come inside before a certain time.

So like after 10:00 they can't come back out but they don't want that.

So they'd rather be out here in the streets.

But it's all a revolving door.

Everything is money from somehow… 'Cause the government says okay we give to homeless but the homeless, they don't get it. The government steals it.

-And this is the government's real estate?

-Yes sir.

And it's all this. It's that one right there, government.

That one government.

All these that you see on Skid Row is all government buildings.

All right guys, we're moving on to the next neighborhood.

And I just want to take a quick break to talk about the sponsor of today's video.

We are unfortunately in a world where… Well, how do you trust the information that's coming to you?

I don't know one journal that I go to for the objective facts.

Everything's got an angle including this video right? Including my work.

Why am I choosing these locations?

Well I want to show you juxtaposition. I want to show you the wealthy.

I want to show you the down and out.

We're going to go to where the ICE riots were… or one of the places.

And it was really hard and still is to understand what exactly happened.

There's no one journal that has the truth unfortunately.

No one journal that's just going completely objective.

That's why you need Ground News.

Ground News is a great website and app where basically it takes in a lot of big headline stories from a lot of different media sources, breaks it down to what's more biased towards the Right what's more biased towards the Left.

And what I really like about this too is it's not the information you're seeing.

It's like what are you not seeing?

What is not being presented to you because of the information silo you're in?

And so Ground News, you're able to get away from that, see things from both sides, break down where the money comes from too which is very cool.

Or you can go into these media companies and see who's the money behind them.

So check it out guys.

groundnews.com/peter.

Subscribe through my link down below to get 40% off the Vantage Plan.

Now back to the story.

[Peter] We have City Hall, beautiful building.

-Take care you guys. -Have a good one.

-You found it? -I found the restroom. Thank you.

-You're welcome.

Okay so no one's at the mall anymore?

It was shops when we first started working here.

And then they started closing down like since.

-How many years ago?

We started working here in 2022.

And the shops that were along that little road right there they just started closing like the Sbarros, the Quiznos.

-They did a farmer's market right here. -On Wednesdays.

Okay. But it's still open down here? Just nobody's here?

-There's no shops. -Alright.

It's the one or two shops that you see down there.

-Thank you. -You're welcome.

Look at this. This is really interesting.

Cool old architecture.

Brutalist '80s architecture which I like.

Maybe it's '70s.

Look at this.

No one really here.

The Los Angeles Mall.

Because I'm sure back in the day when malls were a big thing everyone would come out.

Families kids.

Look at this. We've got a payphone.

[dial tone hums] Still working.

[phone clicks] Look at this place.

This is right in the city.

"Civil and Human Rights and Equity Department".

"Sears shoe repair".

LA DOT.

Department of Transportation. Okay so we've got some government stuff here.

Sbarros left.

Quiznos moved.

Immigration attorneys.

So empty.

Okay so we're coming up on where some of the riots were.

Depending on who you talk to it was not a big deal at all or it was a huge deal.

I find reading from both sides super fascinating.

How words are used.

How they decide to use photos.

How the person looks in the photos.

We're always being played to some degree.

So here's where they were.

I can see there was graffiti all there.

We'll go over there.

They've cleaned it up.

So a lot of open air drug usage here in the park.

Such beautiful architecture.

Look at this.

Those out there from LA that have lived here for most of their lives or all of their lives, when do you think were the best years of the city?

Like when these places that are structurally beautiful but energetically pretty heavy with people doing drugs.

Like when was it different here?

Love to know.

Everything goes in a cycle. I don't like doing the doom and gloom.

This won't be like this forever.

I feel like this problem will come to a head.

There'll be a change in policies and in the culture.

And things will cycle around again.

That's how things always work.

Constantly moving in a cycle.

And we want to get back up to a higher point right?

Isn't that the goal?

But then when you get up there you're gonna go right back down again eventually.

-How you doing sir? -Hi.

Were you here for the… the event?

