> The man was a fiend.

Judge Doom?

Seriously, they died because 1) with driving made easy and affordable, nobody wanted to ride old streetcars; 2) the companies running them were private, and losing money because the real estate was sold off and fares didn't cover expenses, but they couldn't raise fares enough to cover expenses and renewal; and 3) National City Lines and its affiliates made money from the scrap and the buses they sold to replace the cars.

#3 is the one most often blamed, but we really did it to ourselves through #1 and enforcing #2. NCL simply administered the coup de grace, occasionally a bit before its time.