Post B0DY68QLmVCbX3FaZU by kdawson@tldr.nettime.org
(DIR) More posts by kdawson@tldr.nettime.org
(DIR) Post #B0D94Q3ujbKknoqDrM by mathowie@xoxo.zone
2025-11-13T17:03:41Z
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This recent video showing remains of the red car electric train system that was ubiquitous in Los Angeles is so depressing. You can see how much we lost by losing it, like the opposite of progress. My mom used to tell stories of zipping around LA everywhere on a train. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1TEJW4sh5k
(DIR) Post #B0D94RH4EBRuYu0F04 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2025-11-13T18:25:52Z
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@mathowie It's purpose it seems was to sell real estate by extendong the reach into rural areas like pasadena. (I have a 1911 map of la county they show Pasadena as "forestry area".)The redline was built before the auto boom. It was all private, probably ran at a loss and I would imagine it was a couple decades of deferred maintenance by the time it was shut down.
(DIR) Post #B0D94YKVzlMmRcfaqW by mathowie@xoxo.zone
2025-11-13T17:11:50Z
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There were over 1,000 miles of tracks that connected everyone from Thousand Oaks down to Orange County. I’ve heard podcasts claim the car companies didn’t kill it, it just stopped being profitable by the 1950s, but why not turn it into a public good? Convert it to a state-run system instead of removing it all?
(DIR) Post #B0D9scChrjSkwGtBcO by kdawson@tldr.nettime.org
2025-11-13T18:34:57Z
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@tomjennings @mathowie A while back an elderly neighbor in Massachusetts told a tale of her aunt riding streetcars from Massachusetts to Ohio, apparently for a single fare and repeated transfers. This might have been early in the XXth.
(DIR) Post #B0DLafLgdKlsviITlQ by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2025-11-13T20:46:11Z
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@kdawson @mathowie Wow that's pretty cool!
(DIR) Post #B0DLgVZLuGnSKvTVK4 by kdawson@tldr.nettime.org
2025-11-13T20:47:15Z
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@tomjennings @mathowie Yeah. I wonder how long that would have taken? More than 24 hours I'd wager.
(DIR) Post #B0DQTFauUNoQnVhX28 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2025-11-13T21:40:52Z
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@kdawson @mathowie Could have taken a week or more. Semi-related, for comparison, here's a story told by two young women who drove to California from Massachusetts, in 1930. https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/Road/AtoPGypsyTrip/index.html
(DIR) Post #B0DY68QLmVCbX3FaZU by kdawson@tldr.nettime.org
2025-11-13T23:06:20Z
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@tomjennings @mathowie That's fascinating in the details: for example that three young women spent $100 on food over two months.
(DIR) Post #B0DlDR38EHHYjHCYcq by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2025-11-14T01:33:19Z
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@kdawson @mathowie Their world (nice white girls) was pretty idyllic...