By CLAIRE RUSH and LINLEY SANDERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most U.S. adults think personal choices are a major driver of poverty and homelessness, according to a new poll, while fewer blame a lack of government support.

However, just over half also think the government spends too little on those in need, the new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows.

The poll comes as homelessness is on the rise and as officials across the country, including Republican President Donald Trump in the nation’s capital, push to clear encampments where unhoused people live. At the same time, the GOP tax and spending cut bill signed into law by Trump in July is expected to reduce benefits for low-income people.

“It seems like people are a little conflicted,” said Bruce Meyer, a professor at the University of Chicago Harris School who helped craft and analyze the poll. “I think people probably realize, in part at least, the complexity of what leads people to get in trouble in terms of their economic circumstances. And I think a lot of people are generous at heart and will help people out and think the government should as well, even when individuals aren’t blameless.”

Most see homelessness and poverty as a rising problem

Most U.S. adults — 68% — say poverty has increased in the country as a whole over the past 25 years, while 19% say it’s stayed the same and about 12% say it has decreased.

People living in urban areas, such as 60-year-old Baltimore resident Dwayne Byrd, are more likely to say poverty has increased in their local community, compared with people in suburban or rural areas.

“It’s dilapidated buildings, dirty streets, businesses closing up left and right,” Byrd said of the poverty in his city. “You got to choose between keeping the lights on and putting something in your belly. … People with jobs don’t have enough money.”

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Yet the rate of people living under the poverty line has actually decreased “by almost every measure” over the past 25 years, according to Meyer, the University of Chicago professor.

The discrepancy between the poverty data and Americans’ perceptions may stem from the fact that unsheltered homelessness has increased.

“It is the most visible form of poverty,” Meyer said. “I think, quite reasonably, people are extrapolating from what they see in the way of people in tents and on sidewalks. But that is very different from the bulk of the low-income population.”

About 8 in 10 Americans say that homelessness has increased in the United States over the last 25 years, and roughly 7 in 10 say it’s increased in their state. Slightly more than half — 55% — say it’s increased in their own community.

According to federal officials, homelessness increased 18% last year, driven largely by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and a surge of migrants in several parts of the country.

That rise came on top of a 12% increase in 2023, which federal housing officials blamed on soaring rents and the end of coronavirus pandemic assistance.

“I’ve never seen as many homeless camps,” said Pittsburgh resident Ashlyn White, a 38-year-old Democrat. “After COVID is when they really start popping up.”

More support than opposition for removing homeless encampments

More Americans favor than oppose removing homeless encampments in U.S. cities, the poll found. About 43% U.S. adults favor their removal, while about 25% oppose it. Roughly 3 in 10 Americans don’t have an opinion, saying they neither favor nor oppose removing the encampments.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that cities can enforce bans on people sleeping outside in public places.

Most Republicans, 64%, favor removing homeless encampments, while independents and Democrats are divided, with a substantial share saying they don’t have an opinion.

“There does need to be some sort of rules,” said Ami Tate, a 43-year-old resident of Hesperia, California, who leans conservative, adding that “the government also needs to help out.”

White, the Pittsburgh resident, said she opposed removing encampments.

“Where are these people supposed to go?” she said, noting that shelters are often full.

Meanwhile, in Fort Collins, Colorado, 61-year-old Rob Haas, who describes himself as a moderate who leans Democrat, strongly favors encampment removals. “I just think it’s bad for the homeless to be in that type of environment, and I think it’s bad for us to tolerate that,” he said.

Divisions over root causes

About 6 in 10 Americans say personal choices are a “major factor” in why people remain in poverty, while just under half say unfair systems are a major factor and about 4 in 10 blame lack of government support.

Most Republicans, 77%, say personal choices are a “major factor” in why people remain in poverty, compared with 56% of independents and 49% of Democrats.

Adam Kutzer, a 22-year-old living in Cranford, New Jersey, said not paying off credit card debt or spending too much money were examples of “poor financial choices that can clearly be avoided.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are much likelier than Republicans or independents to say lack of government support is a “major factor.”

When it comes to homelessness, most Americans are likely to see substance abuse and mental health issues as key drivers, with about three-quarters citing them as a “major factor.” Still, about 6 in 10 adults say that personal choices are responsible, with a similar share blaming a lack of affordable housing.

