willard84

I don't think the current economic climate is going to do so well for the streetcar... 1) A strong argument for the line was that some 1,500 housing units would be developed along its corridor... considering the current housing and economic downturn, I think those numbers would need to be revised considerably downwards. If the line is built now, we may end up with 2-3 story buildings lining the route, instead of 5-7 story buildings. And once those shorter buildings are in place, they will be hard to redevelop. Plus, it would hinder the argument for expansion, since naysayers will rightfully say "See, your figures for the starter line were way off... why should we now believe your predictions regarding expansion!" If the streetcar is to build up density, I don't know if its wise to risk lower-density buildings springing up. 2) Much of the funding could have come from restaurants lining the route. I wonder how many of these will go under in the next year or so... thereby reducing the funding base. I also wonder if the mood within the "benefit zone" has soured since the economic downturn. I know I'm not the only one who is now reconsidering the wisdom behind the streetcar push. 3) The line was to be an impetus for a wider regional rail project that could alleviate pressures from gas pumps. Well, gas prices have gone down, so much of that argument is dissipated. Its easy to say "Gas will soon shoot back up to $3.50 a gallon!," but that won't likely happen until the recession is over. And anyways, an improved economic climate will get gas prices back up, so that would be a better time to go through with this. When gas prices are back to sky high, that might just be an indicator that our economy is healthy enough to sustain this. And yes, Portland built its line in the not so great economic climate of 2001, but Portland's economy is arguably stronger, and their downtown never sank nearly as low as ours. We can't really compare the two. 4) It may no longer be worth $100,000,000 to boost public transit use by a few thousand passengers per day. I don't know about you, but I think that if people are scared/hesitant to use public transit, that is their own problem. I don't know if a hundred million dollar streetcar line should be used to market public transit to college students and yuppies. As for this being a segway to a wider regional rail network, I don't think streetcars are a prereq for commute rail. The much touted city of Portland had a commuter rail before it had a streetcar... Not to mention that commuter rail here would be less effective since we have so many freeways leading into downtown... unlike Portland which doesn't. Point is, its too easy to drive to downtown, so rail isn't so attractive. Plus, any savings at the gas pump would largely be eaten away by daily roundtrip tickets on a commuter rail if they cost more than $4. And the service frequency may just render rail as a hassle for commuters if trains come at too large a time interval. 5) Advocates keep describing development along the line as a "return on investment," but I think that is a bit of a misnomer. The city gov't will be investing $100,000,000 into the line, and the DEVELOPERS will invest in and reap the benefits of any development along the route. Yes, they are investing IN the city, but the city gov't is the one making the hundred million dollar plunge, and they aren't going to see that money again for a very long time. In fact, the city will likely offer property tax abatements to entice people to move to new developments along the route, so the city gov't's will need to wait even longer to see a "return" in the form of taxes. And sales tax boosts aren't going to really make this worthwhile, since the city govt could more wisely reap sales tax by other means. The real winners of the "Investment returns" are the developers. 6) Streetcars were also marketed as a way to reduce parking problems. After living in a large East Coast city, I can honestly say that parking in Columbus is a breeze, even on gallery hop days. Walking a few blocks once a month doesnt really mean parking is a hassle in Columbus. In fact, you can almost always find a spot within a block or two of your destination, or use a cheap vallet service. I've driven around Philly for more than an hour looking for a parking space on a normal evening. And garages here charge $6 for even 20 minutes, while vallet is usually $17... so parking here is truly in high a problem. While that level of parking shortage isn't the threshhold for a "bad parking situation," I honestly don't think Columbus has any parking shortage whatsoever. 7) Steetcars may support an urban, car-free lifestyle, but that sort of lifestyle is largely elective in Cbus, so the city has no real obligation to facilitate that lifestyle. The people who really can't afford cars are already using public transit - the people living along the streetcar route will largely be the type of person that can CHOOSE to give up a car. As such, the city shouldn't have to spend over a hundred million dollars to cater towards the lifestyles goals of, at most, a few thousand people. With a hundred million dollars, we can improve public transit for more "bang for bucK" than the streetcar provides. As for neighborhood connectivity, I again don't think it is worth the hefty pricetag. Also, that issue is only one of a long list of problems negatively affecting downtown re-development. We could improve connectivity cheaply by improving bus service. And on a non-economic note: after living in Philly for a few months, I've already experienced how much of a hassle fixed rail tracks can be for a streetcar. On more than one occasion, a car has either broken down on the tracks, or a delivery truck has partially blocked the streetcars path. In those instances, it took over 30 minutes for the offender to be removed, by which time 5 more trolleys had also joined the trolley-jam... and this was in a relatively quiet area around UPenn. The COTA equivalent here has said that no trolleys can be run through congested areas unless the trolley were given exclusive right of way. Philly still has trolley tracks already layed down throughout the center city... but they refuse to restart service in central areas (even those outside of downtown) because trolleys were being delayed so often. Thats all the more surprising considering that the tracks and power source are so well-maintained, that all Philly would have to do is buy trolleys to run on the tracks, or refurbish some that it already has. They literally could restart service in a month, but they refuse to do so. I haven't seen any proposal from columbus streetcar advocates as to how to deal with this major nuisance. My mood towards streetcars has soured, but I think this is an especially bad time to go through with it. Anyone think I'm totally wrong here?

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Center city can barely sustain the mid-range stores it already has... how on earth would a luxury retailer survive there? Considering that the upper-end stores are already at Easton, Burberry would have to be insane to isolate themselves from the wealthy shoppers and other upper end stores at Easton. Easton and Polaris will be, for the next decade or so, the locations of Columbus' high-end stores... center city simply will not be able to compete since we don't have the population base for yet another up-scale retail destination, especially one that would be isolated from the wealth in the burbs. And I doubt the collective wealth of downtown's residents is anywhere nearly as attractive as the wealth concentrated in the burbs. Buying a hip $60 t-shirt is one thing, but a $1,500 coat is quite another - and arguably, a higher percentage of the small number of super wealthy downtowners would venture out to the burbs for a designer jacket than vice versa. Plus, Time Warner brought quite a few jobs to the city core, which is arguably worth more than 4,300 square feet of retail space.

Train derailments make the news because they're rare, and thus, new worthy. Its also an issue of practicality - you simply can't report every car accident in the country. That's why plane crashes draw so much attention too. I think its a bit unfair of you to paint the "mass media" as harboring some anti-rail bias based on news coverage of rail accidents. But those numbers are startling. Perhaps we could use the +$100,000,000 dollars for a starter rail line more wisely if we would direct it towards implementing roadway improvements that would cut down on car accidents, such as traffic circles, better lighting, or better snow/ice removal. That much money could go a long way towards infrastructure upgrades that could potentially save lives... because while rail may be safe, a small starter line isn't going to pull much traffic off the roads. And since a full-fledged network is decades and billions of dollars away, making our roads safer would be easier, cheaper, and arguably more important since it could literally save lives, which are obviously worth more than condos.