Adam Carolla says Los Angeles went from a city no one left to a place residents flee for ‘anywhere’ else

Comedian Adam Carolla says Los Angeles has undergone a dramatic shift, arguing that the city went from a place where residents rarely left to one where they are now willing to move almost anywhere else.

“No one ever left LA,” Carolla said on Tuesday’s episode of the “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” podcast. “You would only leave LA if somebody’s dad’s company’s headquarters moved for some reason or another, or you moved to Hawaii and you were just retiring.”

“Now, people leave LA, and you go, ‘Where are you going?’ And they go, ‘Anywhere,’” he added.

Carolla said leaving Los Angeles once seemed so unusual that he struggled to understand why anyone would move elsewhere in the country. “When you’re from LA, back in the day, if somebody said, ‘We’re moving to Tennessee...’ I didn’t know where Tennessee was. [I would say], ‘What are you doing over there?’”

The comedian described the shift as a sign of broader problems in Los Angeles, arguing that some people are now leaving out of necessity. “That’s a bad sign,” he said. “Because [the reason is] not ‘our company is relocating,’ or ‘I’m retiring, and I’m moving to Hawaii.’ It’s ‘I’ve just got to get out of here.’”

Carolla has repeatedly criticized California’s Democratic leadership for similar reasons, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, as he has discussed the state’s homelessness crisis, wildfires and what he views as the state’s broader decline. He previously discussed leaving California himself, saying he planned to make the move after his children graduated from high school.

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Delaney Sawyer

Society Reporter

Delaney Sawyer covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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