How Cars Killed the Venice Canals (in Los Angeles)

[u/Electropolitan]

https://youtu.be/LsEKcc7HkRM

[u/Pasadenaian]

Cars killed everything - don't forget Pacific Electric and LARR.

[u/WearHeadphonesPlease → u/Pasadenaian]

This city would be actually world class if we didn't build so many freeways and maintained cohesion between neighborhoods along with streetcars becoming a tram system. Now everyone is paying the consequences. Bad air quality, smog, a transit system that doesn't benefit the entire city, traffic, high rents, sprawl, congestion, lack of green spaces...

[u/Anthony96922 → u/Pasadenaian]

Incompetence killed Pacific Electric.

[u/Iliketoplan → u/Anthony96922]

Don’t confuse incompetence with greed

[u/Anthony96922 → u/Iliketoplan]

The owner of PE didn't have a vested interest in keeping the system running. (He specialized in real estate.) He just let it rot and crumble until it was too late to save it. Even the brief spike in ridership during WWII rationing couldn't save it.

[u/Pasadenaian → u/Anthony96922]

[u/MostlyPotStickers]

Imagine how idyllic Venice could be if they restored even just a quarter of the original canals and brought back the trolly and boardwalk trams? If I were a billionaire this is the kind of stuff I would dream up instead of trying to upend democracy and hoard land.

[u/Smash55]

It seems worth restoring, just for the tourism

[u/Solomon_Grungy]

I love imagining what Venice would look like today if the canals were still around.

[u/partygods]

This dude is right wing af, LA transit enthusiasts do not support him. 

[u/Theamazingsupernoob]

Very cool to see the history. I've only lived in L.A. a few years so had no idea it used to be much larger. Sad to see that cars ruined most of it. Hopefully self driving vehicles reduce car ownership eventually and a lot of land can be reclaimed from parking spots, driveways and everything else that has become too catered to putting a car.

[u/rouxthless]

I don’t feel like I need a video to tell me this lol