Midtown Community Works

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A Desire Named Streetcar: Inspired by its success, Minneapolis makes tracks to study the Portland Streetcar line By Leslie Watson Every form of public transit has its share of enthusiastic fans, eager to praise its particular virtues. From a design perspective, some might say that nothing rivals the elegant efficiency of the LRT that now speeds so effortlessly along Hiawatha Avenue. Others might argue that on a frigid Minnesota morning, there is no sight more welcome than the amber lights atop a Metro Transit bus as it rumbles towards figures huddled at a corner stop. But if the measure is sheer, unadulterated cheerfulness, surely nothing beats a streetcar. It’s been more than fifty years since streetcars ran along the streets of Minneapolis, and here, like most places, they are considered part of a nostalgic past, from an era before cars came to dominate so thoroughly our urban streetscape. Over the last decade, however, a growing number of cities across the country are revisiting this neighborly form of mass transit. Heritage trolley lines in places as far-flung as Tampa, FL, Ft. Collins, CO, and Charlotte, NC, have become valuable tourist attractions, and some have even paved the way for public acceptance and endorsement of future light rail systems. Portland streetcar at a curbside station. Photo courtesy of Light Rail Now, Darrell Clarke, 2003 Now, with cities like Portland, OR, leading the way, streetcars are making the leap from tourist draw to full-fledged member of the transportation infrastructure. Fun to ride, clean-running, and chock-full of charm, streetcars are generating big community pay-offs along the way, both in terms of development dollars and enhanced livability. Emboldened by Portland’s success, cities like Minneapolis are considering whether to reintroduce streetcars to their transit mix. As part of its Ten-Year Transportation Action Plan, Minneapolis is conducting a Streetcar Feasibility Study of the viability of possible streetcar routes, the Midtown Greenway among them. The City is looking to places like Portland for lessons on how to reinvent this traditional form of transit for today’s urban environment. The Portland Streetcar In the 1960s, few would have guessed that Portland’s downtown district would someday become one of the most admired in the country. As with many major cities, its urban core was experiencing an escalating drain to the suburbs of people, business, and investment. Envisioned as early as 1972 in the city’s Downtown Plan, the streetcar line was just one element in the far-sighted urban planning that led to the downtown district’s turnaround. Indeed, the Portland Streetcar is widely credited as helping to spur over $1.5 billion in new development along the right-of-way since 1997, when the city chose the final alignment. Although some of that investment would certainly have happened anyway, Portland’s commitment to building the line helped convince developers that the city was serious about fostering an urban renaissance in abandoned or underdeveloped areas.

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