Old railroad tracks archived

So I'll try to wrap up the demise of streetcars in NYC. LaGuardia took office in 1934 with the goal of turning New York into a modern city. Toward that end, he removed the pushcart vendors from city streets and force them to rent space in indoor markets built by the City. His puritanical streak led to him shutting down slot parlors and burlesque theaters, and ethnic pride to banishing organ grinders. This plus his wicked temper with subordinates was later replicated by Rudy Giuliani.

https://nyhistorywalks.wordpress.com/tag/fiorello-laguardia/

But to his eye, the biggest impediment to modernization were the elevated railways and streetcars. He delighted that streetcars "are as dead as sailing ships" when the 4th and Madison Ave lines were converted in 1935. The BMT and 3rd Ave systems were actually in pretty good shape when he became Mayor. The 3rd Ave had replaced their entire fleet, and the BMT was a driving force behind the production of the revolutionary PCC car, with the first 100 entering service on that line in 1935.

http://metro.wikia.com/wiki/Brooklyn-Manhattan_Transit_Corporation
http://www.streetcar.org/streetcars/1053-1053-brooklyn-ny/

None of this mattered, and the decision to go to buses citywide was made by his Board of Transportation (BOT). The 3rd Ave set up a bus subsidiary in The Bronx in 1928, which became operator of the world's largest diesel bus fleet by 1942. LaGuardia simply refused to renew the streetcar franchises, with the intended immediate conversion to buses tempered by the expense. WWII put a temporary end to bus production, but drove the streetcar fleet into the ground through record use. All lines in Manhattan were bustituted by 1948, and the last of the 3rd Ave's routes in Yonkers went bus in 1952. In 1940, the BOT took over the BMT, and the last Brooklyn streetcar on Church Ave. ended in 1956. The 9th Ave El was dismantled in 1940 with City acquisition of the IRT, but 3rd Ave held in until 1955 when the Second Ave Subway failed to materialize.

http://www.thejoekorner.com/lines/brooklyn-trolleys/bklyntrolleys-frame.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Avenue_Railway

As much as Moses hobbled New York by focusing exclusively on highway construction to the exclusion of transit expansion, LaGuardia did more to ruin efficient intra-city travel than any other individual.