The thing is, AC is actually now becoming a liability...
.. not knocking Tesla, AC was the best tech at the time. But most appliances (including washers and dryers) convert AC over to DC — sometimes just to convert it back to 3-phase AC for precise induction motor control (one of Tesla’s inventions that will never die, more than likely).
Also, the power companies lose tons of money due to capacitance in everything from the big lines (up to million volts or more), and small systems (your block).
With the advent of power electronics that can work on the power levels involved now, you will see more and more DC systems going on line, at least to the substation. They have a dramatic drop in line loss due to capacitance and inductance in the system. At the termination point, you have a monster inverter to convert it back to pure sine wave AC current, 3-phase.
Back then, you would have had to have a DC power station about every three blocks. It just doesn’t “travel well.”
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Induction and capacitance don't cause any power loss while low voltage DC means in order to deliver power you have to increase current, a lot, which means real power losses in the power lines.