EDITORIAL: Mayor not asking most important question about streetcars
As reported recently exclusively in NewsLanc, Mayor Rick Gray’s chief of staff, Pat Brogan, outlined the three questions that are driving the City’s consideration of streetcar feasibility:
While fairly comprehensive in assessing the possibility of this proposed system, the City overlooks what should be the most pressing consideration of all: Will a streetcar system actually contribute to the quality of downtown?
Assume that the state and federal governments provided the city with a blank check to install and subsidize this proposed streetcar loop in Downtown Lancaster. In such a scenario, according to the City’s current criteria for streetcar feasibility, it would be a done deal.
However, the streetcars impact on the quality of the lives of city residents would not have been evaluated. After all, a trolley system using the same types of cars was eliminated from city streets over half a century ago, presumably because they were perceived to be more of a burden than a benefit.
Full government funding only tells the City that it “could” install the system—but not that it “should.”
For $150,000, the study ought to address the legitimate sentiment of downtown residents and merchants to trolleys that may well clog the streets, endanger pedestrians, and run virtually empty.
This is a case where it makes sense to look a gift horse in the mouth to make sure that it isn’t a Trojan Horse.
“After all, a trolley system using the same types of cars was eliminated from city streets over half a century ago, presumably because they were perceived to be more of a burden than a benefit.”
You may wish to do a little research on why trolleys don’t exist anywhere in the states, save for a few cities. Your investigation could start by looking into who (or what special interest) might have benefited from getting rid of the trolleys. Could it be that there was an industry poised to make billions by selling buses to every city in the country? No, “presumably” it was just a vague, non-descript burden on our towns. That’s pathetic.
Your presumptions make you appear just as lazy and ignorant as the papers you continually criticize.