Don’t pass us by January 15, 2008
Posted by Ron in Businesses, Movies, Road trips, Towns.trackback
Stopping to chat with customers at 4 Women on the Route in Galena, Kan., Washington Post reporter Warren Brown laments what happened to towns along Route 66 that were bypassed by the interstate.
Why did it happen? Brown concludes it was money — or the lack of it:
Modern interstates sped up the cross-country commute between the nation’s bigger and richer cities, effectively bypassing less affluent, formerly industrial towns such as Galena, which once relied on lead mining to support its fiscal health. The big cities prospered. Many little towns suffered.
“It happened very fast,” said a saleswoman in the gift shop at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Okla. “One day, there was traffic coming though town on 66. The next day, there was nothing. Everybody was on Interstate 40.” Thus, many small businesses — mom-and-pop hotels and restaurants, retail stores and other businesses relying on Route 66 traffic — “soon went out of business,” the saleswoman said.
Hmmm. Sounds familiar:
Comments»
No comments yet — be the first.