The last streetcar rattled through New York City almost half a century ago, back when polio was still a thing, the interstate highway system was new, and families were just starting to afford automobiles. Now, Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to bring that primitive 1950s technology to Brooklyn hipsters.
The de Blasio administration has made the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, the so-called BQX streetcar which would run 17-miles along the East River and cost a cool $2.5 billion, its marquee infrastructure project. Increased tax revenue from boosted property values was supposed to pay for the streetcar. But if the money doesn’t come, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen expects the rest of the country to pay for the novelty train set.
“Hi Donald,” the deputy mayor recently pled, the New York Daily News reports, “please send us money for urban mass transit.”
“The federal government could come up with additional money to do exactly these kinds of cool urban projects that really enhance our mass transit network,” Glen said Tuesday at an event hosted by NYU. “That’s the kind of thing the federal government should be doing.”
New York progressives have dreamed about a streetcar for some time now (progressives love European-style transport). But the boxcar is the definition of a boondoggle. It would travel slower than the subway, cost more than a bus ticket, and require serious updates to the city’s infrastructure. Streetcar proponents downplay those problems, most significantly the fact that the BQX is at risk from East River flooding. They insist the streetcar is a good investment and they brag that the BQX would travel at least as quickly as the city buses that run the same route.
And all of that sounds sort of nice. Who doesn’t like the idea of a cute little people mover that revitalizes downtrodden neighborhoods and reduces traffic? The answer: Literally anyone who has ridden the streetcar on H-Street in Washington D.C. That novelty barely travels at walking speed, but it sucks through money like a jet engine. Without counting maintenance costs, the D.C. streetcar cost $200 million to build, and it now loses $8 million per year running just 2.2 miles. That means it cost $17,217 to build each foot of track, and it loses nearly an additional $700 per foot per year, because if they ever start charging people to ride it, no one will.
President Trump and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, aren’t likely to look kindly on a streetcar for the wealthy urban elite after the D.C. experience. But the BQX could still find another booster inside the beltway. The chief interest group pushing the project is directed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s oldest daughter.
“Now is the time for the city to capitalize on a real moment to take our transit destiny into our hands and move the BQX forward by unveiling next steps for the project,” Jessica Schumer, executive director of the Friends of the BQX, told the New York Daily News.
Apparently her father found that pitch persuasive. Deputy Mayor Glen says that Schumer is a “huge fan.” No doubt. Still, that doesn’t mean the rest of us should pay for his hobby.
