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Mayor LaGuardia hated streetcars and did everything in his power to kneecap the companies and force them to convert to buses. He thought they were an anachronism in Art Deco New York, which may have been true with brokeass New York Railways and their turn of the century wooden cars, but Third Avenue Railway system was building modern aluminum cars and hung on until post WWII. If they had managed to survive, some lines might have modernized like Boston, Philly, etc. To start from scratch now would be an undertaking beyond the financial and political powers of today’s floundering city, especially in Manhattan. A waterfront line during Brooklyn’s gentrification boom would have been great but that tine has passed.