Just under half of U.S. adults — 45% — believe a lack of government support is a major factor in why people are homeless.

Who’s responsible for addressing the issues?

A majority of Americans — 54% — believe that the government is spending “too little” on assistance for those in need. That includes Tate, the Hesperia resident, who said more money should go toward school programs and helping children in low-income communities.

Americans are also more likely to think federal and state governments have a major role to play in tackling homelessness and poverty, compared with charities or very wealthy individuals.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults say federal and state government have “a great deal” of responsibility for addressing poverty and homelessness, compared with about one-quarter who say this about charities or very wealthy people.

In Tate’s view, state and local governments “should be figuring out an action plan of how to … get people off the streets.”

Rush reported from Portland, Ore.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,121 U.S. adults was conducted Aug. 21-25, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

By DAVID A. LIEB/AP, SOPHIE BATES/AP, M.K. WILDEMAN/ AP, ALEX ROZIER/MISSISSIPPI TODAY and ILLAN IRELAND/MISSISSIPPI FREE PRESS

TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) — As an ominous storm approached Buddy Anthony’s new home, he took shelter in his Ford F-250 pickup parked under a nearby carport.

Seconds later, a tornado tore apart the one-story brick house and damaged the truck while lifting it partly in the air. Anthony emerged unhurt. But he had to replace his vehicle with a used truck that became his home while waiting for President Donald Trump to issue a major disaster declaration allowing federal money to flow to individuals reeling from loss. That took weeks.

“You wake up in the truck and look out the windshield and see nothing. That’s hard. That’s hard to swallow,” Anthony said.

Disaster survivors are having to wait longer to get aid from the federal government, according to a new Associated Press analysis of decades of data. On average, it took less than two weeks for a governor’s request for a presidential disaster declaration to be granted in the 1990s and early 2000s. That rose to about three weeks during the past decade under presidents from both major parties. It’s taking more than a month, on average, so far during Trump’s current term, the AP found.

The delays mean individuals must wait to receive federal aid for daily living expenses, temporary lodging and home repairs. Delays in disaster declarations also can hamper recovery efforts by local officials uncertain whether they will receive federal reimbursement for cleaning up debris and rebuilding infrastructure. The AP collaborated with Mississippi Today and Mississippi Free Press on the effects of these delays for this report.

“The message that I get in the delay, particularly for the individual assistance, is that the federal government has turned its back on its own people,” said Bob Griffin, dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany in New York. “It’s a fundamental shift in the position of this country.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump is making sure federal tax dollars “are spent wisely to supplement state actions, not replace them,” during disasters.

“President Trump provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him,” Jackson said in a statement to the AP. “Gone are the days of rubber stamping FEMA recommendations — that’s not a bug, that’s a feature.”

Americans expect government help after disasters. About three-fourths of people want the U.S. government to play a major role in providing aid to communities and helping them rebuild after natural disasters, according to a June poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The wait for disaster aid has grown as Trump remakes government

The Federal Emergency Management Agency often consults immediately with communities to coordinate their initial disaster response. But direct payments to individuals, nonprofits and local governments must wait for a major disaster declaration from the president, who first must receive a request from a state, territory or tribe. Major disaster declarations are intended only for the most damaging events that are beyond the resources of states and local governments.

Trump has approved more than two dozen major disaster declarations since taking office in January, with an average wait of almost 34 days after a request. That ranged from a one-day turnaround after July’s deadly flash flooding in Texas to a 67-day wait after a request for aid because of a Michigan ice storm. The average wait is up from a 24-day delay during his first term and is nearly four times as long as the average for former Republican President George H.W. Bush, whose term from 1989-1993 coincided with the implementation of a new federal law setting parameters for disaster determinations.

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The delays have grown over time, regardless of the party in power. Former Democratic President Joe Biden, in his last year in office, averaged 26 days to declare major disasters — longer than any year under former Democratic President Barack Obama.

FEMA did not respond to the AP’s questions about what factors are contributing to the trend.

