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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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> 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".

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

The trams went away because of cars and buses, not because of racism.

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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