I love the Pissclams anger over this thing - given the fact he's not paying for it. The City is using the TDD approach for funding - it's not taking money out of the general fund or imposing a city-wide tax. So, unless you live/shop in the downtown TDD, you'll never spend a single penny on this thing. Of course, he already knows how this works, because midtown/plaza/brookside residents already voted down the TDD that would have brought the streetcar to UMKC.
The system worked like it was supposed to. downtown businesses/residents voted to build the streetcar, midtown residents voted against it.
Maybe it's a big fancy toy that won't amount to crap. who knows. just like P&L and Sprint Center. Long term, who knows if it's worth the investment. But, the facts seem pretty clear that things like P&L/SC and now, the streetcar, are driving downtown development. All along the streetcar corridor buildings are going up and surface lots are going away. Residential numbers are booming. in the last 10 years the number of downtown residents has increased from 5,000 to +20,000. This is obviously not all due to a streetcar line. But, a lot of it could be due to simply providing prospective residents with the basic necessities of a modern downtown area.
It could be all smoke and mirrors. But, the really strange thing is that every modern city in America has a rail system that feeds into the downtown area. And every downtown area has a circulator of some sort - whether it's a fixed bus lane (Denver), or streetcar (Portland, Dallas, Seattle, etc.). This may be pure coincidence. Or, maybe, these cities are onto something.
