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No, I think it's a lifecycle of sorts. Cars were really cool, convenient and exciting for decades. They were new and newly affordable for the general populace. People were sick of big urban cities because that's what cities were historically (and there were many issues there). The US was redefining lifestyle, and the nicer/fancier car you had, the better.
This is not the case anymore, at least from my perspective (maybe it's just starting on the decline). Gas prices are rising and roads have become MUCH MUCH more congested, thus reducing the quality of life for those that have to rely on them for many things. People my age have grown up sitting in cars, and I think that they're starved for something more interactive and more gritty.
That being said, I think places like LA were big because Hollywood was really big at that time and because car culture was at its pinacle (and for other reasons...LA is a great city). Now, I think that people want to be walk, be outside in a more interactive environment and thus trends are changing. Combine that with more urban cities fixing their pre-automobile issues (water quality, garbage removal, remodeled downtowns with less industry). That's all I got.
I agree with what you said about cars being pretty much a fad that's somewhat worn its welcome in American cities.
RE: LA, I once read that the seeds of LA's sprawl were sown way before the auto became plentiful. The Pacific Electric Railway was an electric powered interurban railway that was built starting in the 1890s and connected the relatively small city of LA with dozens of other small agricultural towns in the region. It was a huge system with hundreds of miles of track. The last cars ran in the mid-1960s. Today, many of LA's freeways are built over the right of way of the PE tracks.
"Los Angeles is what it is because these folks are what they are; and they’re what and where they are because of this same cardinal carrier that wipes distance out of the consideration in a way you never saw anywhere else . . . They enjoy all the conveniences of the city and all the fun of the country . . .. You haven’t bumped into anything of this sort because it doesn’t exist anywhere else. Los Angeles is the center and heart of the most highly developed interurban electric system in the whole world."
Former Iowan quoted in “The Red Car of the Empire” (Sunset, 1913)
What happened to PE makes me so mad. Does anyone else get mad about it? Imagine how great it would be if you could jump on these lines and get places without having to be stuck in horrible traffic for hours. I makes me hate the car companies.
actually--the trains ran mostly in the streets, so they were susceptible to the same traffic. Also, contrary to popular belief, GM didn't buy them up to destroy them a la "Roger Rabbit."
Some of the best lines (most grade separation) have or are being turned into light rail: Blue line, Expo line, Crenshaw etc. so we're slowly getting them back.
actually--the trains ran mostly in the streets, so they were susceptible to the same traffic. Also, contrary to popular belief, GM didn't buy them up to destroy them a la "Roger Rabbit."
Some of the best lines (most grade separation) have or are being turned into light rail: Blue line, Expo line, Crenshaw etc. so we're slowly getting them back.
Well, I'm certainly not referencing Roger Rabbit for my history, but the streetcar scandal did happen:
It may not have been as straight forward as GM ripping them off of streets in front of the public and dumping them, but there were mergers and replacements that happened between the oil, tire and car companies. They effectively ran them out of business/operation over a number of decades.
Btw - Check-out the picture on that Wiki page. Doesn't look too far off of Roger Rabbit...haha.
^^ oh ok yeah you're right. This is the best paragraph from the wiki page:
There is now general agreement that GM and other companies were indeed actively involved in a largely unpublicized program to purchase many streetcar systems and convert them to buses, which they often supplied. There is also acknowledgment that the Great Depression, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, labor unrest, market forces, rapidly increasing traffic congestion, taxation policies that favored private vehicle ownership, urban sprawl, and general enthusiasm for the automobile played a major or possibly more significant role. One author recently summed the situation up as follows: "Clearly, GM waged a war on electric traction. It was indeed an all out assault, but by no means the single reason for the failure of rapid transit. Also, it is just as clear that actions and inactions by government contributed significantly to the elimination of electric traction."
I do know that in LA there was much more enthusiasm for cars (we had a booming local oil industry, after all..) so no conspiring automaker had to do much to get rid of the streetcars which by then were poorly run/poorly patronized/practically bankrupt.
Again, I'm not saying that we should stop making our cities more sustainable. I'm really talking about "Chicago is better than LA period because of its downtown, and easier to live without a car"
If trains, subways are running late at night with one or two people per car, is that really more sustainable than driving a smart car or electric car?
And then theres walkability. Like when people talk about cities not being walkable, and people put down LA. When I go to LA, yes walkable areas have larger tracts of non-walkable areas, and not all the attractions are accessible by light rail yet, but I walked aroud Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Hollywood, El Pueblo in downtown and loved it.
A city can always improve its public transportation.
A city like Chicago may be very centralized, but its outer neighborhoods and suburbs have comparatively little to nothing of interests.
In fact I think because you have office complexes/business centers/small downtowns every five miles in the LA/Orange county area one may find it actually easiers and to live closer to work, than in Chicago, where everything is comparatively concentrated in a freaking huge downtown, with chunks of generic midwest urban-suburban landscapes outside of there.
Don't get me wrong, I live in Oak Park, eight miles west of downtown chicago , and love it, its an early charming suburb.
Thats what I'm saying.
I suppose this is a little bit of LA versus Chicago. Its still trying to wrap my head around the idea that Chicago is more of a "real city" or even worse "has more culture" than LA.
The idea that Chicago is more of a "real" city than LA because of the way it's laid out always makes me angry. You've actually walked around LA and its various areas and taken public transportation there, but you would not BELIEVE the number of people who say things like "LA doesn't have any public transportation!" Or "no one takes public transportation in LA!" and really honestly believe it. I lived in LA without driving and found it to be pretty easy. I think many of the put-downs towards LA stem more from outdated stereotypes and lack of experience more than anything else. And while specifics definitely vary by person, I actually had an easier time getting by without a car in LA than I did in both DC and San Francisco. I haven't lived in Chicago, but I can't imagine it would have been that much easier there than in LA. It's obviously nowhere near as good as NYC -- yet -- but they're definitely working on it. I think LA is the most exciting city in the country at the moment as far as public transportation growth and innovation goes. (certainly better than Minneapolis, which is where I'm currently living.)
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