It looks like we are already behind other cities in bringing light rail back to the streets.
Cities rediscover allure of streetcars
Updated 1/10/2007 8:38 PM
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
The streetcars that rumbled and clanged through many American cities from the late 1800s until World War II helped shape neighborhoods. More than a half-century later, streetcars are coming back and reviving the same neighborhoods they helped create.
Several cities have resurrected the streetcar tradition and about three dozen others plan to — from Tucson, and Birmingham, Ala., to Miami and Trenton, N.J.
This return to the past is less about satisfying a sense of nostalgia than about enticing developers and people to old industrial areas and faded neighborhoods. As cities experience a much-publicized urban renaissance, streetcars have become another draw for investment in housing, stores and restaurants.
Cities hope that streetcars can do in this century what they did in the last: Connect neighborhoods and provide a relatively cheap alternative to walking and driving.
"The return of the streetcars is not really happening for new reasons but for the same reasons," says Michael English, vice president of Tampa Historic Streetcar, which operates along 2.5 miles connecting downtown, the fashionable loft and entertainment Channelside district and historic Ybor City. The city had a 54-mile system until 1946. The new line opened in 2002 and condominiums have been sprouting up along the way since.
"We spent $55 million," English says. "It attracted well over $1 billion in private investment. … Part of the marketing attraction is that we were bringing back something that is viewed here very romantically. A lot of people who grew up here used it all the time."
In the face of worsening traffic congestion, public support for mass transit is rising. Many cities, however, cannot afford to build light-rail lines that often must extend several miles to have a chance of attracting federal dollars.
Funding of light-rail systems often requires evidence that they will save passengers time. To make that case, most rail lines have to stretch out to the suburbs to reach commuters, an expensive undertaking.
Many cities buying in
How streetcars are reviving neighborhoods:
•Portland, Ore., often at the forefront of urban innovation, was the first to build a modern streetcar system in its downtown Pearl District.
It attracted about 100 projects worth $2.3 billion in less than five years, all within two blocks of the line. They include 7,248 housing units and 4.6 million square feet of office and retail. Proximity to mass transit allowed developers to build fewer parking spaces. Ridership was more than triple projections.
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