Ep. 111: Streetcar Suburbs

Prior to the rise of the automobile, streetcars were the dominant form of transportation in American cities from roughly 1900 to 1930. Realizing their economic potential, developers began building new master-planned communities along streetcar lines now known as “streetcar suburbs.” Featuring grid plans, mixed use development, and multimodal transportation, streetcar suburbs remain some of the most desirable places to live in the United States today. So why don’t we build more of them?

On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Nathan and Sebastien begin by noting that many streetcar suburbs were once serviced by earlier forms of mass transit like horsecars and cable cars. They then discuss the common features of streetcar suburbs before suggesting that the last true “extant streetcar suburbs” can be found in Philadelphia and Boston. Shifting to “former streetcar suburbs,” they then explain why Los Angeles is the “streetcar suburb capital of America” and why Chicago’s streetcar suburbs of Evanston and Oak Park are overwhelmingly liberal. The episode concludes with a discussion about streetcars and transit-oriented development in the present day.

Links:

Suburbs: A Very Short Introduction by Carl Abbott

Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson

The Earliest Roots of the Suburban Experiment by Daniel Herriges

The Fascinating Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Streetcar Suburbs by Emma Newcombe

Suburban Streetcar Desire by Tina Trenkner

In Praise of Streetcar Suburbs by Pete Saunders

A Look Back at Chicago's Streetcar Era by Erica Gunderson

Why Did Chicago Stop Growing? By Edward McClelland

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