Streetcars: the Foundation of Cities and Suburban Areas

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, streetcars are still the foundation of cities and suburban areas across the country, establishing a pattern that guided development for over a century.

By 1910, you could travel from Boston to Chicago entirely on streetcar lines, just transferring from one to another. Sadly, 60 years later, the streetcar had largely disappeared. Only the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans remained of this vast network.

We had a different vision in the city of Portland. In 1987, I called for the development of a circulator system in the central city that built around the streetcar.

I worked with the late Bill Naito, a visionary Portland businessman and developer, who bought old streetcars from Portugal. He brought them to town, thinking that if people actually saw them, it would help promote his concept of their reintroduction.

I worked with a gentleman named Rick Gustafson to bring this to fruition. We had a 10-member citizen steering committee, who worked with the city to fashion an approach going forward, and it worked. Within a decade, we had a loop in downtown Portland connecting it.

That loop of streetcars was the focus for much of our affordable housing. It changed the dimensions of downtown, where people used the streetcar for short trips rather than vehicles. It guided development in modern Portland.

This is part of a national movement reintroducing streetcars. I am proud to have helped lead that with the Portland model. We now have streetcars in over two dozen cities across the country, with more on the way. There is hard work in Omaha, Nebraska, which might be the next major development.

This is human-scale technology. It is proven. It is cost effective. People love streetcars. They are energy efficient and help promote a development pattern that is human oriented.

We have an opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to be able to continue this effort at mobilizing efforts to promote livable communities, another transportation alternative, and guide development.

I was pleased to, 10 years ago, be in Tucson, Arizona, for the opening of their streetcar. Before it even opened, the streetcar redefined its downtown development, relationship to the university, and promoted additional housing opportunities.

The streetcar is a chance for us to be able to use this proven technology and mobilize patterns of growth and development in a low- cost, high-energy initiative. The modern streetcar has the opportunity to help communities across the country.

I was pleased to be at the Streetcar Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, this last week. People from around the country gathered to share their stories of streetcar development. This is a new wave of urban development, proven transportation technology, and an opportunity to reshape our central cities.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to look at these examples in so many of our communities. The streetcar is making a difference in a way that saves money, saves time, improves the planet, and makes people feel good about their urban environment.

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