It’s been a long summer for Congress Street regulars, but it appears as though the end of the streetcar construction—and those chain-link fences—may be near. The new tracks are starting to be laid down.
This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2012.
Streetcar Tracks on Congress Street
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What a waste of money we don’t have….
“What a waste of money we don’t have….”
Yeah, just like we’ve never had money for a decent intercity freeway system, an aerial tramway to Mt. Lemmon, etc. etc. Tucson tries really hard not to do anything (unlike Albuquerque, Portland, etc.).
The streetcar will, I believe, be a major inducement to downtown commercial development in the near future. My only concern is the current effect on merchants in those areas within the construction zone. I shop and dine, as frequently as possible, on 4th Ave. and Congress, to do my part in keeping them going.
I can think of a lot better ways to spend $19.6b dollars in this town. Let’s start with the 19.6b pot holes that need filling. Who needs a streetcar in little old downtown Tucson? It’s freakin’ walkable. What a waste and ruin of so many current businesses already.
Is this thing really going to do anything useful?????? I guess if you want to sip expensive coffee downtown before going to see the doctor at UMC, it might.
JCC, I’ve patronized 4th Ave and downtown since the time people thought BOTH areas were dead and buried. The streetcar isn’t going to take me there any easier than my car, bike or feet. It hardly goes anywhere, and does nothing to connect those areas more conveniently with the rest of the city. I love good transit projects, but this is useless.
It amazes me how disconnected Tucsonans are to the actions of our government. We built the Aviation-Barraza Highway for about $20m and it only took 5yrs. Of course it hasn’t provided any value to downtown or anyones’ transportation. Then we agreed to a bizarre “new” street car named “Undesired” 5 yrs ago. They removed the trolley system, which we had also paid for and I don’t know what they did with the beautiful trolley cars. I never road it because I was never in the vicinity, but it seemed like a nice thing to have. Now we will eventually have a smart new system built by people who have never designed or built a street car. It will provide service to a few more areas….none of which are in my vicinity. So now we’ll have a great 3.2 mi. highway to nowhere unattached to our best public art (the rattlesnake bridge) neither of which will afford a means of riding the streetcar anywhere along its 3 mi track.
Does anyone think that the streetcar came before the overlay and destruction of our historic areas. Or did Rio Nuevo pay to obscure all information regarding its involvement? Just exactly what do you think remains of our historic areas? Let’s tear down TCC and put an arena which will required many more acres of historic buildings. The best bridge to nowhere has to be the Cushing St. bridge! And it runs on the south boundary of TCC across the Santa Cruz to……
As a native Tucsonan I truly resent the current destruction and construction. We must save what we have! There is no going back! “Remember when….” are the saddest words in Tucson and AZ today. There will be many fewer who can “remember when…” soon. Do we have to forget?
Barb Wire,
You should do a little research before mouthing off. You say “They removed the trolley system, which we had also paid for and I don’t know what they did with the beautiful trolley cars.
FYI, that system, the Old Pueblo Trolley, was built and operated for 18 years by a non-profit, all volunteer organization. It never cost you or the city one red cent.
We at OPT are as dismayed as you claim to be about its disappearance, and we are fighting with the city for the right to operate alongside the modern streetcars.
If you do in fact frequent 4th Ave, you would know that those old streetcars are stored where they always were, on 8th St, right behind O’Malley’s. We continue working on restoring one of them for future operation.