The Cato Institute’s June 14,
2012 Policy Analysis includes an excellent paper on Streetcar Systems. You can read the entire piece here.
We won’t spoil it for you, but here are a couple of the
jucier tidbits:
By failing to mention the
hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to developers along Portland’s
streetcar line, Hales’s presentations led urban leaders in Cincinnati and other
cities to believe that streetcars alone could revitalize blighted neighborhoods
such as Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine. But, as noted above, Portland’s downtown
was neither blighted when the city opened the streetcar line, nor was the
streetcar line the only subsidy to developers.
and
City
officials who believe that streetcars alone will revitalize blighted parts of
their urban areas have been deceived by smooth-talking consultants and
dissembling politicians who were foolish enough to build streetcars in their
cities. Cities with a billion dollars or so to burn could spend $100 million on
a streetcar line, support it with $900 million in other subsidies to
developers, and still not get the success of Portland’s Pearl District unless
they do it in an area that is already rapidly growing.
In short, there are much better uses for a city’s limited
transit dollars.
"unless they do it in an area that is already rapidly growing."
ReplyDelete- Good thing OTR is already rapidly growing.
Peter you ignored the part about needing $900million in additional subsidies EVEN if the areas is already "rapidly growing"
ReplyDeleteSo even accepting arguendo that OTR is "rapidly growing" already, where's the $900 million in subsidies going to come from??