Untracing the Lines of Industry

Train and streetcar tracks should definitely be preserved, even if it's just a short segment to remind us of our transit history. Tracks are a part of the built environment like buildings and streets.

Years ago, I remember seeing a short little piece of streetcar track peeking out from the asphalt at Seventh and Grand. It's gone now, of course.

Maybe if it were still there, people would see that we used to have tracks in the streets and that it's nothing to fear.

Fortunately, we still have tiny reminders of our streetcar past throughout Downtown: many older buildings still have hooks embedded in the exterior wall high above the sidewalk that used to anchor the overhead wires for streetcars and trolley buses (yes, we used to have electric trolley buses too!).

Maybe some day those hooks will once again anchor trolley wires?

www.mydowntownlosangeles.blogspot.com

Actually, as much as it seems the thing to do to romanticize the streetcars, they were removed for a reason. No, it was not a conspiracy by GM, but rather a combination of declining ridership and safety problems. Many accidents occurred between at-grade trolleys and automobiles.

Yes, it would be nice for little bits and pieces of track to peek through to remember the past, but no, people do not have nothing to fear. There is a very real reason at-grade rail has become scarce; let's learn from the past and when we build rail, build it so it does not have to endanger motorists and pedestrians.

Oh, I completely agree with you about safety--read my straphanger blog posts about how we need to build rail lines that run in their own exclusive right-of-ways.

I was thinking specifically about the idea of building an historic streetcar line downtown, something a lot of cities have done with great success.

I also took some photos yesterday of this, posted here:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=130199

Looking at a satellite shot from Google Maps, it's such a large space that there would be room for a little pocket park on the former Alhambra Avenue side.