The discontent and cynicism felt by the hippie generation, and the Beat Generation before them, was not solely because of the war on drugs, Vietnam, or the disbandment of The Beatles. Gertrude Stein relates how, beginning in the mid-sixties, many Americans started to blame the new Interstate System for new, distressing social problems. “Often, city neighborhoods were chopped up and destroyed, downtown centers abandoned for the easy-access malls that sprang up at exit ramps. More often than not, urban planners laid down the roadways in the neighborhoods of Africans-Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities, people who did not possess the political power to challenge them” (Lewis/Stein). The new highways were changing the face of the nation, and once the ugly side of the Interstate System was revealed, neon no longer had the same glow. Unable to be seen as a sign of innovation or commercial success, neon “became the typical advertising medium for those cheap, rather run-down bars, hotels and restaurants which could not afford brand-new advertising displays” (Ribbat). Neon’s association with shady, unsavory businesses tarnished how it was viewed, contributing to the disappearance of vast amounts of pre-war landscape vernacular.