Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

by Jeff Speck

The new streetcar opened in 2001 at a total cost of $54.5 million.23 Since then, over $3.5 billion of new investment has sprung up around the trolley line—an astounding sixty-four times the initial investment. According to a Brookings Institution report, adjacent property values have risen by 44 to well over 400 percent, compared to the city’s baseline appreciation of 34 percent. Several thousand people have moved in, and they, in turn, have caused a revolution in street life. The Brookings report notes that “pedestrian counts in front of Powell’s Books, a major retailer sited along the line, went from three people per hour to over 933.”24 Portland’s streetcar succeeded as a tool for increasing urban vibrancy because it was first a tool for neighborhood development. This fact is important for two reasons: first, because it is a mistake to promote a streetcar in the absence of a major real estate opportunity and, second, because such an opportunity suggests the presence of private parties who stand to benefit tremendously from the investment. And these parties should want to help pay for it.