-Yeah.

-Were you selling hot dogs? -Yeah.

-You remember the protest here? -Mm-hmm.

How was it?

-It was good. -Not bad?

Yeah it's okay. Good.

-Can I show the papaya?

Mm-hmm..

-Oh nice.

So was business good during the riot?

Mm-hmm. Thank you.

[Peter chuckles] Alright. Gracias.

Alright. Gracias.

-Okay. Gracias. -Take care.

Alright so I think I understood him right.

He said he was operational here.

But probably not right when things were really kicking off here.

But you can see all the graffiti underneath.

Barely there though.

They did a pretty good job of getting rid of it.

And so interesting that the event kicks off and then goes back to normal life not much long after.

Then it could kick off again. Who knows?

Another big riot was over here as you can see.

The graffiti clean up crew hasn't done the same work back here.

Wow.

Alright. So there's still a bit of a presence here in front of the building.

And one sole man out here.

Sir do you have anything to say?

Just that I… There's only one of me at the moment but I… I'm not protesting the Marines at all.

They're just Americans doing their job like anybody else.

But I'm protesting Trump's ICE raids.

That's why I'm here at that detention center.

As my sign says I feel like immigrants are an important part of our country's future if nothing else simply for the reason that in the United States as in almost every other wealthy country in the world people aren't having a whole lot of kids anymore.

In fact without immigration our population would already be in decline.

-We're lucky that we can turn on the spout as much as we want really.

Right.

And at this point we're basically turning it off is what it seems like.

Okay so the first raid on the 6th was in the Garment District.

They had a warrant for the business right? They were laundering money.

-Yeah. -Like that was… Are you for that let's say?

In cases where there's evidence of actual criminal activity like they're actually committing fraud or theft or violence.

I mean then I believe that actual crime absolutely.

That we have a responsibility to prevent that.

Okay I'm going to run something past you.

Tell me what you think.

This is like a very generalistic statement.

I feel most Americans, 95%, someone rapes a child causes a crime like kills someone they're all for them getting deported right?

Someone's been here 5, 10 years they've worked hard, they've paid into the system.

Well not so many are into those people getting deported.

And then the dreamers, nobody, maybe 5% are all for someone that came as a kid 50 years ago should get deported.

So the problem is the conversation, it's like a sliding scale.

-Yeah. -Right?

And one side goes extreme and the other side goes extreme.

But I really feel like 80% of Americans are sort of on a similar page with this.

Most people on the Right, some definitely don't want any immigrants but I would say most are totally… like legal immigration.

They're totally for legal immigration.

Oh absolutely. I get that.

The problem in my mind is that they've made it very difficult to come here legally.

Like when my ancestors came in the late 19th early 20th century It was totally different.

-It was extremely easy. -Yeah.

Well that's the conversation 'cause if we make it easy like that half of India is here tomorrow.

And then rent prices are through the roof right?

Potentially yes.

I mean that's a possibility.

But I feel like there has to be some kind of middle ground between as few as we're letting in now and letting in literally everybody.

-Yeah. -That's how I would feel about that, yeah.

I've been at the border over the last four years.

That was wild.

I mean the cartels controlled it completely.

It was a nightmare.

And now nothing's getting through there.

So it's… Everyone's on like a… Our media too doesn't shake out any of this stuff in a fair way.

It's either one direction or the other.

Yeah.

Honestly most Americans are good people and they're willing to have a conversation.

I think so.

It's just we're in this social media landscape.

-It's just rage bait, get angry. -Absolutely yeah.

Alright well thanks for the conversation.

-I'm just making a video on LA. -I appreciate that.

[sirens blaring] [Peter] This is a nice part of downtown.

I've always wanted to go in this library.

So we're going to take a quick peek.

Check it out before we get out to the coastal areas.

-How you doing sir? -How you doing?

What a stunning building.

There are so many floors and rooms. This place is absolutely massive.

And LA has so many treasures.