Others familiar with FEMA noted that its process for assessing and documenting natural disasters has become more complex over time. Disasters have also become more frequent and intense because of climate change, which is mostly caused by the burning of fuels such as gas, coal and oil.

The wait for disaster declarations has spiked as Trump’s administration undertakes an ambitious makeover of the federal government that has shed thousands of workers and reexamined the role of FEMA. A recently published letter from current and former FEMA employees warned the cuts could become debilitating if faced with a large-enough disaster. The letter also lamented that the Trump administration has stopped maintaining or removed long-term planning tools focused on extreme weather and disasters.

Shortly after taking office, Trump floated the idea of “getting rid” of FEMA, asserting: “It’s very bureaucratic, and it’s very slow.”

FEMA’s acting chief suggested more recently that states should shoulder more responsibility for disaster recovery, though FEMA thus far has continued to cover three-fourths of the costs of public assistance to local governments, as required under federal law. FEMA pays the full cost of its individual assistance.

Former FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, who served during Trump’s first term, said the extra scrutiny on requests for disaster declarations is “probably the right thing to do, because I think the declaration process has become the `easy button’ for states.”

In Mississippi, frustration festered during the wait for aid

The tornado that struck Anthony’s home in rural Tylertown on March 15 packed winds up to 140 mph (225 km/hr). It was part of a powerful storm system that wrecked homes, businesses and lives across multiple states.

Mississippi’s governor requested a federal disaster declaration on April 1. Trump granted that request 50 days later, on May 21, while approving aid for both individuals and public entities.

On that same day, Trump also approved eight other major disaster declarations for storms, floods or fires in seven other states. In most cases, more than a month had passed since the requests and about two months since the date of those disasters.

On July 22, Trump issued another big batch of major disaster declarations covering seven states. Those included requests related to March storms in Michigan and Oregon that took about two months for governors to submit and an additional two months to approve.

If a presidential declaration and federal money had come sooner, Anthony said he wouldn’t have needed to spend weeks sleeping in a truck before he could afford to rent the trailer where he is now living. His house was uninsured, Anthony said, and FEMA eventually gave him $30,000.

In nearby Jayess, Dana Grimes had insurance but not enough to cover the full value of her damaged home. After the eventual federal declaration, Grimes said FEMA provided about $750 for emergency expenses, but she is now waiting for the agency to determine whether she can receive more.

“We couldn’t figure out why the president took so long to help people in this country,” Grimes said. “I just want to tie up strings and move on. But FEMA — I’m still fooling with FEMA.”

Jonathan Young said he gave up on applying for FEMA aid after the Tylertown tornado killed his 7-year-old son and destroyed their home. The process seemed too difficult, and federal officials wanted paperwork he didn’t have, Young said. He made ends meet by working for those cleaning up from the storm.

“It’s a therapy for me,” Young said, “to pick up the debris that took my son away from me.”

Quick aid for individuals has long been a FEMA goal

Historically, presidential disaster declarations containing individual assistance have been approved more quickly than those providing assistance only to public entities, according to the AP’s analysis. That remains the case under Trump, though declarations for both types are taking longer.

About half the major disaster declarations approved by Trump this year have included individual assistance.

Some people whose homes are damaged turn to shelters hosted by churches or local nonprofit organizations in the initial chaotic days after a disaster. Others stay with friends or family or go to a hotel, if they can afford it.

But some insist on staying in damaged homes, even if they are unsafe, said Chris Smith, who administered FEMA’s individual assistance division under three presidents from 2015-2022. If homes aren’t repaired properly, mold can grow, compounding the recovery challenges.

That’s why it’s critical for FEMA’s individual assistance to get approved quickly — ideally, within two weeks of a disaster, said Smith, who’s now a disaster consultant for governments and companies.

“You want to keep the people where they are living. You want to ensure those communities are going to continue to be viable and recover,” Smith said. “And the earlier that individual assistance can be delivered … the earlier recovery can start.”

After the Tylertown tornado, faith-based groups served food and laid tarps on homes while local residents helped each other with power saws to clear downed trees.

“That’s the only thing that got us through this storm, neighbors helping neighbors,” said Les Lampton, a volunteer firefighter and insurance agent in Walthall County, where Tylertown is located. “If we waited on the government, we were going to be in bad shape.”

