Jan 22, 2009
Streetcars – "A Money Machine"
By: Kevin Buchanan
A great bit from the Dallas Observer’s Unfair Park blog regarding discussion about modern streetcars from the Dallas By Design seminar. Jim Schutze writes:
Streetcars did come up. The former mayor of Charlottesville, Va., home of UVA, spoke and talked about how they are the smallest city in the country with a planned streetcar, apparently from the The University of Virginia campus to a downtown area. He said the streetcar won’t be on the ground for another seven years, but, because developers believe the city means business about it, the values and actual redevelopment along the planned route have gone through the roof, a point he illustrated with some amazing photos. Strictly from a development and tax base perspective, a well-placed streetcar line looks pretty much like a money machine.
It’s important that we not let the great momentum from late 2008′s modern streetcar mania fade away. The city needs to make a strong commitment to building the streetcar system and start moving forward.
(Thanks to Andy Nold from North Texas Historic Transportation for alerting me to Jim’s comment!)
This is only mildly related, but you may enjoy it. It let’s you play state transportation czar. do you want to increase roads? How about mass-transit? Care to raise gas taxes? See how it all ends and whether you can stay under budget, or if you need to issue some bonds to pay for improvements. Based on Kansas:
http://www.kansastlink.com/calculator/
I would forward that to Joel Burns, but I’m pretty sure he is active in these parts. Maybe the rest of the council members should get a copy of that.
I used to live in Charlottesville and I never actually rode the street car because I lived outside of town and had to drive in anyway, but it was a great way for students to get from grounds to downtown, which is a very popular destination. And it’s free.
^^ ???
I think they are talking about building a real electric streetcar on tracks. Perhaps you are thinking of the bus that looks like a trolley?
i just found old photos of street cars in fort worth .i found them in a old building that i bought let me know if you would like to have them .aslo some old potos of some buildings in down town forth worth