Architectural treasures.

The Getty name is such a big name here in Los Angeles.

J. Paul Getty, big oil baron.

And then where does the money go?

It goes down to the kin.

And well it can go into beautiful buildings like this.

Or it can go into politicians pushing influence.

You know I actually got… Oh look at that.

I actually had a billionaire reach out to me once to get involved in San Francisco politics.

And that's how it works right? They sort of stay behind the scenes and fund people with the ideology they want to move forward.

And that's how they pull the levers of power.

Gordon Getty funded Gavin Newsom in his business endeavors and political endeavors.

A lot of oil money which is interesting right?

Getty money is deeply entrenched in the politics of California that's for sure.

Alright so we're heading towards the Palisades.

For those that don't know mega fire came through here.

And I don't know what we can get through.

I'm sure some of it's closed off but I just want to show you guys what it looks like.

I haven't seen it yet for myself.

Get a little look and then get out to the beach.

Look at that flag. So it looks like that was burnt down.

I'm actually doing a whole video on this topic tomorrow.

So it will be on the next week's video.

And there you go. New roof or burnt roof.

Reconstruction.

And the Palisades, in greater LA is one of the nicest neighborhoods.

The ocean's not far.

Beautiful homes, beautiful landscaping.

And yeah it's ocean basically to the left and then mountains up to the right.

So this guy did okay.

And then his neighbor didn't.

And their neighbors definitely didn't.

Alright looks like all the debris been removed.

At least up here.

But nothing being built yet.

Oh wow, look at this. This is wild.

[birds chirping] The one thing that's made for fire, the chimney always stands.

"Palisades Recreation Center Rebuilding our community".

"Palisades Strong".

And whoa. Look at that.

Just roasted right through that steel.

The math learning center is still open.

But look how empty it is.

No people.

Hardly any cars.

Sunset Boulevard.

Totally empty.

Probably the one time in its history that it will be like this.

I'm sure a year from now it'll get busier and then after more so.

But this is it guys.

Nobody around.

Look at how fast nature comes back.

It just ripped through here.

January 7th.

Right in the middle of winter.

Still smell the charcoal.

Look at this.

A lot of these stucco buildings seemed to do okay.

And you can see here the trees burnt.

But it didn't get the building so much.

Bricks stucco any metal.

is all good.

And then some stuff.

That looks like a tinderbox over there with all the wood decking material and what not.

But it's totally fine.

-You're doing this work out here? -We're doing the work here.

The site clean for this client.

Pretty much wrapping up the major cleanup.

Removing the last of the concrete and, you know, whatever roots and turf was in this side.

-So how's it been overall? Has it been crazy?

It's been hard with just trucking alone.

The amount of trucks that we have to get.

Certain areas that we can only dump.

-So no one's rebuilding yet right?

It's just clearing the lots?

No, they're rebuilding.

-There's a little bit? Okay.

There's clients that have gotten their final permit done.

So they have the demolition and the cleanups done.

Approved by the city that it's done.

[construction noise] Now they can do their building.

[noise continues] [Peter] All day long huh?

You working long hours?

Five to nine brother.

Five to nine?

Sometimes it's six to seven but still long hours.

Yeah.

-Is there a shortage of workers for all this work?

-Yeah. -You need guys out here?

A million guys yeah.

You could use a million?

Well I did need a million. Now it's getting slower. You know?

A lot of the contracts, a lot of the clients, and the lots have been getting done.

So now it's really kind of a fight to get clients.

Since there's so much competition going on out here.

-Oh really?

Yeah, so now it's really getting like okay who can give me the better bid?

And who can get it done faster?

-Okay so the client actually has options right now if they want to rebuild?

Yes.

Are guys from all over the country coming in here?

-Or is it just SoCal? -All over.

They're coming in from like Utah, and Tennessee, Oregon.

We worked for some lady that lived in Oregon.

She's like I came down here for the fires.

