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FWIW, Bossi is right that the design, engineering, and project management (for execution) side of the streetcar project has been weak. (IN a piece, Lydia DePillis called this a problem of planning, but planning is the first phase, execution is part of design, engineering, and project management--it's not planning, not the way that agencies are set up to realize projects.)

I not infrequently make the point that DC and Seattle started streetcar planning in 2003, and in late 2007, Seattle's streetcar entered revenue service...

As far as transit connections go, every resident of the city doesn't have to have access to every job in the DC region (e.g., Fredericksburg.). You can move. Or you can buy a car. Yes, I limit the work i have access to by choosing to not have a car. Depending on the work, that could change. (If I had been offered a permanent position at Baltimore County Planning, I probably would have taken it, and I would have bought a car.)

Virtually everyone else, even "poor" people, can make the same decision. It depends on the job and the opportunity costs.

But adding streetcars to DC will improve transit service (especially wrt reliability, noise, and comfort), and increase choice, connection, and attract more people out of cars, who won't ride buses now.

FWIW, these arguments were made by H St. merchants in 1947, when they were fighting the abandonment of the streetcar line back then.

The transit service improvements will benefit the people who use bus transit the most now, which tend to be poorer people. So I think streetcar service is a win on equity grounds, definitely.

The arguments against streetcar service I just don't really get. It's as if the area has no experience with transit generally and no awareness of streetcar service elsewhere, not just Portland, Toronto and other places too.

I have been meaning to write about this, and I will yet. Basically, my point to every upper income person who derides streetcars is that they need to go to the Nob Hill neighborhood in Portland.

It has historic building stock. It has a "neighborhood" commercial district that far exceeds in quality and variety _every_ "neighborhood" commercial district in DC. It has active neighborhood theaters, a Trader Joe's etc.

I can't imagine anyone in that neighborhood is against having streetcar service. The streetcars are integrated fine into the neighborhood from an urban design standpoint. And probably the property values, generally, are higher than in comparable DC neighborhoods. (Not Georgetown or Dupont Circle, maybe more than a lot of Capitol Hill, more than Takoma, Brightwood, etc.)

Well I guess they aren't higher, but they are comparable, which says a lot, considering that DC properly is one of the strongest real estate markets in the US, and Portland isn't.

www.redfin.com/neighborhood/32432/OR/Portland/Nob-Hill

Other people in the thread make a very good point about Barry using this to strike back at Catania. Commenters are right that the ability to have these kinds of outside jobs sets up conflicts of interest and opportunities for manipulation (something that MB is very good at figuring out; plus it helps deflect attention on his own acts). Actually, you have to hand it to MB, it's a deft move, very impressive.

by Richard Layman on Jun 19, 2012 8:56 pm • link • report