The O.C. Register is reporting that the Cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove would like to blow $300 million on a streetcar system that will travel from the train station in Santa Ana to the 22 Freeway. The system will take a decade to build and install.
Garden Grove Councilman Mark Rosen likes the idea, which gives me pause as he is a pretty level-headed guy, but according to the Register the real cost of this system could be as high as $748 million. That is a lot of money for a vanity choo-choo. Don’t we have buses that run this route already?
The truth is that planning officials in Santa Ana have the crazy notion that building this streetcar system will make land values along the line go up. Check out this quote from the Register’s article:
“You can say you’ve got a bus route, and your private investors don’t see that as anything particularly special,” said James Ross, Santa Ana’s director of public works. “If you put down rail, they see that you’re making an investment in that corridor.”
There you go – Ross thinks that this streetcar system will save Santa Ana. But didn’t we just have three carjackings in two weeks here in Santa Ana? The fact is, until the Santa Ana City Council and Police Department get a grip on crime, no one of any import is going to want to come here to our city.
The street cars may have to be built with Kevlar siding and accompanies by armed guards, at least once they leave Garden Grove and enter the mean streets of Santa Ana. And God only knows how much it will cost to paint over the graffiti that will almost certainly be appearing on these streetcars on a regular basis…
More wasteful election year earmarks. Ahh, nothing says lovin’ like pork barrel in the oven!
SMS
Think “Centerline”
After wasting millions of dollars on studies, they decided it couldn’t be done.
The city of Santa Ana has cut a backroom deal to allow Garden Grove to develop Willowick Golf Course into something new in exchange for their support on this streetcar project.
Ultimately, this streetcar concept is being driven by developers with their eye on the Willowick open space. The idea is to bring new people in, not to support the existing businesses or help provide transit for the area residents.
What cracks me up is the notion that the streetcar system could even exist with all the gridlock downtown. Its like One Broadway Plaza, they really think they’re going to bring that many people into the area and not change the roads and infrastructure to accomodate them??? That’s how I know we will never see any of these pet projects built.
Art,
Where in the quote from Mr. Ross does it say that he thinks a streetcar would “save Santa Ana”?
#4,
Don’t be so obtuse. Obviously I inferred that meaning from the comments I cited. Clearly Ross thinks that the rail system will attract investors,etc. IMHO it will blow a ton of money, cost a lot to run, and screw up traffic and hurt area businesses for the decade it takes to build it.
Ironically, a decade from now we may not even need cars and light rail. Who knows? Perhaps by then we will find some better way to convey ourselves. Think about how far the Internet has come in ten years. There is no telling what mankind will come up with in this timeframe. Maybe a paint that cannot be tagged? Ross will need LOTS of that!
“Don’t be so obtuse. Obviously I inferred that meaning from the comments I cited.”
Right. We also call that putting words in someone’s mouth.
Santa Ana’s civic center/downtown area is in desperate need to have more diversity in their retail and better flow in traffic before it can assume an office tower or a streetcar will solve the city’s image.
You want to know what is worse than a streetcar leading to nowhere? A streetcar leading to vending trucks, shopping carts and graffiti.