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Streetcar system planning continues...

NW Portland looks at potential streetcar routes
Volunteers spread word that possible new line could connect to Montgomery Park
BY TODD MURPHY
The Portland Tribune, Jun 20, 2008

Do Northwest Portland residents want more streetcar lines in their neighborhood?

And if so, which potential routes do they want?

Those are the primary questions that a group of volunteers working with the city’s Office of Transportation have been asking Northwest Portland residents in recent days.

Volunteers are going door-to-door in the neighborhood talking to people, directing them to an online survey, and to information about three potential new streetcar routes in Northwest Portland.

The Northwest work is actually part of a much larger city effort — to determine possible corridors for new streetcars throughout the city.

The work is separate from the one new streetcar line for the city that is inching toward approval — an inner eastside streetcar loop that is still awaiting federal funding but could have its construction begin by summer of next year.

The surveying and outreach work on other possible streetcar lines is part of the city’s Streetcar System Plan — a project started in June 2007.

And it’s more about someday possibilities than near-future certainties.

“Nothing is proposed. It’s all just potential,” said Patrick Sweeney, the plan’s project manager with the city’s Office of Transportation. “I don’t see any of the street car corridors with the system plan being queued up within the next .. we’re looking five to 15 years before anything in the streetcar system plan could be built.”

The largest unanswered question would be funding — both to build the lines and to operate any new streetcars.

But five “district working groups” of volunteers from five broad areas of the city are still talking about ideas — and trying to gauge community reaction. The Northwest working group is the first group that already has identified three potential streetcar lines and begun surveying residents about them.

One proposed option is to build a line from West Burnside Street to Montgomery Park, via 18th and 19th avenues and Thurman and Vaughn streets. Another option is to build a line from Burnside to Montgomery Park via 21st Avenue and Thurman. And the third proposed option is to build a line from Burnside to Montgomery Park via 23rd Avenue and Thurman.

Kim Carlson, a Northwest district resident and chair of the Northwest district working group, said people may prefer some combination of the three ideas, or other routes.

“In doing our outreach, we’re saying, not one of these options is perfect. But between them .. maybe there are components that look really good,” Carlson said.

After each district working group gets reaction from neighborhood residents, they will prepare a final report outlining options that they will deliver to office of transportation officials.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/...92446300864900