For the last 20 years or so the City of Portland has been looking into the idea of a "central city circulator" to move people around downtown. With a nod to the past, and using modern Czech technology, Portland has started to (re)build a streetcar network.
Currently work is under way, thanks to Earl Blumenauer and Sam Adams, to extend the current 7.2 miles of track over the Willamette on the Broadway Bridge to the Lloyd District to eventually make a loop around the central city over a new bridge being designed for the South Corridor Project. The streetcar loop project is currently proposed to be funded from a menagerie of sources including Federal Small Starts funding, urban renewal districts, and a new special tax district much like the funding program for the original streetcar through the (now called) Pearl District.
-image from Metro
Sam Adams is also looking into creating a blueprint for a complete streetcar system to guide future extensions. A future modern streetcar system could be built out to look like Portland 100 years ago:
-image from Portland Vintage Trolleys (map circa 1912)