And then her brother has his company coming here from Texas.

They're coming from-- -So they're all coming in for the opportunity?

Yeah.

-'Cause if someone gets a good insurance payout they got the money.

-One job, change your life. -One job will change your life?

Really?

Yeah a $300,000 job, you finish it in one week.

-One week?

We've done houses in three days.

I've done a $100,000 job in like a couple days.

-Are you serious? -Yeah.

But then you get another job where somebody wants to do the whole lot for 30K.

-So you guys are just cleaning lots?

Just clearing lots yeah.

I'll OX, I'll grade and put pipe in the ground if they want that too but right now they're just only letting us do this.

Clear lots.

-So Army Corps of Engineers isn't doing this?

No they're still doing this.

But the client will hire you 'cause you're quicker?

No they'll hire us because we're just a private contractor so Army Corps of Engineers hits you with "Oh it's free, it's free, it's free."

But everyone's thinking that they're going to get a bill down the road.

-That's what people think? Oh.

I mean nothing's usually free from the government.

You're gotta pay it back one way or another.

-Do you guys live around here?

No I live in Riverside.

I live in Montclair.

-Riverside's what an hour and a half commute?

With traffic, four hours.

But we got a house. We stay in an Airbnb out here.

-You rented a place just to be out here? -In Beverly Hills.

So the trades, I mean if you're in the right trade right now it's good out here.

If you do a fire, like cut fire line on a fire and the dozers and the excavators that are all fully with the fire department they pay cash, like $750 a day cash.

Fire department yeah.

Just to go and cut so the fire's not spreading to the next… -I mean this is some of the priciest real estate in the world.

Yeah there's been $20 million homes that I've done right here.

Demoed.

There's people that they assume that because you're in the Palisades they have money.

But I've heard of people in the lots here that have had issues or threatened to put a lien on their houses because they don't have the money to clean the lot.

-Right. -They got inherited that home.

Just 'cause they have a house out here doesn't mean they have an income.

Some people are super wealthy, some aren't.

Some people were just inherited the property.

-Yeah.

So how does it work like a house like that just didn't even get touched huh?

-I don't know. -Just luck of the draw.

Yeah. It's like the fire pick and chose what it wanted you know?

[construction noise] Look at this viewpoint.

This is one of the most stunning viewpoints in the city I would say.

And you have the beach right there.

Alright guys, want to show you this before we get to Venice Beach.

And these are the Venice canals.

And Venice as you might imagine is named after Venice, Italy.

A little bit of a different look but they're going for a similar theme here.

Living on the water.

Here we got the boats and bridges.

So yeah this came about in the early 1900s with gondolas and gondoliers.

Some Italian style architecture sprinkled in here.

So I've been told.

-How you doing? -How you doing?

-Do you live around here? It's nice huh? -Yeah.

-You love it? -The best yeah.

-Is it great? -Mm-hmm.

Cool. Do you take a boat around and cruise around?

-Not very often. -No?

The walks in the evening with the dog are the best.

-Is it a tight community?

Yeah. I mean everybody talks to everyone.

There's no… Mostly it's like no big walls.

-So you can just talk to your neighbors. -Right.

This is cool.

They do art events every year.

There's like a cute little Santa thing where everyone decorates their kayaks and stuff.

-Right. Everything's in the open here.

Ah this is cool.

Cute homes.

Right next to the water.

-How you doing? -I'm good.

Hey nice dog.

Yeah so there were gondolas and gondoliers.

A miniature railroad, so I read.

And then out in front of us is Venice Beach where we're gonna go.

So even in Venice here you have all these different realities 'cause you're gonna see Venice Beach which is totally different than here.

But this is cool.

Very ornate and walkable and eclectic.

Different architectural styles.

Smells so good here.

A little bit of salt.

Salty smell. And then all these flowers and oh, this guy's landscaping.

It's probably that.

How you doing?

Yeah it goes for a ways. So you see the Bridges here.