Delays in federal aid can hamper local recovery efforts

Unlike individual assistance programs that provide cash upfront, FEMA’s public assistance programs reimburse governmental entities only after their bills are paid — and only if they followed guidelines for hiring and documenting the work.

Because that process can take months or years, a delay in a presidential disaster declaration may have little effect on when a local government ultimately gets reimbursed.

But delayed approvals still can carry consequences. Long waits can stoke uncertainty and lead cost-conscious local officials to pause or scale-back their recovery efforts.

In Walthall County, officials initially spent about $700,000 cleaning up debris, then suspended the cleanup for more than a month because they couldn’t afford to spend more without assurance they would receive federal reimbursement, said Royce McKee, the county emergency manager. Meanwhile, rubble from splintered trees and shattered homes remained piled along the roadside, creating unsafe obstacles for motorists and habitat for snakes and rodents.

When it received the federal declaration, Walthall County took out a multi-million-dollar loan to pay contractors to resume the cleanup.

“We’re going to pay interest and pay that money back until FEMA pays us,” said Byran Martin, an elected county supervisor. “We’re hopeful that we’ll get some money by the first of the year, but people are telling us that it could be (longer).”

The night before the Tylertown tornado, a twister also tore through Rolla, Missouri, a college town of about 20,000 people. It knocked out electricity for 80% of the municipal utility’s customers and damaged 120 power poles.

Crews worked to restore power within a couple weeks, racking up hefty bills paid from the utility’s reserve funds. As the wait for a presidential disaster declaration kept growing, “we were getting a little nervous,” said Rodney Bourne, general manager of Rolla Municipal Utilities.

The utility now is seeking FEMA reimbursement for about $1 million, intentionally holding its claim just under the agency’s large-project threshold in hopes of expediting the process, he said.

Delays in federal declarations also can force local officials to choose between needed repairs — perhaps fixing some roads and culverts washed out by floods while delaying other projects, said David Fogerson, a public safety consultant who retired last year as Nevada’s emergency management chief.

“For a lot of the smaller states and smaller jurisdictions, when you get that, `Yep, this is a disaster declaration, we’ve got federal money coming,’ it helps you feel better, more confident about spending that money,” he said.

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri, and Wildeman from Hartford, Connecticut.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By ELÉONORE HUGHES and MAURICIO SAVARESE, Associated Press

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A panel of Supreme Court justices is set to decide this week whether former President Jair Bolsonaro is guilty or not of plotting to overthrow Brazil’s democracy and hang onto power illegally after his 2022 electoral defeat.

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The panel’s chairman Cristiano Zanin opened Tuesday’s session at around 9.15 a.m. local time. The judicial panel began by reviewing final requests from the parties. Court sessions are scheduled every day through Friday.

Bolsonaro did not attend the court.

The far-right ex-president is facing five counts at trial for allegedly conspiring to stage a coup after his narrow loss to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist who first won the presidency two decades earlier.

If convicted by the five-judge panel in the verdict expected Thursday or Friday, Bolsonaro could be sentenced to decades behind bars.

Bolsonaro has always denied any wrongdoing, repeatedly calling the trial a politically motivated attack.

Trump interest in trial outcome

Dozens of Bolsonaro loyalists gathered Monday evening outside his Brasilia home. They prayed for him, criticized the Supreme Court justice overseeing the case — Alexandre de Moraes — and sought to exert pressure on lawmakers to approve some kind of amnesty for the embattled ex-leader.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said last week in court that Bolsonaro led a multipronged plot to cling to power illegally that included casting doubt over the country’s electronic voting system and encouraging a Jan. 8, 2023, riot Gonet described as intended to force an army takeover.

Prosecutors have pointed to evidence that Bolsonaro assembled top Cabinet and military officials to discuss issuing an emergency decree aimed at suspending the election outcome of October 2022 in order to investigate alleged voting fraud.

But defense lawyer Celso Vilardi vehemently noted the decree was never issued.

“The planning is not the execution. No matter how detailed the planning may be, it is the act of violence that actually consummates the crime,” Vilardi told the justices at the televised proceedings. “Bolsonaro ordered a transition.”

Bolsonaro ”did not act against the democratic rule of law,” he added.

