Jan 7, 2011

The Last Trolley


The last trolley, shown above, ran in Allentown on June 8, 1953. We see the trolley passing a new Transit Authority bus at 8th and Hamilton Streets. In the early 1950's, General Motors wined and dined transit authorities all across the nation, promoting their buses as the modern mass transit. Today, buses are becoming electric, just like efficient trolleys of yesteryear. We even dress up a small bus to look like a trolley. Gotta love the vision of bureaucrats.

10 comments:

  1. Now you are getting it MM. Big business really calls the important shots in the US. You have always (perhaps I overstate) given it a free pass while blaming local politicians and little Virginia's parents for the collapse of urban life in America.

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  2. P.S. General Motors, in cooperation with Firestone, or was it GoodYear, in a well documented process killed mass transit in Los Angeles. You can't blame the "bureaucrats" your bete noire. We have a system where corporate "fat cats" use their money and influence to dictate public policy.

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  3. "Gotta love the vision of bureaucrats."

    More like, "gotta love the influence of big business." You said it yourself: GM wined and dined the authorities.

    Funny thing is that the movie "Who Framed Rodger Rabbit" has an element of political commentary. "A freeway?"

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  4. ENOUGH OF THIS TRASHING OF "BUREAUCRATS." Bureaucrats work for elected leaders that WE vote for and the bourgeoisie has often paid for. Yes there are some bureaucrats that are incompetent. Yes, there are Puerto Ricans, Jews and even white angle saxon protestant men that are incompetent. Please try not to paint all of them with a dark gray brush! Prejudice in all forms is unworthy of the important blog.

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  5. gary, on this blog the brush isn't used out of prejudice, but from my experience. if you use the search engine for "lanta", you will find i do have experience with at least the current transit authority. by no criterion are bureaucrats a class of people who should be protected against discrimination. please stop referring to particular ethnicities and using the word prejudice on this blog. i do not deserve or appreciate the inferences.

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  6. Not prejudice, but observation.
    Bureaucrats, elected officials, corporations, and everyone else will be painted on these blogs as we authors perceive them.
    We do still have that right.
    We have a city FULL of lazy,arrogant, unapproachable self serving bureaucrats.
    There may have been couple good ones over the years but they either were fired, quit, or died.

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  7. Comrade Ledebur,

    Well done.

    The class war is far from over.

    Stay the course.

    V. LENIN

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  8. Gary -

    I thought you were giving this blog up.

    What happened?

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  9. The town looks kind of dirty for a period people refer to as the glory days. That block actually looks much better today.

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  10. anon 1:56, maybe that's because there are no people now. but, i jest; in reality, although there were thousands of people then, the streets were much cleaner. thanks for the visit, but i have no use for apologists; stay at the puff blogs

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