One of the alleged barriers is blocking a road obviously under construction.
Right. I noticed that. Temporary yellow barriers.
Brit newspapers seem to have an odd habit of doing hit pieces on American communities.
Used to live in Los Alamos, where the first Bomb was built.
About once a year the local paper would reprint a Brit article about the guilt all inhabitants were oppressed by, how tumbleweeds blew through the streets, and the general air of oppression.
At the time LA was a really odd place, but none of the articles ever made any attempt to describe the reality, which was actually much more interesting than their preconceptions. They came to LA knowing what they would find, and by golly they found it!
Suspect this is similar.