Bolsonaro called himself the victim of a “witch hunt,” using the same expression as U.S. President Donald Trump in defending his right-wing ally. Trump has directly tied a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods to his ally’s judicial situation and is expected to be closely watching the trial outcome.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took to the streets. In Sao Paulo, his wife Michelle Bolsonaro said in a speech that he loves the country.

Each of the five justices is to vote on Bolsonaro’s guilt or innocence, with a majority of three votes enough to convict. If one of the justices requests a longer review, the verdict could be delayed for up to 90 days, but court experts have said that’s unlikely.

Bolsonaro is charged with five counts: attempting to stage a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and two counts involving destruction of state property.

A guilty verdict on the coup plot charge alone carries a sentence of up to 12 years.

Remains under house arrest

In the event of a guilty verdict, each justice can recommend a sentence. If recommendations differ, a single justice chosen among the panel would determine an average of the prison time and possible fines.

Seven other close allies of Bolsonaro are being tried alongside the ex-president, including Walter Braga Netto, his former running mate and defense minister, and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, another former defense minister.

Deemed a flight risk, Bolsonaro is wearing an ankle monitor and remains under house arrest. He did not appear in court last week due to ill health, Vilardi told journalists. The ex-president needs an unspecified medical procedure, Vilardi told the judge Monday, suggesting Bolsonaro might not attend court this week either.

The trial marks a historic moment in Brazil: For the first time, high-ranking military officers and a former president accused of plotting against democratic rule are standing trial.

‘Quite unpredictable’

Despite pressure from the White House, Brazil’s Supreme Court has kept the trial on track.

Observers said any U.S. sanctions against Brazilian authorities could be announced after the trial, further straining their fragile diplomatic relations.

Government officials or other Supreme Court justices could be sanctioned, like De Moraes already was late July, said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university.

The reaction “could also involve broader visa restrictions for government officials, or more tariffs,” Stuenkel said. “It’s quite unpredictable.”

On Saturday night, Lula delivered a national message ahead of Sunday’s Independence Day celebrations saying Brazil “will not be anyone’s colony,” taking an indirect swipe at the Trump administration.

Dorgelina Souza Oliveira de Medeiros, 72, wants Trump to put even more pressure on Brazil to help free Bolsonaro. For more than a week she has joined other supporters of the former president close to his home despite the fact many of them believe he will be jailed anyway.

“His sentence was ready before this trial began. We want amnesty for all so those jailed can be released, those in exile can come back,” de Medeiros said. “We are suffering, but I trust God that things will change. I hope that even in this trial there could be a miracle.”

Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.

By Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Chuck E. Cheese is all grown-up. Sort of.

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Brea Mall is now home to a Chuck’s Arcade, the first location in California and 10th in the U.S. When the company unveiled the concept earlier this year, headlines branded it as an “adult” Chuck E. Cheese. There’s some truth in that, but it’s not the full story.

Combine the word “adult” and “arcade” and recognizable spaces — say, Dave & Buster’s — instantly come to mind. Here in SoCal, we also have Two Bit Circus in Santa Monica, which marries retro and modern games with beer and cocktails. Chuck’s Arcade isn’t all that similar to either.

But we were intrigued by its promise of retro gaming and its attempts to appeal to a less kid-focused audience. You won’t, for instance, encounter a pizza party full of 7-year-olds here.

So what will you find? And will it possess the vintage arcade vibes many of us are craving? With the company and its mouse mascot now a cool 48 years old, we weren’t sure what to expect. So we took a visit to Chuck’s Arcade seeking answers.

Where an adult can be a ‘kidult’

It’s not surprising to encounter a grown-up with fond memories of Chuck E. Cheese. For me, I was hooked by the stilted-yet-charming robotic performances from their once ubiquitous animatronic bands, in which tunes were delivered amid the clickety-clack of machinery. Yet a Chuck E. Cheese today is a fully-realized kid-focused video-game-inspired rec room, one where digital floors encourage a more active form of play. David McKillips, president and chief executive of the company, says the firm’s core locations heavily target those between the ages of 3 and 8.

