What does it take to build a subway under one of the most car-obsessed, earthquake-prone, politically tangled cities on Earth? Turns out: a lot of explosions, a few sinkholes, and an almost heroic tolerance for bad faith.
Phil and Ted climb aboard with Ethan Elkind — Climate Policy Director at UC Berkeley Law and author of The Fight for Los Angeles Metro Rail and the Future of the City — to trace L.A.’s wild transit saga from the forgotten golden age of electric streetcars, through the smoggy spiral of buses, automobiles, and gridlock engineered by some very powerful, very shady interests, all the way to the messy, thrilling, still-unfinished dream of building the city of tomorrow.
Takeaways:
From Streetcars to Subways: Ethan Elkind explains how early L.A. expanded not with freeways, but along a vast streetcar system—until the rise of the automobile turned the city toward sprawl and smog (04:01).
Who Framed the Streetcar? Was the car industry really behind L.A.’s transit woes? Ethan Elkind busts myths and dives into the real reasons for the streetcars’ demise (05:35).
Building Below the Boom: Find out how engineers tunneled through methane, fossils, and former oil fields to build the Metro—with more Hollywood drama than you’d expect (21:03).
Green Line to Nowhere? Discover why the LAX rail connection hit a dead end and what’s finally changing today (34:02).
What’s Next: Will bus-only lanes and bike corridors transform L.A. further? Ethan Elkind tells us what’s coming and how it could shape the city for the next generation (37:57).
🏆 Fun Fact
The last Pacific Electric train ran in 1961, on tracks now used by the Blue Line. L.A.’s transit history has come full circle—from streetcars to subways and beyond (03:19).
Links referenced in this episode:
The Fight for Los Angeles Metro Rail and the Future of the City
Companies mentioned in this episode:
Interscope Geffen
UC Berkeley Law
UCLA Law
LA Metro
Los Angeles Metro Rail
