Adam Carolla Says Everyone Is Leaving Los Angeles as City's Problems Mount: 'That's a Bad Sign'

Adam Carolla explained why he is finally leaving Los Angeles, arguing that the city has changed so dramatically that people who once would never consider moving away are now willing to go "anywhere."

Speaking on Tuesday's episode of "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" on Fox News, the comedian recalled a time when leaving Los Angeles was almost unthinkable.

"No one ever left L.A.," Carolla said. "You would only leave L.A. if somebody's dad's company's headquarters moved for some reason or another, or you moved to Hawaii, and you were just retiring."

Carolla remembered being baffled when someone from Los Angeles considered moving elsewhere.

"When you're from L.A., back in the day, if somebody said, 'We're moving to Tennessee...'" he recalled. "I didn't know where Tennessee was. 'What are you doing over there?'"

Back then, leaving Los Angeles generally came with a reason that made sense. Now, he said, people are leaving simply because they want out.

"That's a bad sign," observed the radio personality. "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's comments came amid his broader criticism of California's leadership and what he sees as the state's decline.

Carolla's concerns about Los Angeles also stem from his long background in construction.

During an earlier appearance on the "All-In" podcast, he described dealing with the city's permitting process as "super cumbersome and super expensive."

The Catch a Contractor host said engineering, plan checks, permits and approvals could make building projects so difficult that people decided not to build.

"When you talk to fast food franchises, they'll go, I'll open a store in any city, but I'm not going to do Los Angeles," Carolla said. "It's too much."

He argued that the bureaucracy could discourage businesses and developers from taking on projects, adding pressure to an already difficult housing market.

Carolla also pointed to education when discussing why some families leave Los Angeles.

During the same "All-In" appearance, he described families who wanted to stay in California but chose Orange County for its family-friendly environment.

"The people in Los Angeles who want a nicer place to live just move to Orange County," said the prolific podcaster. "They just go, 'I don't want to raise my kids in Los Angeles. The school system sucks.'"

"So they're just going to sort of relocate," he added.

Carolla's own departure has been years in the making.

In a January 2025 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the comedian said he had been discussing leaving "since COVID and before even" and had bought land in Nevada. He still needed to build his home before making the move.

In June 2024, during an appearance on "The Sage Steele Show," he said his twins were in their senior year of high school and joked that he would attend their graduation "in a U-Haul." He said was considering several states to live in after leaving California.

Carolla was born in Los Angeles in 1964 and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. He later worked in construction before building his career in radio and comedy.