"Don't Buy into the Roger Rabbit Myth"

"When I began teaching a Los Angeles geography class I was crestfallen when I learned that this was not the case—that democracy, with all its attendant imperfections, and not corrupt private interests, had killed the streetcar. Robert Folgeson among others points out that the streetcar system was never part of a brilliant masterplan to create a more navigable city. On the contrary, rail tycoons like Henry Huntington used stakes in the industry to subsidize tracks which would service and thus enhance the value of real estate holdings. Far from an early 20th century version of smart growth avant la lettre, the streetcar system was often, if not exclusively, a moneymaker for wealthy Angelnos who had the foresight and good fortune to buy low and sell high."

Kurt Hofer at The American Conservative argues that the Los Angeles streetcar system of the early twentieth century "was built mostly by market forces, and dismantled mostly by democracy."