Seattle’s vintage streetcar line deserves to live

A briefingon the coming choice between four finalists to design the new public spaces on the waterfront-to-come, courtesy of Crosscut.

In some respects the central waterfront of Seattle seems like an excellent place for a streetcar. Our ability to build one there, though, may be lost if the Deep-bore Tunnel is defeated by the Surface+Transit plan.

From the cruise ship terminal at the north end, past Amgen (which currently buses employees downtown), and then past Myrtle Edwards and the SAM Sculpture Park, condominium housing and hotels, the Aquarium, shops and the ferry terminal- and none of these places with anything like adequate parking- this route is a natural for a streetcar. It’s even level.

But the Surface+Transit option for Highway 99 at the waterfront puts a six-lane highway through- six lanes of frenzied traffic the streetcar can’t cross.

Do the math yourself, but start by remembering what always happens to the drawings you saw when the project was proposed, compared with what you actually end up driving on. Next, remember that when they tell you “four lanes” it will end up being six.

A streetcar can’t go under a waterfront highway, and any signaling that is allowed there will be, first and foremost, for other purposes.

Building a highway on the waterfront may close the option of building a streetcar for another 40 years. It’s not what Seattle should do with the waterfront.

This would be a wonderful time to take the ferry into Colman Dock and board the Streetcar for a visit to Pioneer Square or a venture out to the north end of the line. Unfortunately, the ‘leadership’ of Seattle has failed to support this activity, so you can’t do it.

Consequently, West Sounders have been forced to make their own fun, and as a result, you can board the ferry at Colman Dock and travel to Bremerton and Winslow, on Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island (to accommodate the various preferences for naming the islanders have adopted).

In Bremerton you’ll find a waterfront esplanade, with an historic ship at the east end, and at the west end, sculpture park upon sculpture park. In between it’s all scrumptious goodness with coffee shops, ice cream, and a restaurant. Bainbridge has a beautiful park by the water, coffee and food, and some smart walkable housing within a short walk of the ferry. Like kids, suburbs can grow up to become smart young cities.

No, you’ll find no streetcars here, but it is car-free entertainment and it’s summer. What more excuse do you need?

A recent Grist article on the transit development in Charlotte, North Carolina, highlights the role of a historical trolley in sparking the development. Resurrected by hobbyists and trolley fans, the historic car let thousands ride and learn about streetcars, while developers were similarly inspired, by the sight of something tangible in the form of transit improvements, to build near the trolley.

Neither the historic trolley or the airy talk about “TOD” can spark the development of light rail on their own- they must work hand-in-hand. But the actual ability to see and ride is doubly important in a land where talk is cheap, and many have never even seen a trolley or train.

The George Benson Streetcar took thousands of visitors to a waterfront that, arguably, hardly merited a visit otherwise. The City exercised a form of neglect that bordered on the criminal- on one midwinter visit I found small cardboard hutments built by the homeless under the Alaskan Way viaduct. It was left entirely to the shop owners and trolley volunteers to make the waterfront a welcoming place.

The boo-birds will sing about “playing with trains”, but what they’re really complaining about is that people like streetcars, and when they see it can be done, they wonder why it isn’t done more often.

So do I.

The Seattle P-I has posted an update of the process of planning the “new” waterfront to emerge when the viaduct is removed. This process will bear careful watching, not least because McGinn has demonstrated no interest in streetcars or rail transit upgrades- and how else are people supposed to get to the waterfront?

This is one of Seattle’s (literally) dirty little secrets- apparently it is assumed that because there is parking under the viaduct, and who goes there anyway?, that no real bus service is necessary for the waterfront. Nine acres of public space won’t go very far in providing parking and roads to substitute for real transit.

Don’t imagine someone is watching the store. The architects will produce their usual grandstanding idiocy, and it will be up to the public to get the train back on track. Stay alert for pubic meetings where you can raise the obvious questions.

I saw a rumor on the internets the other day, to the effect that the demise of the Waterfront Streetcar came about in the dark night that the tunnel deal was struck by the minions of Lucifer, and if the tunnel is built, the streetcar can never come back. This (need I say it?) is total B-S.

The streetcar, in fact, was edged out by the Waterfront Sculpture Park, pushed out, and then allowed to die by politicians who had other things on their minds.

And this is a good example of how the fervent opposition to the tunnel is trying to re-arrange the past and future to fit their narrative. In reality, the best chance of getting the streetcar back is to see the elevated AWV off the stage and bring in the streetcar to replace it- not as a highway, but as a qualified user of some of the upgraded waterfront we’ll have when the AWV is not overhead.

The New Pioneer Square blog has a post about the future of the George Benson Streetcar. The people they talk to say nothing is decided and whether the streetcar comes back will be determined later.

Let me translate that for you- if there is a persistent demand to restore the streetcar, it will be done. Otherwise, a swirl on the water will mark the submergence and disappearance of the Waterfront Line.

At least we have some eyes in the neighborhood watching what’s happening. Don’t fail to check The New Pioneer Square blog for news.

That would be me, not the streetcar. Richard Borkowski, in a comment to a Ted Van Dyk post at Crosscut, says “However, with the advent of web 2.0 and social networking, we found that younger people are not interested in attending meetings, planning actions and making comments at hearings or even writing letters to the editor. So in 2008, we shut down our group.”

Mayor Mike McGinn can get a number one rating for more light rail in a poll posted at his website, but you sure couldn’t prove it by me. After 6 months or maybe a year of blogging here, I don’t see any on-the-ground effort at bringing back the George Benson Streetcar.

I could be, living on the Tahuya Peninsula, out of the loop. Who are we kidding, I’m so out of the loop I can’t even see the loop.

Could great things leaven from this new social ferment? Maybe so. And if so, a good place to start would be connecting the enthusiasm for light rail shown in the Mayor’s poll with the streetcar we once had.

Just sayin’…

Take the South Lake Union streetcar to the south end of the lake, and then walk up the lakeshore to the Fremont Bridge. This might, but probably won’t, take as much as an hour. If you keep following the shoreline, you’ll walk under the south bridge approaches and, a little further on, past the SPU playing fields, eventually reaching a small park and a public dock at the marine spill response unit.

Along the way, you’ll pass some public waterways, usually marked by signs. These are lands owned by the public, as are the streetends that reach the lake.

All of this, but particularly the stretch from south Lake Union to the Fremont Bridge, would make an excellent location for a historical trolley. The public waterways could be developed as mini-parks where the public could enjoy the water.

At the south end, you have the Center for Wooden Boats, with boat rentals, a museum and a public park, and at the north end you have a short walk to restaurants and taverns. Who wouldn’t want to spend a nice day here?

Pamper yourself, Seattle! Build the parks, get the historical streetcars running here, and Lake Union becomes a real jewel, a place where people can bring their families and spend the day without bringing their cars. And- need we say?- this could all be done for less than it cost to build a sculpture park.

Lake Union will never get any bigger. Make the most of what you have.

As reported by Erica Barnett, Mayor McGinn and three members of the City Council have asked the Waterfront Committee to speed up their work in drawing up a laundry list of items to be included in planning the central waterfront. That’s “speed up” as in “wrap up by the end of April”, or, in human years, roughly tomorrow.

It’s time to stop telling me how nice it would be to see a streetcar on the waterfront and tell them. What? You don’t know where they are or how to tell them? Well, my excuse is that I live 50 miles from Seattle- what’s yours? Find out where they are- and when you do, leave it here in comments for the rest of us, s’il vous plait.