When officials in Portland, OR got serious about building a modern streetcar system, as leaders in Grand Rapids, MI are doing now, the boo birds predicted the project would be a boondoggle.
Opponents feared it would drain tax dollars, generate noise, scare off prospective condo buyers, instensify traffic congestion, and crash property values in the central business district. What's more, they said, nobody will ride it.
Similiar concerns surfaced recently in Grand Rapids as the regional transit agency launched an eight month study of the challenges and benefits of building a downtown trolley system.
"What a waste of taxpayer dollars," one area resident commented on TV 13's website in the wake of an in-depth news report on the streetcar study. "This is a stupid idea," another viewer wrote.
But an entirely different story continues to unfold in the City of Roses. Since opening for service in 2001, the streetcar has helped Portland's urban core leverage approximately $3 billion in private reinvestment. That includes more than 7,200 housing units and 4.6 million square feet of retail, office, hotel, and institutional space. Remarkably, all of that redevelopment is located within two blocks of the streetcar route.
Even as regional population grows, the streetcar has enabled Portlanders to reduce automotive miles traveled, protect air quality, and respond to ecological concerns like climate change.
The innovative public transit system also is improving mobility for residents and workers of all ages, income levels, and ability. A system originally projected to transport 3,500 riders per day carried more than 9,000 by 2005.
"The streetcar is a tremendous economic, environmental, and social improvement tool," says Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams.
City officials expanded the streetcar 0.6 miles to the South Waterfront District on August 17, 2007. Doesn't sound like much. But the modest extension of track helped set the stage for a spectacular redevelopment effort projected to add an additional 10,000 jobs, 3,000 residential units, and 250,000 square feet of commercial space in an old abandoned shipyard. (In fact, before the streetcar, the area resembled a scaled down version of the underutilized riverfront property south of highway 131 that Grand Rapids struggles to revive.)
At the weekend-long party commemorating the Portland streetcar's success, crowds gathered, Governor Ted Kulongoski delivered a speech ("This streetcar investment is critical to growing our economy today and creating stability for the future," he said), and the band 3 Leg Torso performed live on the celebratory run inaugurating the extended route.
The naysayers were nowhere in sight.
Andy Guy, the managing editor at Rapid Growth Media, is a journalist who lives in Grand Rapids. He recently traveled to Portland, San Francisco, and several other American cities to investigate the role of public transit in cities in the 21st century. Andy also serves as project director at the Michigan Land Use Institute and authors a blog titled Great Lakes Guy.The above video of 3 Leg Torso performing on the Portland Streetcar was posted to You Tube by bobrpdx in August 2007.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.