First Glimpses from the Portland Streetcar Trip

Eric, While you are in Seattle tomorrow, can you pick me up one of those South Lake Union Trolley shirts?

I neeeeeed one of those!

What's up with the Trolley shirt?

I hope that those involved look specifically at the logic behind the streetcar route. In Portland, they were trying to encourage development in their loft district (the Pearl). So they ran the line through the loft district and along less developed edge of downtown. (With 1st Avenue being closest to the river, they ran the line up and down 11th and 12th.)

Closest LA comparison I can think of: Imagine a streetcar running north on Main and south on Los Angeles. Or west on 5th and east on 6th between the LA River and the Harbor Freeway. Either of those would, as in Portland, encourge growth in our loft district and in the less developed side of downtown.

I assume Councilman Huizar wants a Broadway route as part of his Broadway initiative, but Broadway is only a short block from the subway under Hill Street. This is not to say a streetcar on Broadway is bad; it is just not the lesson of Portland. And if all he went up there for was to ride a few streetcars, we could have saved a lot of tax money by sending him over to the Orange Empire Railway Museum instead.

Re the route: does the route have to be a loop? Do the streetcars have to be stored anywhere for repairs?

If they have to be stored somewhere like metro trains, I presume that would affect the route downtown.

^ Excellent point.

I think this can make or break the streetcar route. If they can secure a spot in South Park and develop something around that or even share a facility with Metro at their Chinatown Yard that will help the potential for building a Streetcar for Downtown LA.

What is the advantage of a streetcar compared with a bus or certainly a subway? I'm assuming that streetcars are quieter and cleaner than buses, which is a big plus. But, unlike subways, streetcars share the road with other vehicles. That means streetcars have to navigate through existing congestion.

It's not that I'm opposed to this type of public transit, but since it's been such a headache to get funds for any transportation project in Los Angeles, will the pursuit of installing a streetcar in downtown end up as no more than a distraction and un-realized dream?

The cars need to be kept in a secure yard at night. Otherwise, they'll get tagged. They'd be rolling billboards for tagsters. If they can't be accommodated in the Redline yard by the river, land/buildings will have to be condemned. They'll need cleaning and servicing in a facility designed for such.

On second thought, the wheels and the thinga-magig on top to touch the electrical line should be the same as on the Blueline cars. That way, the streetcar track could intersect with the Blueline track south of Downtown and the streetcars could then travel to the Blueline maintenance facility. Only question is, is there enough space there for storage at night. If they cannot be accommodated at either the Redline or the Blueline yard, there had better not be very many cars. Land/condemnation is expensive. Perhaps someone knowledgeable about the local railroad properties could lend some perspective.

And if we start talking about a big outlay; the Subway To The Sea has got to have top priority. Subway access for westsiders to Downtown IS MORE important than a trolley system. The economic boost to Downtown brought by a subway to Santa Monica is without question far more significant than a trolley line running around Downtown. The Santa Monica - Downtown axis is the most highly populated urban area of the nation outside of Manhattan. Wilshire Blvd. is the center of that axis and we need the subway. Downtown will blossom when it is completed.

The Streetcar System that Huizar and other downtown power players has in mind is more intended to be used with historic cars or even reproduction of period cars. There is an old Yellow Car on Hill Street in the garage next to the Subway Terminal Building near the Title Guarantee Building. I’d LOVE to see Broadway with these great old cars going up and down it’s historic blocks, just as there had been during the districts glory days.