Both directions.

[duck quacking] [Peter] Here we are, iconic Venice Beach.

And this place is always an interesting visit.

Sort of a counterculture place in the '60s and the '70s.

It was in ruins in the '50s.

And then the '60s and '70s, countercultural.

And now is this.

I've been coming here forever.

[Peter chuckles] -Hey! -Hey!

-Hey! -Hey!

It's a wild trip out here.

We got some tents out.

The tents were crazy during the pandemic here then they sort of went away and I don't know what's the status now.

Saw a couple, so… We got the roller skating rink here.

Sun dipping into the Pacific soon.

And this very famous skate park.

This is always a cool scene.

[hip hop playing] [skateboard clatters] [crowd cheers] [music continues] [hip hop music plays] See if I can find Derek.

I met up with him a few times over the years.

He's always got good insight.

But I don't hear him.

[Peter] Excuse me sir. Do you offer parking?

Do you offer parking sir?

Do you offer parking?

-Mr. Santenello! Pete! Peter!

-I need parking, VIP.

This guy right here is the world-renowned-- -He is.

-Parking agent? -No.

[Peter] Yes. I'm professional.

Peter man I missed you bro.

I'm doing an LA video right now.

-Okay.

-And I'm like my goal is to make it to Venice Beach by sunset.

-And we're here. -And we're here.

Let's go.

Talk to me. Can we walk?

Man can we walk? I'm kind of by myself but we can go with a small story of it.

-Okay. What's going on? -I miss you. I love you.

Man going crazy out here. Oh look at my artwork I do now.

So this is every week I do a different message.

And I do the hopscotch.

-Everybody's loving the hopscotch. -Okay.

-Trying to bring a little bit of flavor. -You're bringing it back.

But today's message is stop war, start love.

That's what we about. Everybody man.

We just want that.

It's one planet. We all got to live here together man.

-How's your wife? -Wife's great. Wifey's great.

Hey you do the best work ever.

We know we know who's behind the real… Behind.

-You haven't lost your edge have you OG? -I haven't man. I can't bro.

People are loving you.

-It's… -It's an orbit you've created.

I'm trying. That little bubble right there, that's mines.

That's mine because of you bro.

-No I swear. -Really? Cool.

"Hey you were in a video with Peter." and "Can we take a picture?"

You're gonna get a freshen up when my wife edits this.

It's all good bro.

Give me the lowdown OG. I haven't been to LA for a couple of years.

I started in Beverly Hills. I went downtown. I went Skid Row.

So Beverly Hills to Skid Row, that's as opposite as you get right?

I touched on Palisades a little.

I'm over here. I did the canals 'cause canals are cool.

And then I'm here.

Give me the update 'cause I haven't talked to too many locals today.

They have given the County of Los Angeles away bro.

To… to… Not just the homeless.

There's more people out here with mental issues now than it is dang near drug dealers, drug addicts.

You know bro?

They are letting them out and they're walking around bro.

-It's bad. -Really? It's worse than two years ago?

It's worse as far as the talking to themselves.

To where they're going to a point.

And that's either the sleep deprivation or not taking their meds bro.

I mean we getting a lot of those.

And they laxxed the laws as far as selling things.

People are… Man they fighting out of here over spaces bro.

Oh man. I'm sorry. I'm sorry OG.

We're trying.

Because I remember peak pandemic it was really bad.

Then a year or two later it got better.

-All right. -Now you're saying it's sliding back.

It's sliding back because the police are like hands off bro.

-It's bad. -Okay.

So San Francisco is coming around.

And I thought LA would be following.

I would think if LA would do… When we talked last they were starting to, you know, that was before they started tightening up on the laws and got scared.

What these cops are scared of? Looting their pension man.

It's the… everybody got a camera.

They can't really arrest no one without… -Right. So some guy comes at them.

-Right. So some guy comes at them.

They get in an altercation.

Someone's losing their minds.

