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A comment on Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880–2026).

Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by wathef on Monday September 07, 2026 @05:34PM (#49603204)
Los Angeles had the largest public transportation network in the United States until we paved over it[1]. We had over 1,300 miles! You could've gone from Huntington Beach to Downtown and all the way up to Burbank. You can see many of the maps of Los Angeles at the public library[2]. I don't live there anymore, love that place though.

[1] - https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/from-rail-to-roads-an...

[2] - https://www.lapl.org/research-guides/maps/maps-los-angeles

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Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by rustywasm on Monday September 07, 2026 @05:54PM (#49603371)
My mom (who is 97) has a vivid memory of seeing FDR in 1935 -- the whole extended family took the the Red Car from Compton to downtown to see his motorcade. She remembered the electric trams worked really well, especially for folks without much money.
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Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by davidw on Monday September 07, 2026 @06:39PM (#49603779)
> worked really well, especially for folks without much money

That's probably part of the reason they got rid of them. You still see that argument used against transit: "it will bring _____ to our part of town".

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Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by khazhoux on Monday September 07, 2026 @07:11PM (#49603995)
The trams went away because of cars and buses, not because of racism.
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Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by cobbzilla on Monday September 07, 2026 @09:48PM (#49604818)
It can be both. Highways didn’t get built for poor folks, but did get built right through many of their neighborhoods.
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Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by bean469 on Tuesday September 08, 2026 @07:34AM (#49608871)
The main reason as far as I'm aware was due to intense lobbying from car companies. It makes absolute sense from the perspective of Ford, etc. to have alternative modes of transport be removed from the streets
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Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by lokar on Monday September 07, 2026 @09:33PM (#49604729)
It’s making a comeback
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Re:Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880... by WD-42 on Monday September 07, 2026 @11:02PM (#49605263)
Fun fact: this is the plot of the movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”
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