And thus, Chuck’s Arcade, says McKillips, will fill a void. He’s hoping it taps into the marketing segment known as the “kidult” — grown-ups, perhaps, who were raised on games and still cherish the thought of crowding around a “Ms. Pac-Man” console. The kidult sector is booming, encompassing everyone from the so-called “Disney adult” to those who carry a Labubu doll as a fashion accessory. Think anyone who believes that a childlike openness to play and silliness doesn’t have to be eradicated by maturity.

So how does Chuck’s Arcade plan to reach the kidult? Its 3,600-square-foot space boasts 70 games, including a small — emphasis on small — retro section where one will find coin-op cabinets of “Tron,” “Centipede,” “Mortal Kombat” and a “Ms. Pac-Man” head-to-head arcade table. And while a modern Chuck E. Cheese is school-cafeteria bright, Chuck’s Arcade is dark, its black walls and low lighting recalling the arcades of the ’80s and ’90s.

McKillips says Chuck’s Arcade “is appealing to the collectible market,” betting large on grown-ups being drawn to its plethora of claw machines. There are also prize apparatuses dedicated largely to Funko’s plastic figurines.

It’s near the mall food court — which is part of the business strategy

The Chuck E. Cheese company has long had it eye on the Brea Mall.

In an era when malls are being refocused to cater to a more experience-based economy — see, for instance, the escape rooms of Westfield Century City, or Meow Wolf eventually taking over a portion of what is currently the Cinemark complex at Howard Hughes L.A. — Chuck E. Cheese saw an opportunity in Orange County.

“We’ve been trying to get in here for a year and a half,” says McKillips. “The foot traffic is phenomenal. The anchors are strong. They have a really solid food court.”

The food court was a massive selling point.

“That’s where teens are congregating,” he says. “That’s where parents and kids are together. They’ll have a bite to eat and come over and play some games.”

There’s no booze … or even pizza

Here’s one way to think about Chuck’s Arcade: Imagine a Chuck E. Cheese, but subtract the pizza and detract the drinks. In one corner of Chuck’s Arcade rests a giant Skittles machine, and there is more candy available at the front counter. But the company decided to go without a proper food and beverage program for Chuck’s Arcade, meaning those grown-up kidults won’t be sipping on booze or mocktails.

I told McKillips I was surprised. At home, I’m more than 40 hours into “Donkey Kong Bananza,” but I wind down by playing the game and enjoying a beer — one of the core benefits, I believe, of being a certified kidult.

McKillips argues this is actually an advantage for Chuck’s Arcade, allowing it to reach a grown-up audience but still feel family-friendly. Just one Chuck’s Arcade, he says, is equipped to serve beer, wings and pizza, and it’s in Kansas City, Mo.

“This is an arcade destination,” he adds. “We’re not hosting birthday parties. We don’t do [food & beverage] here. You’re going to come here and play games.”

Where’s the nostalgia?

I should be the audience for Chuck’s Arcade. I have fond memories of the brand.

Chuck E. Cheese, the character and the pizza chain, was the brainchild of Nolan Bushnell, best known as the founder of Atari. The franchise launched in 1977 in San José, first branded as Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatre. As Chuck E. Cheese flourished throughout the early ’80s, the original animatronic figures were a bit more bawdy (Chuck was a smoker). Bushnell envisioned the initial Chuck E. Cheese robotic characters as entertainment that appealed to the grown-ups while the kids played games in the neighboring room.

When I first heard of Chuck’s Arcade, I hoped the company was getting back a bit to its roots. And there’s a nostalgic touch here and there. Aside from the aforementioned selection of vintage games, there’s also a Mr. Munch figurine, who is displayed in a clear case and does not turn on. Munch, a friendly, purple-ish hairball of a creature, was once the anchor of Chuck E. Cheese’s Make Believe Band.

Seeing that one figure treated as a museum piece felt like a half-hearted wave to fans who grew up with Chuck. And while claw gizmos and plastic figurines aren’t my thing, I understand their popularity and wouldn’t mind their presence if there was a greater supply of old-school games, and perhaps some pinball machines.

With a digital key card for Chuck’s Arcade starting at $10, the buy-in to try out the space isn’t large, but this felt like a tentative step into adulthood. After all, Chuck is well beyond drinking age. The mouse deserves a cocktail.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.