I'm a cop, "Put your hands on the ground."

And I get you down. And I do this.

And then you drop… and then we see the video then… and then it posts.

And then… They're gonna go for that post or whatever somebody posted and said before they even talk to the officer and officer is going to be written up and they got to do an investigation.

And then their pension's jeopardized maybe.

Would you want to be a cop for 18 years and then go through the pandemic?

If somebody say, "You called me a name."

You hurt my feelings.

I want to file a complaint against you.

-Okay.

But I've talked to a lot of people actually off camera today.

They're like we're over the BS. We need to toughen up.

No more of this bullsh*t.

-So people are feeling it right? -They're feeling it.

And it's just… It's so scary bro.

-Everybody's crazy. -It is!

It's more to what I told you before.

It's that big table saying let's see how much the American people will take.

We'll keep throwing sh*t at 'em.

Let sh*t go down to the bare minimum.

-But okay OG, listen.

And I'm not clowning LA 'cause I love LA.

But there are certain places where they don't let this BS fly at all.

Santa Monica's fine.

Santa Monica's fine. It's gotten better.

But you have to realize this is about property.

I always believe in my little conspiracy theory.

Right. Your theory, yes. It might come true.

Bro here's what I'm saying, if you were a homeowner in the Palisades and we come to your house… The most expensive house was 26 million which was Steven Spielberg, Hollywood is dead.

But if I come to you as a state and say, "Hey we want to buy your house.

You have two years to move out.

We're going to give you $50 million but we're going to build a new smart city.

So you can start doing your movies again Steven. How about that?

We're going to build a brand new glass smart city."

That's what you're thinking?

They're going to build the same old house?

No they gonna make it new and improved.

I say in five years maybe close to the Olympics you'll see buildings where that sh*t gonna look like Miami.

It's prime real estate.

They will change the traffic of the airport right over here.

Come see the new LA, the smart city.

[airplane noise] Everybody want to go to California to see the smart city wouldn't they?

-So OG-- -How can we get a smart city?

We need land. We need land with a view.

The Palisades is gone.

OG, do a lot of people have your views here?

The guys you talk to or no?

People keep saying… I'm like bro, what else are they going to do over there?

You know what's interesting in Skid Row today?

They're remodeling this whole building that was bought by the city.

All right.

And look, you can't get people off Skid Row into free housing because they want to do drugs.

That's the problem.

And so now the city owns that building paid by the taxpayers.

-Bro they got-- -Paid by your tax dollars.

They got a multi-million dollar high-rise graffitied up.

What type of city?

You know it would have probably took $5,000 worth of paint to paint that over.

The city coming there in three days a week job.

[swishing] It's gone.

Security, they let it stay. Why?

'Cause they want to bring the city down to its bare knuckles.

So you're not loving Karen Bass anymore.

You had hope in the beginning.

Bro it's bad bro. It's bad out here man.

-All right. Sorry. I got to get you back here.

I'm close. All right man. You know you my people.

But you know they used to just… Hey brother. How you doing? Good to see you.

Hey brother. How you doing? Good to see you.

Man we out here.

What's up brother? Good to see you. Neighborhoodie. I see you.

Hey I'm hitting an interview real quick. I'll get right back with you.

Hey what's up youngin'?

You good? Yeah man. Love you bro.

Hey guys. Take your time. If you see anything you need let me know.

-Where am I sending people to?

Cali Shore Customs in the V Hotel, 1217 Oceanfront Walk.

-The most beautiful building here.

The tall white one.

-OG… -This is my brother.

He's going to do hopscotch for you guys. Watch.

Get on. Yes you are. Oh my God. Yes you are.

It's not about how you do it. It's about you doing it.

I don't even… Come on.

It's a one, two, three.

-Hold on. -What do you do?

Just go. Come on. You athlete. You can do it.

Look at your wife gon' be laughin' at this video.

Look at this guy here.

