April 12 – April 19, 2018 COMMUNITY STREETCAR COALITION NEWS CLIPS COMPILED BY BROADCAST CLIPS Oklahoma City KOCO April 18, 2018 LINK: https://bit.ly/2Hc1L7B The Oklahoma City streetcar project, 60% complete. That’s the update from the MAPS 3 program manager. There will be 22 stops, with the car arriving every 12 to 14 minutes. Some of the cars have already arrived here in Oklahoma City; they’re being tested on a closed track. Remember, voters approved a sales tax for this project back in 2009. Norfolk WVEC April 16, 2018 LINK: https://bit.ly/2HAgegY In just a couple of hours we’ll learn more about different options to expand public transportation in Norfolk. HRT had been discussing expanding The Tide on the city’s west side for years, but that’s not happening. Now, HRT is looking at expanding light rail, adding a streetcar or buses to the east side. What led to this shift? The study focused on the west side of the city, which is near Gent and ODU. But they saw several challenges in that study, including flooding, issues with bridges and the interstate over the Lafayette River. Based on the research, HRT recommends the city adopt a no-build for the west side of Norfolk, near ODU and Gent. HRT says the study also found only around 5,000 new riders would use the extension of either bus, light rail or streetcar on an average weekday by 2040, and they don’t think that’s enough to get federal funding, which is very competitive. But ODU students say they think a lot of freshmen would have used a light rail or streetcar if it was available. Sacramento FOX 40 April 15, 2018 LINK: https://bit.ly/2HigH4o Six counties in the Sacramento region head to Washington to make their pitch to federal lawmakers for projects benefiting the area. And that includes getting the money needed to make it happen. We focus on those regional assets, and those regional asks with the federal government that we know are going to help our entire region. We rely a lot on federal investment in our infrastructure, federal policies, etc. And Mayor Cabaldon means it when he talks about the need for federal dollars for key projects in this city. This was him exactly one year ago: “I literally was jumping for joy here in D.C.” That’s after he learned $50 million, courtesy of the federal government, would go to the streetcar project, the four-mile rail line running from West Sac to Old Sacramento, downtown and eventually through midtown. This project is near and dear to the mayor; he’s been working on it for 10 years now. He’ll head to The Hill again to push for additional funding for that as well as another major infrastructure project. 2 PRINT COVERAGE Another U.S. city showed me what metro Detroit used to be Detroit News-Herald By Craig Farrand April 19, 2018 “Speramus meliora; resurgent cineribus.” — Fr. Gabriel Richard, Detroit’s motto Hello Downriver, A few days in Seattle last week told me all I needed to know about the distance between Detroit and any hope for a truly bright future. For everyone and not just some. A future filled with emerging 21st century businesses, younger generations sticking around to raise families and extend roots. A future in which residents can get where they need to go in a timely fashion. A future in which the city once again fulfills the promise of its motto: “We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes.” Sure, I know the Seattle area is home to three of the biggest corporations in the world: Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing. But we’re home to three big players, too. So that’s not it. Yes, they have Starbucks, but we’ve got Faygo and Vernor’s. So that’s not it. And, yes, they’ve got the Puget Sound — but we’ve got the Detroit River and the Great Lakes. So that’s not it. No, what struck me about Seattle was its mass transit system — starting with the ride in from Sea-Tac Airport. It was a $3 train ride — you read that right: $3 — a ride that transformed from an above-ground train to a subway once it hit the downtown area. And that city center underground transit station was a marvel itself: a train and bus hub that was a work of art. 3 Above ground, the situation was just as impressive, and harkened back to a Detroit of 100 years ago when streetcars crisscrossed the city and reached out into the nearby cities and villages. I’m just a little too young to remember them clearly, but my grandmother took me on the trolley up Jefferson to the old Hudson’s building to see Santa. Later, I took the Fort Street bus to the foot of Trumbull and walked up to Tiger Stadium — but that’s another story. Interestingly, if you take the Detroit People Mover (DPM) — a not-too-rapid rickety transit system that goes in a circle — you can look down Fort Street and see where the streetcar rails used to run down the middle of the road. In Seattle, the rails aren’t there, either, but for a different reason: streetcars are electrified buses, with arms reaching up to overhead power lines. And Seattlites gather on street corners in literal mobs to board them all over the city; in the central business district, there were more pedestrians than cars, it seemed. (All of them with a coffee cup in one hand; a cellphone in the other.) And therein lies the reality about Detroit: the DPM and the QLINE will never serve anything more than the central business district, and our regional bus system will never meet the needs of the people who need it most. As a result, Detroit and regional business and government leaders can paint these two “trains” with gallons of lipstick, but they’ll always be pigs. The QLINE — because its tracks were built along the curb instead of down the middle of Woodward — will always be one double-parked car away from being a stationary piece of art. And unless you need to go from the New Center area to Campus Martius, it won’t do you much good. It doesn’t connect with the bus system — or much of anything else — including the DPM, which also doesn’t connect with anything. Yes, I’ve taken the DPM around (emphasize “around”), getting to Cobo for the auto show from Greektown. But its daily ridership isn’t even close to what it needs to break even — and that was before the Red Wings skated away from Joe Louis Arena. (Keep in mind that DPM doesn’t stop anywhere near Little Caeser’s Arena or Ford Field or Comerica Park.) Not surprisingly, daily DPM ridership was at its peak in August 1987, the year it was finished, when an average of 14,000 people used it on a daily basis — about 5 million people a year. It was a bright, shiny object back then; a portent of possibilities. Since then, ridership has declined to a current daily figure of around 6,000 — or a little more than 2 million a year. 4 Keep in mind that initial estimates of DPM ridership was around 20,000 per day — or more than 7 million. Here’s what one report had to say about the DPM seven years ago — and it hasn’t improved with age: “The Detroit People Mover runs nearly 3 miles and makes 13 stops. It was built at a cost of $400 million in (2011) money, and though it carries 2.3 million passengers a year, its effectiveness was limited by the city’s failure to build out its transit system.” Turning to the QLINE, we’re seeing a similar trend: According to published reports last fall, “average daily ridership fell to 3,000 from the 5,000 people who were using it on a daily basis over the summer.” Of course, that’s when private donors were paying for rides; once people had to pay their own ways, ridership plummeted. Which means we’re seeing the same thing we did with the DPM: QLINE operators have a goal of 5,000 riders a day — or 1.8 million a year — but is on track for a mere 440,000 riders this year. So, what about Detroit’s bus system? Actually, that’s a growth area — with an asterisk: After seven years of falling ridership, DDOT has seen a jump to around 2.2 million riders in 2016, up from less than 2 million two years earlier. But southeast Michigan political leaders continue to stymie attempts to create a comprehensive, integrated mass transit system that would make the QLINE and the DPM valid mass transit options, feeders and specialty arms. As a result, we’ll always be behind places like Seattle — and Cleveland. Yep, adding salt to the wound, a report out of Cleveland compared its new “Health Line” with Detroit’s QLINE: “The QLINE construction came with a price tag of $144 million, while Cleveland’s Health Line cost $200 million. “The difference? The QLINE is a 3.3 mile stretch along Woodward, while the Health Line stretches 6.8 miles. The Health Line price tag came with 59 bus stops, miles of road repairs and beautification efforts. “The setup involved creating ‘bus-only’ lanes for the entire stretch and timing lights so that traffic lights have a minimal effect on trips — the bus drivers only stop when a passenger requests it, meaning trips move faster.” That’s certainly not the QLINE — nor does it even come close to what business leaders had in mind.