Kings owners push for Downtown StreetCar line (Sacramento, West Sacramento: middle-class, sales)

[CeJeH]

Kings push to bring street cars back to Sacramento | Local News - Home

[Majin]

Great news to me, but The Arena will still destroy downtown according to wburg.

[wburg]

No, that's Godzilla.

[ryuns]

It's good news and all, but I feel like KCRA is a just beating their cowbell a little too much. It was my understanding that the Kings were going to be required to pay measures to mitigate all the traffic issues that could spill out to I-5. This could be in the form of alternative transportation, but could also just be for widening off-ramps, etc. The encouraging thing is that all parties seem to be on board, and it does set some precedent of local businesses chipping in for the streetcar, which is a pretty smart way of (partially) funding things like streetcars.

Streetcars (and light rail) are hugely expensive but they have a few advantages over buses. For one thing, people generally view them as more comfortable and reliable than buses. They generally impress people more and actually get middle-class folks and tourists to consider public transit. Also, they're close to permanent, so you can potentially leverage business owners near the line, who would presumably benefit from the proximity, to chip in via property tax increment funding.

[CeJeH]

I'm surprised Wburg doesn't have more to say about this. You have been the biggest streetcar proponent on this forum over the last few years.

[Majin]

Originally Posted by CeJeH

I'm surprised Wburg doesn't have more to say about this. You have been the biggest streetcar proponent on this forum over the last few years.

He doesn't like the fact that the Kings are a part of the streetcar line.

[Malloric]

Cool, they just increased the cost by another $150 million. Great news.

Take a look up at much more urban Seattle and see how its streetcar is doing.

[ryuns]

Originally Posted by Malloric

Cool, they just increased the cost by another $150 million. Great news.

Take a look up at much more urban Seattle and see how its streetcar is doing.

Total cost for streetcar was quoted as $150 million, so what are you talking about?

[wburg]

I didn't have the time yesterday to leave much of a response, and didn't want to leave a big ol' post that would lead people to accuse me of bloviating. But since you asked, it's swell that they are providing some funds for the streetcar project. It was already planned for this alignment, a route sketched out in 2011 (after an earlier alignment in 2007 ran into some problems) and was approved last year by City Council, when the selling point for Mayor Johnson was that it stopped alongside the Amtrak depot, the site of last year's failed arena plan in the Railyards. The streetcar plan is entirely separate from the arena plan, but an attraction like an arena will draw more streetcar riders,especially because that makes it easier to park in West Sacramento or Midtown lots and ride to games. Also, because streetcars can demonstrate a lot more ability to draw investment than arenas (Portland's streetcar drew more than $1 billion in investment) it might actually save the arena from its own flaws by laying the groundwork for residential growth.

There are several sources of funding for the project popping up--West Sacramento voted a sales tax increase specifically to fund a streetcar network years ago, and have been waiting for us to figure out how we're going to pay for our end. SACOG just provided a $7 million grant to start on the engineering, and we have a strong case made for next year's round of federal transit funds. The other part is an assessment on private development alongside the streetcar alignment, of which that $500,000 would basically work as an advance payment. Other payments would be made for further ancillary development, and could also act as mitigation for traffic impacts of subsequent development. Property assessments are one means of paying for a streetcar network, based on projected increase in property value along the alignment, and the value of reduced parking need. Other cities use other methods, like parking meter revenue, but I don't think we'll have any extra in Sacramento for the next 37 years or so...

I can also see why Mark Friedman, new owner of the mall property and part owner of the Kings, would like the idea of kickstarting the streetcar plan, as he is building the waterfront neighborhood across the river in West Sacramento and a streetcar line is critical to making that an urban, transit-oriented neighborhood instead of "West Natomas." Traditional streetcar lines were built with one end in a new-growth area and the other end at a destination, with as many workplaces as possible in between. The line as envisioned runs from West Sacramento (new growth) to Old Sacramento (destination) to Capitol Mall (workplace) the Railyards (new growth and transit connection) to the arena (destination) along Kay Street (workplace) and around the Convention Center (destination) ending at 19th Street in Midtown (established transit-oriented neighborhood and destination.) You can read more about it here: http://www.sacog.org/projects/streetcar/

The commitment, assuming it actually happens, marks another "pro-arena" point on my personal balance sheet, along with "distorts economy towards downtown instead of the suburbs" and "irritates conservative columnists." Not sure whether that outweighs the other side of the balance sheet, including "flawed funding model via parking," "borrowing money from Goldman Sachs" and "irritates Majin" yet, but it pushes me farther in the direction of voting "yes" on an arena proposal, should we end up getting the option to vote.

Oh yeah, and the Seattle streetcar is doing just fine: http://www.thestranger.com/slog/arch...&view=comments
http://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2011/01/...inues-to-grow/

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by CeJeH

Kings push to bring street cars back to Sacramento | Local News - Home

CeJeH, Can't wait for this!

Burg, thanks for the sacog links and brochure downloads.