I am a trolley/ train enthusiast and I am by
No Means a conspiracy theorist but I do believe such "theories" are based on elements of truth. The problem is that conspiracy theorist only take one element and run with it, while dismissing other relevant elements and issues. In the case of trolleys, I went to the trolley museum out in Wash. county last summer (nice little museum) and was introduced to the "trolley conspiracy" by one of the tour guides. I looked into it and came to my personal conclusion that GM and big oil
did see an opportunity to make $ my manufacturing buses for transit which helped hasten the death of trolleys in many cities. However, trolleys were already on the decline because of:
1. growth of suburbs & interstates-Trolleys were useful in central cities but because of population shifts, building lines out to the new suburbs wasn't as attractive as building interstates for the new middle class.
2. car culture- people love cars and like the privacy they afford instead of relying on public transit. GM and the automakers were giving the people what they wanted.
3. Trends- Many cities were abandoning trolleys in favor of buses simply because trolleys were "old fashioned", noisy, "inefficient", obstructive etc. I vaguely remembering the general feeling in Pittsburgh, one of the last trolley holdouts, that the city had to get with the times and rid itself of trolleys and tracks which were causing damages to personal vehicles.
I think of other conspiracies and the same thing comes up, such as Pitt destroyed Forbes Field. Yes Pitt wanted to expand but trends in cities was to demolish old stadiums and replace them with cookie cutters. Pitt took advantage and bought the land to expand. Interesting that the trend in baseball is now retro since Camden Yards.
Same with the Wal-Mart conspiracies, yes Wal-mart wants to completely rule retail (which they do), but i don't think it was not an orchestrated plan to destroy mom & pop's. I think Wal-Mart considers them "collateral damage"- which is a shame.Online commerce, shopping preferences and the decline of indoor malls
deadmalls.com in favor of box stores have all helped give Wal-Mart the power like He-Man.
BTW getting back to buildings and Pitt, the new dorms on 5th are rising nicely, i believe about 10-12 stories which helps add to the canyon affect in Oakland!