On track with the streetcar

As you might have heard by now, Anthony and his fellow Democrats on the City Council recently approved spending $4.5 million to jumpstart Charlotte's plan for a streetcar.

It's an important project for Charlotte's future, for all kinds of reasons:

1) As Charlotte grows, it'll be more and more important to offer transportation alternatives to cars and buses. It's been estimated that one streetcar could take the place of three buses.

2) The line would run through areas on the west and east sides that badly need new businesses. Developers are more likely to invest in areas with streetcar tracks, rather than just bus lines, because they're permanent; they know tracks represent a commitment that bus lines don't. A city-commissioned study concluded in February that the line would generate as much as $1 billion in new investment. The line could also link to other business corridors and expand the city's property tax base.

3) The Charlotte area is already producing too much ground-level ozone, a kind of air pollution. Any effort to cut that pollution is worthwhile.

4) The federal government is increasingly realizing the value of rail-based public transit and making federal dollars available to local governments with the visions to take on these kinds of projects. Moving ahead with the streetcar project now will help ensure we'll be at or near the head of the line when this money comes available. Waiting, or putting the money in reserve, would make it easy to justify never spending it, and chances are that the streetcar project would never get done.

A few weeks ago, the council had voted 7-4 -- all seven Democrats voting yes, all four Republicans voting no -- to spend the money on preliminary design work on the streetcar line, which would stretch nearly 10 miles from Beatties Ford Road on the west side through uptown to Eastland Mall. Mayor Pat McCrory vetoed the vote; he and the council Republicans wanted to put the money in reserve until the city could outline how it could pay for the whole project. The council's 7-4 vote last week overrode the mayor's veto.

Nobody knows how much the line would cost. One estimate is $450 million. That's an educated guess. The preliminary design work doesn't commit the city to building the streetcar line, but it will help us get a better idea of what the whole thing would cost. And the city wouldn't necessarily have to build the whole thing, either; it could do the project in steps, or it could construct the line without overhead wires, which could reduce the cost of the project by 25 percent. Starting the design keeps all those options open.

The mayor's, and council Republicans', concerns about spending in a recession are understandable, and they make some good arguments. But the potential benefits of the streetcar outweigh the risks. The real risk would be in passing up a great opportunity. As Anthony said recently at a news conference at Eastland Mall, where he, state Rep. Tricia Cotham and an aide to U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan voiced their support for the project: "This project is going to be a hard one to get done ... but it's one that is entirely worth it."