Railtown - BookWyrm

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published Jan. 22, 2014 by University of California Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-520-27827-1

(1 review)

The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city.

Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision.

1 edition

The Beach Reader reviewed Railtown by Ethan Elkind

Review of 'Railtown' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book answers all the glaring Metro questions that any resident of Los Angeles County has wondered about for decades. Why doesn't the Green Line go to LAX? Why isn't there a subway along Wilshire Boulevard, where God clearly intended there to be one? WHY, BY ALL THAT IS HOLY, do the Blue Line and the Expo Line, in contravention of logic and goodness and accepted practice in every other civic rail system, STOP AT RED LIGHTS? The answers aren't likely to make you happy, but they are here in Elkind's comprehensive and thoroughly sourced history.

Elkind is clearly a fan of the rail system, almost a booster. He gives short shrift sometimes to the arguments and positions of anti-rail advocates, from NIMBY homeowner associations in the Valley to various county supervisors and congressmen. That said, he does do a good job of at least presenting the basics of the …

This book answers all the glaring Metro questions that any resident of Los Angeles County has wondered about for decades. Why doesn't the Green Line go to LAX? Why isn't there a subway along Wilshire Boulevard, where God clearly intended there to be one? WHY, BY ALL THAT IS HOLY, do the Blue Line and the Expo Line, in contravention of logic and goodness and accepted practice in every other civic rail system, STOP AT RED LIGHTS? The answers aren't likely to make you happy, but they are here in Elkind's comprehensive and thoroughly sourced history.

Elkind is clearly a fan of the rail system, almost a booster. He gives short shrift sometimes to the arguments and positions of anti-rail advocates, from NIMBY homeowner associations in the Valley to various county supervisors and congressmen. That said, he does do a good job of at least presenting the basics of the anti-rail arguments (especially those of the Bus Riders Union), and the large bibliography will give any motivated reader a way to get further information. Henry Waxman, my former representative, is portrayed in a particularly negative light. One entire chapter is named "Henry Waxman's Hot Air," and his anti-scientific and stubborn refusal to allow the construction of the county's most sensible rail line was frustrating to read about, and made me lose some respect for a congressman I generally liked.

The last book I read about local infrastructure, Brown Acres (about the LA County sewer system), was full of information, but so boringly written I could barely get through it. That's not a problem here; Elkind has written an engaging history that knows when to zoom in to committee meetings and political rivalries, and when to zoom out and look at the Metro as a whole and the rider's experience.

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