Twaddle, Bunk and Flub-Dub How the Pasadena Blue Line Was Derailed Eighty Years Ago
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Twaddle, Bunk and Flub-Dub How The Pasadena Blue Line Was Derailed Eighty Years Ago Sure history repeats itself. As the Blue Line Authority forges ahead with the construction of the rail line from downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena City Hall is sorting out a new form of municipal governance that includes an elected mayor. But to really understand local transportation and the city government we have today, let’s go back to the dawn of the Twenties in the City of the Roses. by Tim Brick It was the fourth and final debate in the local contemptible. It is the nearest approach to 1920 election. Voters nationally were considering Bolshevism I know." the League of Nations, prohibition and Cox versus When given his chance, Hamilton, the fiery Harding, while Pasadena residents debated rival Commissioner of Parks and Public Buildings, lit proposals for a municipal electric railroad to Los into his opponents. "I will contribute to the nice, Angeles and the city manager form of local gentlemanly campaign our ‘city manager’ group of government. ninety-seven are carrying on by admitting that the Publisher Fitz E. Beach of the Daily News only people here who want ‘better government’ are opened the evening's program at Lincoln School. the owners of $150,000 homes," Hamilton said, "We’re fighting the same battle over again," he referring to Lockwood's stated desire to maintain declared, "that we fought over the light plant," Pasadena as a haven for the rich. “The rest of us," referring to Pasadena's successful fight to wrest the he admitted with irony, "are really undesirable electric utility from Edison. “We hear the same line citizens. We ought, therefore, to abdicate in favor of twaddle, bunk and flub-dub, of car miles and of the minority who know everything worth miles of cars, and smiles of miles and miles of knowing and to vote down the railway bonds and smiles." The Pacific Electric Company, he charged, vote up the city manager plan these newborn is robbing Pasadena residents of $1.5 million a year municipal experts thought up all in one evening, through high charges and slow service. making the startling discovery that all the work of A businesslike form of government, not a men who have been studying the real manager plan municipal railroad, is what Pasadena needs, for years was no good, as doubtless some of them countered Ernest H. Lockwood, the realtor who did not live in $150,000 homes." headed the Chamber of Commerce's Better The fireworks that night at Lincoln School were Government League. Pasadena, he declared, should typical of the exuberance that characterized the adopt the practices of successful business concerns Municipal Railroad Campaign of 1920. Two and do away with the politics in City Hall. Blasting strikingly different alternatives were placed before City Commissioner John J. Hamilton who was Pasadena voters as to the future shape of their city, waiting his turn to speak, Lockwood roared, “The local government and the transportation system that bankers are the best friends this city has, and the would link them to the rest of Southern California. man that says they are Southern Pacific hirelings is Their debate has remarkable relevance for Pasadena residents today. On the one side were Hamilton, Beach and Critics also attacked Pacific Electric for others who proposed the preservation of Pasadena excessive rates and numerous accidents, but they as a diverse, residential community where citizens went beyond that. They claimed that the Southern could find quick and inexpensive transportation to Pacific was intentionally stifling growth in work in downtown Los Angeles via electric trains Pasadena by providing abominable service. Private run by the city. They promoted municipal ownership ownership of the transit system, they maintained, of basic urban services as the road of democracy. resulted in “civic lassitude and dry rot." On the other side was the Better Government A larger political motive seems to have been at League of the Chamber of Commerce, led by Ernest work. Around the turn of the century, the Southern Lockwood, which advocated residential exclusivity Pacific Railroad (SP) was a mammoth political and the “Pasadena Form of Business Government." power in California. Parlaying its enormous land Their proposal called for a city manager and a city grants and stranglehold over the transportation of board of directors, qualified men with business people, food, and basic commodities into political skills who would replace the politicians running the influence, the Southern Pacific virtually ruled city. Sacramento. Slowly a reform movement arose to The public ownership movement that Hamilton challenge their immense power. Hiram Johnson, an and his allies represented was a political crusade energetic district attorney from San Francisco, made that swept the country in the early decades of this breaking up the power of the SP