SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Comedian Adam Carolla compares LA’s homeless problems with Seattle’s

Jun 30, 2018, 9:02 AM

Adam Carolla...

Adam Carolla (AP file)

(AP file)

Adam Carolla rarely hesitates to make his opinion known.

The comedian, who is appearing at Seattle’s Moore Theatre on Sept. 13, had quite a lot to say on Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis, striking upon more than a few similarities with Seattle’s problems.

“Our mayor, Eric Garcetti, announced a few years ago that it was his number-one priority,” Carolla told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “And it’s gotten 10 times worse since then.”

Carolla compared this promise to a student declaring that algebra is their number-one priority, then bringing home Fs in math for the next two years.

RELATED: Comedian Jeff Ross says audiences fear comedy

He has a plan, however. After all of the illegal immigrants have been sent home, Carolla wants to move the detention centers from the Texas-Mexico border to Los Angeles and use them as housing for the homeless.

“We’ll have one facility for them and one for their shopping carts filled with garbage,” Carolla laughed.

Like Seattle, Carolla has found that Californian cities tend to impose strong regulations on law-abiding citizens while letting homeless addicts get away with whatever they want. For instance, he has to jump through a series of hoops just to tear down a building on his property.

“The city will not sell me a permit to tear down my existing structure unless I put chain-link fencing around eight of these oak trees that aren’t even near where I’m working,” he said. “So that’s one end of the spectrum.”

On the other end of the spectrum, he said, an illegal immigrant can drive without a license or insurance and face no consequences.

“Are we a lawless society or are we over-regulated?” he said. “The answer is this: if you have money, then you’re over-regulated because you can cut them a check. If you have no money, you build your house wherever you like for free.”

A firm Capitalist, Carolla sees no way that Socialism can work. He compared giving handouts to freeloaders to bears that come sniffing around a dumpster.

“The people it harms the most are the people who get the most free stuff free stuff,” Carolla said. “That’s the irony.”

On the national stage, Carolla said that he has found both positives and negatives about President Trump.

“I like that he’s a cheerleader for this country, that part about him I do like,” Carolla said, but observed that “some of his tweets are a little out of hand.”

Carolla is good friends with people whose political views differ drastically from his own, such as comedian Jimmy Kimmel, but he said that politics have no effect on the friendship.

“We don’t sit around and argue about politics,” he said. “We enjoy the other 99.9 percent of life.”

Carolla will perform in Seattle on September 13, 2018 at the Moore Theatre.

Drivers participate in the annual King of the Streets event celebrating lowriding, a Mexican Americ...

Associated Press

Lowriding culture celebrated in San Francisco as it receives broader recognition

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Drivers in vehicles built to move low and slow cruised Saturday down San Francisco’s Mission Street in celebration of one of the city’s most distinctive cultural traditions: lowriding. Music played as hundreds of customized cars bounced, tilted and otherwise made their way along the annual King of the Streets event, part […]

1 hour ago

Associated Press

Saudi Arabia confirms Yemen’s Houthi rebels tried to attack its capital with a ballistic missile

CAIRO (AP) — Saudi Arabia has confirmed that Yemen’s Houthi rebels tried to attack its capital with a ballistic missile. The statement late Saturday by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis came long after the morning attempt, which the coalition said was intercepted. It was the first attack targeting Riyadh since the escalation in fighting […]

3 hours ago

Associated Press

Michigan city defends itself against accusations of favoring Muslim holidays over other faiths

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — The city of Dearborn responded Saturday to a lawsuit accusing it of celebrating Muslim holidays and ignoring religious holidays of other faiths by blaming attacks against it on its diversity and “welcoming nature.” A statement from the Detroit suburb issued by a spokesperson came in response to a lawsuit on Thursday […]

4 hours ago

ml king shooting...

Tom Brock

Shots fired, vehicle crashed: 2 dead in south Seattle

Two people are dead following a shooting and car crash in south Seattle early Saturday morning.

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Lawsuit says Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google made illegal agreement on AI slowdown

A new lawsuit claims Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Google made an illegal deal to slow the pace of their respective AI development. The lawsuit, which was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, argues that the leading AI companies violated antitrust laws when they agreed to coordinate slowdown efforts, […]

6 hours ago

Homeless veterans...

Frank Lenzi

Washington gets $45M in VA grants to fight veteran homelessness

More than $45 million in federal funding is headed to Washington state to help homeless veterans and veterans at risk of losing their homes. The Department of Veterans Affairs said it has awarded grants to 17 community organizations across Washington for Fiscal Year 2027 as part of a record-setting national investment. “This funding is part […]

7 hours ago

Comedian Adam Carolla compares LA’s homeless problems with Seattle’s