GEORGE A. GONZALEZ - fieldi

60THE POLITICS OF AIR POLLUTIONThe declining expense of the automobile and the growing public confidencein it (Flink 1975; 1990), however, “exerted a dramatic effect on the remoteareas which were not so well served by the trolleys.” Foster explains that:The development of the San Fernando Valley during the 1920s was, perhaps,the most spectacular example. The real estate boom of the 1920switnessed the promotion of thousands of lots, many located miles fromthe nearest trolley lines. The Encino tract, opened in 1923, containedseveral hundred single-family homesites. The development was locatedon the southwest corner of Balboa and Ventura boulevards, two milesfrom the nearest red [trolley] car stop. The Girard tract—which containedseveral thousand single-family homesites—was situated even furtherfrom the trolley lines, the nearest line being almost three miles distant.These were but two of the many subdivisions opened during the1920s in the valley where residents generally relied upon the automobilefor their transportation. (477)By the end of the 1920s, the Los Angeles area had become the U.S.region most adapted to the automobile, whereby “residents of Los Angelespurchased more automobiles per capita than did residents of any other city inthe country.” During this period, “there were two automobiles for every fiveresidents in Los Angeles, compared to one for every four residents in Detroit,the next most ‘automobile oriented’ American city” (Foster 1975, 483). Historiansof Los Angeles take these statistics to assume a particular affinityamong the city’s residents for the automobile (e.g., Fogelson 1967; Foster1975; Bottles 1987). A more likely cause, however, for the relatively highlevel of automobile ownership in Los Angeles is that much of the new affordablehousing stock was being constructed in areas only accessible by automobile.Moreover, as businesses responded to the increasing mobility of suburbanresidents, employment, retail outlets, and services were increasinglyoffered away from areas serviced by trolleys (Fogelson 1967; 2001; Foster1975; Hise 1997; 2001). This created further incentives for Los Angeles residentsto obtain an automobile.While the sprawl produced by the combination of the automobile andsuburban planning techniques had its earliest manifestation in Los Angeles,other North American cities by the post–World War II period adopted thehorizontal development pattern that is reflective of automobile use and largescalesuburban development (Muller 1981; Kenworthy and Laube 1999;Wiewel and Persky 2002). Writing in 1992, Foster observes:Many cities, particularly in the Sunbelt, now rival Los Angeles in degree ofregional sprawl. Except for foliage, temperature, and humidity, it is often difficultto know if one is in Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, or ... Jacksonville[ellipsis in original]. (191)