The Streetcar Can't Save Your City

Yonah Freedmark, whose own transit blog, Transport Politic, has been tracking the current building boom in urban rail, sees some parallels between streetcar-building and the vogue for downtown sports stadiums, convention centers, and other brand-building urban projects of debatable value. What makes Cincinnati and Kansas City potentially different is that these cities are launching streetcars with economic momentum in their favor. Both are enjoying residential growth in their cores, and both streetcar lines thread through downtowns stocked with several major new attractions that are already open. “It’s all about the timing,” Freedmark says. “In the past 30 to 40 years, many investments in cities have come in the context of declining downtowns. But when streetcars are constructed simultaneous with other investments, it can be mutually beneficial.”