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To the KC posters, how do you feel the streetcar makes your city superior to Indy? What developments are you seeing there that Indy will never see without fixed transit? No, BRT doesn't count, virtually every city has that now, or is at least planning it like Indy.
To the KC posters, how do you feel the streetcar makes your city superior to Indy? What developments are you seeing there that Indy will never see without fixed transit? No, BRT doesn't count, virtually every city has that now, or is at least planning it like Indy.
Are you summoning your inner Nostradamus by somehow suggesting a single street car will spur a vast network of development that Indy will never see? Let's flip the script. Why not ask how does an award winning airport makes Indy superior? Also what economic impact did it have on the city and what impact did it have in the development of AmeriPlex and the Purdue Research Park. This technology park is currently under development by Purdue Research Foundation and Holladay Properties and will be the centerpiece of the latest 400-acre phase of AmeriPlex-Indianapolis, a nearly 1,500-acre development.
At this point you are working with a supposition much like the one you created by acting as if there was this great Google Fiber boom. We see how that theory flopped.
To the KC posters, how do you feel the streetcar makes your city superior to Indy? What developments are you seeing there that Indy will never see without fixed transit? No, BRT doesn't count, virtually every city has that now, or is at least planning it like Indy.
I don't know that it has much impact on the volume of development KC would get over Indy, but I do think the streetcar keeps KC a different kind of city with a more urban feel and it allows for a person to live a more urban lifestyle. KC already has a very impressive urban core that stretches for over 4 miles of dense development. The streetcar (once the expansion is completed) will pull the entire urban core together.
I think the streetcar makes a difference in how central KCMO develops, but I don't know that it would bring development to KC that Indy would not get unless it creates a "snowball" effect and KC's urban revival ramps up to a whole new level more on par with Denver or Minneapolis or Portland over the next several years.
KC is already seeing major developments proposed for midtown, the area sort of in the middle of this pic and I think the coming streetcar is a big reason for it.
I don't know that it has much impact on the volume of development KC would get over Indy, but I do think the streetcar keeps KC a different kind of city with a more urban feel and it allows for a person to live a more urban lifestyle. KC already has a very impressive urban core that stretches for over 4 miles of dense development. The streetcar (once the expansion is completed) will pull the entire urban core together.
I think the streetcar makes a difference in how central KCMO develops, but I don't know that it would bring development to KC that Indy would not get unless it creates a "snowball" effect and KC's urban revival ramps up to a whole new level more on par with Denver or Minneapolis or Portland over the next several years.
KC is already seeing major developments proposed for midtown, the area sort of in the middle of this pic and I think the coming streetcar is a big reason for it.
Didn't the voters recently reject the Clay Chastain streetcar expansion plan? Do you think the expansion will gain more support in the future?
Didn't the voters recently reject the Clay Chastain streetcar expansion plan? Do you think the expansion will gain more support in the future?
That was separate from the current expansion. I don't think people will ever vote yet for a Clay Chastain initiative. People are tired of him. Expansion of the Streetcar line from Union Station to UMKC is moving forward with a local mail in vote by those that live in the corridor.
Didn't the voters recently reject the Clay Chastain streetcar expansion plan? Do you think the expansion will gain more support in the future?
This is what I read too. It seems very pricey. I am very interested in this. Incidentally, Indianapolis would do GREAT with a streetcar line, particularly up Meridian. Indy once had an excellent system, like most Midwest cities.
The latest iteration of Chastain's transit proposals failed.
Meanwhile, the corridor of the city from Downtown to the Plaza voted to extend the current line straight down Main Street to the Plaza using a transportation taxing district similar to the one that is in place for the current downtown line.
It will essentially run straight down the street in the middle KCMO's photograph above, from the skyline in the background to the bottom right corner of the frame.
The latest iteration of Chastain's transit proposals failed.
Meanwhile, the corridor of the city from Downtown to the Plaza voted to extend the current line straight down Main Street to the Plaza using a transportation taxing district similar to the one that is in place for the current downtown line.
It will essentially run straight down the street in the middle KCMO's photograph above, from the skyline in the background to the bottom right corner of the frame.
Hopefully it is well worth the investment, given KC's continued development. It has been a rocky 1st year for one of KC and Indy's peers.
Yeah, the situation in Cincy has been disappointing and a little surprising, in light of KC's streetcar experience, which has basically been a runaway success. KC, as you know, is kind of like a mix of Indy and Cincy, with Cincy being a little more traditionally urban and dense, especially in the greater downtown neighborhoods where their streetcar runs. But in a lot of ways, the lines are like siblings. I suspect Cincy's problems are mostly the result of political sabotage, and while there are a couple council persons and citizens groups in KC that would love to see the streetcar fail, it's very hard to argue with 3 million rides in 1.5 years, the huge increase in tax collections within the streetcar district, the added effect on downtown development, and the amount of street level vibrancy it has directly increased. It's not my dream public transportation solution to KC significant shortcomings in that department, but the difference between it's effect and that of our BRT-light lines (one of which is my primary bus route, so I'm not bashing it, it was quite an upgrade from the previous service) is pretty undeniable.
KC, unlike Cincy and Indy, also has a very linear core, bookended by downtown and an uptown district that neither of the other 2 really have, which positions it, in my estimation, to able to better capitalize on one single rail transit spine. If KC succeeds in extending the streetcar to the Plaza and upgraded its BRT-lite routes to the level of Indy's red line, it would actually be remarkably well-served by transit in the urban core.
Yeah, the situation in Cincy has been disappointing and a little surprising, in light of KC's streetcar experience, which has basically been a runaway success... I suspect Cincy's problems are mostly the result of political sabotage...
Yes, very much so. Without going into unnecessary detail, it can be said that Cincy's streetcar system - originally intended to connect the city's two largest job cores - was deliberately crippled at its inception (2011) by Ohio's pro-auto/big-oil/big-roads governor John Kasich.
The very last thing Kasich wanted to see happen was for Cincinnati - with a brand new, public-transit fleet of beautifully designed Spanish streetcars all its own - to outpace and outshine Columbus by connecting its CBD to its "Uphill District" encompassing the hospitals and a university of over 40,000 students. So he simply kneecapped the whole thing by yanking $52-million that would have connected the two centers, quite possibly through a big uphill transit tunnel.
Next came (and also despising of the streetcar) arguably one of the worst mayors ever elected in Cincy. For reasons that needn't be elaborated on here, Mayor John Cranley launched a personal vendetta of his own to bring down the entire operation. It's fortunate that KC has avoided this level of sabotage of its own streetcar system.
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