this is one of my most treasured friends. he co-wrote the american drop-out culture book with Ron Sakolsky "gone to croatan".
this is a piece that was original commissioned for the seattle transportation system. priceless! http://www.koehnline.com/TIMELINE.htm On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, Alan Sondheim wrote: > The Scar of Progress, Los Angeles > > > Or: the origin of sprawl and the Iraq War. > > The Red Cars, an electric railway system, characterized Los Angeles early > on. It was later dismantled. The system led to LA's rapid/rabid expansion. > There was money to be made by busline replacement, even though buses have > to compete with traffic, are noisy, polluting, slow, and dangerous, and > run few and far between. > > I lived years ago at the corner of Spaulding and Fountain in L.A.-West > Hollywood. The ghosts of the Red Car line were everywhere. I noticed a > diagonal swath cut across Hollywood/West Hollywood - a scar of past public > transportation. WorldWind brought this to the foreground; you can see the > results below. This was a passenger-only line. The land was immediately > reclaimed by developers, etc., and the corridor has disappeared. > > Electric railways were extremely common in the United States, say from the > 10s through the 40s. (The Red Cars ran from 1901-1961.) Even my home town > of Wilkes-Barre had one connecting it with Scranton. The automobile wiped > them out, as did corruption and short-sighted politicians (are there any > other kind?). The result is the oil crisis and the mess in this gluttonous > country that consumes something like 25% of the world's resources. (See > the Wikipedia article below.) > > http://www.asondheim.org/RedLinescara.jpg > http://www.asondheim.org/RedLinescarb.jpg > http://www.asondheim.org/RedLinescarc.jpg > http://www.asondheim.org/RedLinescard.jpg > http://www.asondheim.org/RedLinescare.jpg > http://www.asondheim.org/RedLinescarf.jpg > > Additional: http://www.asondheim.org/tustinblimphangers4.mpg > > > Pacific Electric Railway (from Wikipedia): > > The Pacific Electric Railway (AAR reporting mark PE), also known as the > Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using > streetcars, light rail and buses. At its greatest extent, the system > connected cities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and the Inland > Empire. > > The system was divided into three districts: > > * Northern District: Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley, San Bernardino. > * Southern District: Long Beach, Newport, San Pedro, Santa Ana. > * Western District: Hollywood, Burbank/Glendale, San Fernando Valley, > Santa Monica. > > The Pacific Electric Railway was established by Henry Huntington in 1901. > Henry's uncle, Collis Huntington, was one of the founders of the Southern > Pacific railroad and had bequeathed Henry a huge fortune upon his death. > Only a few years after the company's formation, most of Pacific Electric's > stock was purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, which Henry > Huntington had tried and failed to gain control of a decade earlier. In > 1911, Southern Pacific bought out Huntington completely and also purchased > several other passenger railway operators in the Los Angeles area, > including the Los Angeles Pacific, resulting in the "Great Merger" of > 1911. At this point the Pacific Electric became the largest operator of > interurban electric railway passenger service in the world, with over > 1,000 miles of track. Henry Huntington then purchased the company which > provided local streetcar service in central Los Angeles and nearby > communities, the Los Angeles Railway (LARy). These were known as the > "Yellow Cars," and actually carried more passengers than the PE's "Red > Cars." > > Pacific Electric passenger service was sold off in 1953 to a company known > as Metropolitan Coach Lines, whose intention was to convert all rail > service to bus service as quickly as possible. Many of the Pacific > Electric passenger lines were shut down in 1954, but the California state > government would not allow the most popular lines to be discontinued. In > 1958, Metropolitan Coach Lines relinquished control of the remaining rail > lines to a government agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, > which also took over the remaining streetcar lines of the successor of the > Los Angeles Railway, the Los Angeles Transit Lines. Only a handful of > electric train lines remained operating at that time and the conventional > wisdom held that their days were numbered. The last passenger line of the > Pacific Electric, the line from Los Angeles to Long Beach, continued until > April 9, 1961. With the closure of the Long Beach line, the final link in > the system as well as the PE's first line some sixty years prior, was > eliminated. The PE's freight service was continued by the Southern Pacific > Railroad and operated under the Pacific Electric name through 1964. The > few remaining former Los Angeles Railway streetcar lines were removed in > 1963. > > > > > _ >