the main thrust of century. Citizens organized for municipal ownership his successful drive for governor in 1910. Pasadena of basic services to ensure that they would not be residents, particularly the local Lincoln-Roosevelt left to the mercy of unscrupulous businesses. In Club, were instrumental in that campaign. So when Pasadena the movement sunk deep roots during the train service to the City of the Roses deteriorated, sixteen-year battle with Edison that began in 1904 Southern Pacific claimed it was due to insufficient over the Light and Power Department. Cornelius revenues, but many Pasadenans laid it to plain Wellington Koiner, the general manager of the retribution. Light and Power Department and later city manager, Transportation had long been a fascination for established a national reputation as an advocate of Pasadenans. In 1899 Horace Dobbins of Pasadena Public Power, and the local utility was known as a devised an ingenious plan to build an elevated model operation. Besides the water and power bikeway of pine lumber and asphalt to Los Angeles. utilities, the city operated an electrical appliance In that year he began construction of an elevated sales and repair shop, a city farm and city housing. cycleway that went from the Green Hotel through The fierce battle with Edison foreshadowed the Central Park to Raymond Hill in South Pasadena acrid dispute with the Pacific Electric system that where it was to turn west, run diagonally to the provided streetcar transportation throughout Los Arroyo Seco, and then reach into Los Angeles. Angeles. Henry Huntington's Big Red cars are Dobbins’ cycleway never got beyond Raymond Hill, remembered nostalgically by transit buffs, but the but at about the time dissatisfaction with Pacific citizens of Pasadena grew increasingly disenchanted Electric was becoming a prominent concern of with the poor service provided by Pacific Electric, Pasadenans, Dobbins announced the formation of particularly after 1911 when ownership passed to the Pasadena Rapid Transit Company which would the Southern Pacific Railroad. use the cycleway right-of-way for a train to Los The Pasadena Short Line, the first Pacific Angeles. In 1913 Dobbins set out to sell bonds, but Electric route, began service in 1902. But then, as World War I undid his plans. Eventually the what has been called the most efficient urban train visionary sold his right-of-way to the city for line of its time expanded in other directions around $156,000, and a municipal electric railroad came to Southern California, Pacific Electric seemed to be seen as a real possibility. neglect Pasadena service. Routes were inadequate, This was a vibrant period in American history, maintenance ignored, and the cars painfully slow. and Southern California was among the most exciting places to be. Not only were Americans confronted with World War I, but strong popular efficient “business management" of local movements were challenging economic and government. Their cry was for "more business in political structures. On a national level, women's government." The form they proposed was the city suffrage, the income tax and direct election of manager form. The first example, in 1908, was senators came about. In California, reforms such as Staunton, Virginia, the hometown of Pasadena’s C. the initiative, referendum and recall were W. Koiner. established, and many cities municipalized their At first the city manager was coupled with the utilities. Socialists were a powerful force and almost commission form, but soon the desire for elected a mayor in Los Angeles in 1911. centralization of responsibility and power led to Meanwhile business-oriented reformers pushed the surrounding the city manager with public-spirited regulation of commerce, privately owned utilities businessmen who would serve part-time as city and a business approach to government. directors or council members. By 1920 the battle over the kind of transportation In this climate the municipal railroad campaign system which would structure and link our cities gelled in Pasadena. Some traced the movement to was still unresolved. The privately owned Pacific the earlier campaign to dethrone the Southern Electric had an extensive system which spanned Pacific about 1910. Others said the initial Southern California, but automobiles were discussions were held by the Pasadena Board of emerging in a big way. Newspapers were filled Trade, which later became the Chamber of with accident reports and ads and features about the Commerce, at the Hotel Maryland in 1914. In any marvelous new lines of cars being introduced. The case, it was a powerful issue from that time through police were still uncertain how to effectively the rest of the decade. manage traffic and cooperated with the Auto Club In 1919 the proposal reached the ballot for the to form a “Vigilance Committee" of 75 prominent first time. The municipal railroad plan received 61% but unnamed citizens to deal with motorists who of the votes cast in the highest turnout election to had a record of consistent offenses.