Don't do this to me, bro. Don't do this to me.

I love you, man.

So business doing okay?

It's hanging on.

-Hanging on? -Yes. We're getting some tourists.

And like I said it's not as big as we wish it would be.

You have to realize a lot of people are not really feeling California right now just because of the things that's happened within the last year.

Not just with the riots but you got to realize the smash and grab incidents.

We've had bad luck for any type of retail service.

People don't want to go out shopping when people are running out the stores with stuff.

Even though it's not happening in this type of area but a person seeing that on the news is not feeling it.

So we still got that. Then we had the riots.

We got that going on where people are not you know feeling like… It's just like wow what the hell?

Would you want to go to a place you know?

It's like the ones that are coming, they're like wow it's not as bad as we thought.

Yeah well I know how big LA is.

That's what it is.

I've spent all day driving just shooting this video and I've touched a small part of it.

LA County is massive.

-Massive. -Right. So I get it. You see a riot.

You want to bring your family out on a vacation and you don't want to deal with BS. You just don't.

That's understandable.

But I would tell people and I was going to finish the video with this.

I would tell people don't let that scare you from coming out here.

There's a lot of cool stuff going on, a lot of cool stuff to do.

-For sure. -The beach is great.

No we're still getting down now.

We're still having fun. On the weekends it's getting packed.

But where I'm coming from as far as the retail service people are not shopping now.

Everybody's holding on to those dollars.

They're out, they're having fun, but they're still you know as far as the finances, you know, it ain't happening.

But it's okay. But that's across the board.

You go to Huntington Beach and they will say the same thing and those are people with money.

In Huntington Beach and I didn't hit that today it's very clean and you don't see people on drugs anywhere.

They don't play because you know it's more so where money is and Republicans and their law is different.

They'll stop it at the border because you have Hermosa to get through before that.

We love Venice.

Venice is the realest beach out here because you come out here to be yourself.

But we're looked at as a hood beach compared to Huntington.

People go out there to see the volleyball championships.

-And things of that nature. -Right.

It's a good time in Huntington.

But this place you'll always be surprised-- This is where you're gonna love it.

This is where people fall in love with.

This is the true California.

Venice Beach is a vibe.

It's an icon and it's a vibe.

We're just on a slump right now but we're going to be back this summer like live and direct in front of the V Hotel with me doing hopscotch talking crazy.

I'm doing it all baby.

-You know I got your back man. -Do you have a lady these days?

Um no. I'm actually… You say I look good.

I've come to… at peace.

I'm at peace right now. You know I want to do… The reason I'm doing this is for the people.

-And you did this for me. -Yeah?

Because you taught me to get out of myself and be a people person.

-Really? -Yeah bro.

When people you know like, "Hey Peter and Dada you look great."

So it's like it's not an image to keep up but it's like okay I should carry myself a different way as far as people seeing me and being you know in the caliber of you.

They love you man.

How did I find you anyways?

-I don't know. We walked up. -Yeah.

They live, Venice Beach. There you go.

Be careful.

-Yeah priceless. -That's cute.

That's Venice Beach.

[Peter] What a day. I've been going since 9:00 this morning. It's 8:00 now.

And as OG Derek just said you go a few beaches down Hermosa totally different vibe.

And so I tried my best today to show you guys different parts of LA County.

And tomorrow I'll be getting up here to the Palisades but way more in depth.

Got a guy that knows a lot about what's going on up there.

He's going to get us in.

That will be the next video after this one.

And then a video about 26 miles off the coast here.

And a lot of people in LA don't even know what exists out there.

And most of the country doesn't. So I'll keep that as a bit of a surprise.

Some of you do know and I'm sure you'll put it down below.

But cool adventure today.

And know again that was a sliver.

I hate saying that because I say it all the time.

But it's impossible to capture the full scope of this place.

I could spend the next year making videos every single day and still not get it all.

So thanks for coming along on that journey.

Until the next one.

[hip hop]