AEG-Backed Study Says Downtown L.A. Streetcar Would Bring $47 Million To City
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See page three of the document below for full-size map of proposed routes.
Building a $125 million streetcar line through four miles of Downtown L.A. would drive 10 times as much development to the area, according to an independent economic study by AECOM of the project released Tuesday.
A streetcar connecting Bunker Hill, Grand Avenue and the Music Center, Historic Broadway and the Historic Core, South Park, L.A. LIVE and the L.A. Convention Center would lead to $1.1 billion in new development and create 2,100 permanent jobs over the course of 25 years. The study also found that the project would bring $47 million in fresh tax revenues for the city. Tuesday's announcement to release the study involved L.A. Councilwoman Jan Perry, Tim Leiweke of AEG, L.A. Councilman José Huizar and several leaders from the business community.
Currently undergoing an enviromental impact review, the project would cost about $25 million per mile. It would run seven days a week and about 18 hours a day, requiring a $5 million operating budget and 50 employees. L.A. Streetcar Inc., a nonprofit group bringing together public agencies and private groups, is leading proposed project.
The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles, which would be disbanded under Gov. Jerry Brown's budget plan, has pledged $10 million to the project. But a report in Streetsblog L.A. last year noted that the project would need to attract at least $60 million in private funding to be viable for financial help from the federal government. Streetsblog reported at the time that the Obama administration had already committed $258 million to streetcar projects from Portland to St. Louis.
L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which commissioned the enviromental impact report, would also likely contribute some money. (UPDATED:) The goal is to begin the two-construction process in 2014, according to the City Maven.
The AECOM study suggests 3,600 more people than expected would move to Downtown if the streetcar was in place.
Portland's four-mile streetcar line, built in 2001, is said to have induced $3 billion in building development.
Critics of streetcars say they are too slow and don't offer enough versatility. The L.A. Department of Transportation's DASH bus lines run through most of the areas proposed in the streetcar project, but the streetcar proposal would directly connect residential areas to the major entertainment hubs in Downtown.
One of the company's in the L.A. Streetcar Inc. group--AEG--wants to build a $1 billion football stadium adjacent the L.A. Convention Center. The city council last week voted to commission a cost-benefits analysis of AEG's proposal. The members of a blue-ribbon panel selected by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to also study the stadium idea has deep and long-standing ties to AEG, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
“I understand that it would be easy to stand here and throw rocks at this idea or the idea of an NFL football stadium," Leiweke said at a press conference announcing the study. "I get it. It’s 10 times easier to criticize than to have vision. Imagine a Superbowl where one-third of the people that are attending that Superbowl take a streetcar to go to the Superbowl. Imagine that.”
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