Dear Red America/2024-11-15
Post
How many folks here knew that Durham used to have a trolley system? There are some photos here: 607-611 East OpenDurham: Main Street / Streetcar And Bus Garage
Closest to where I live, in Duke Forest, there was a line which ended at Lakewood -- which, at the time, was a wooded lake with an amusement park and other amenities. It was apparently a wonderful place for kids and families to hang out. OpenDurham: Lakewood Shopping Center
It's a shopping center now, almost entirely paved over for car parking. (Nothing against the shops there; it did go into a decline for awhile, but between Food Lion on one end and the crafting and thrift shops on the other, we go there quite often now.)
When they were repaving the streets near there about 15 years ago, I remember noticing a patch where you could see the old street -- rails set into paving stones. (Shortly before that, on Kent Street where it runs through Morehead Cemetery, there was a pothole which revealed one of the rails.) I know it must have been a while back because I never took any photos; if I'd had a smartphone, I'm pretty sure I would have made a point of doing that.
If this is the kind of "great" that we want to make America be again, then I'm all for it. ...but I think a lot of us are worried that we'll be going the other way.