The proposed streetcar would have run a 7.4 mile path between Fairfax County and Arlington, much of it along Columbia Pike in Arlington. The route was estimated to cost between $250 million and $400 million.
“The Coalition of Smarter Growth is disappointed by the Arlington Board’s decision,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the group, in a statement following the announcement, “but far more so by the deeply negative and frequently inaccurate campaign against the streetcar.”
The Coalition for Smarter Growth, which backed the project, trained its anger not so much on Fisette and Hynes as on “the deeply negative, and frequently inaccurate, campaign” by opponents. “Failure to invest in modern, high-capacity transit will mean more traffic and less economic development,” the group said in a statement.
Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth in the District, said that opposition to the streetcars went against Arlington’s history as a place that has fostered transit-based development. “Arlington represents, perhaps, the top national smart-growth story,” Schwartz said. “It went from a declining inner-ring suburb to a very economically successful community.”
Opposition was rooted in resistance to the idea of streetcars in general, Schwartz said, and public transportation projects’ reliance on local tax dollars. “Unfortunately, transit projects face many more hoops and require more local funding than highway projects,” Schwartz said.s
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 18, 2014
CONTACT
Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth
202-675-0016 ext.121
703-599-6437 (mobile)
stewart@smartergrowth.net
ARLINGTON, VA — Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz issued the following statement today in response to news that the Arlington County Board has cancelled the Columbia Pike Streetcar:
“The Coalition for Smarter Growth is disappointed by the Arlington Board decision, but far more so by the deeply negative, and frequently inaccurate, campaign against the streetcar. Arlington’s proven smart growth track record had given us confidence in their analysis and ability to create a great transit corridor. The streetcar’s ridership capacity was integral to the plan to use density bonuses to preserve thousands of units of affordable housing.
The most sustainable way to handle growth, manage traffic and fight climate change is through high-capacity transit and transit-oriented development (TOD). Failure to invest in modern high-capacity transit will mean more traffic and less economic development. Therefore, we have to keep fighting for transit projects and funding across the DC region.
Looking ahead, the question is whether the most strident opponents of the streetcar will support continued investment in mixed-use TOD, transit, affordable housing, and bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. The Coalition for Smarter Growth will continue to work with all Arlingtonians and residents across the DC region to advance the smart growth policies and investments that increase transportation choices, expand housing affordability, fight climate change, and clean up our air and water.”
About the Coalition for Smarter Growth
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization in the Washington DC region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Its mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. Learn more at smartergrowth.net.
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Coalition for Smarter Growth executive director Stewart Schwartz acknowledges that if Howze had won, advocates for the streetcar would have interpreted it as a win for the project.
“It would have a been a positive for the streetcar for sure,” Schwartz says. But he also says that supporters of the streetcar do not view Vihstadt’s victory last week as a sign that voters are rejecting the streetcar.
In the days following Vihstadt’s re-election victory, the Coalition for Smarter Growth – which supports the streetcar – said the election shouldn’t be taken as a de-facto referendum on the project. “We are confident that the streetcar will continue to stand up to scrutiny,” the organization said. Its executive director, Stewart Schwartz, said he couldn’t get into the politics of the matter because he worked for a non-profit that isn’t allowed to take political stances. But he said the organization would “join with Arlingtonians in making a substantive case for this as a critical long-term economic-development and transportation investment.”
In the days following Vihstadt’s re-election victory, the Coalition for Smarter Growth – which supports the streetcar – said the election shouldn’t be taken as a de-facto referendum on the project.
“We are confident that the streetcar will continue to stand up to scrutiny,” the organization said.
Its executive director, Stewart Schwartz, said he couldn’t get into the politics of the matter because he worked for a non-profit that isn’t allowed to take political stances. But he said the organization would “join with Arlingtonians in making a substantive case for this as a critical long-term economic-development and transportation investment.”
But a hard look at the streetcar and the record of transit and transit-oriented development in the region demonstrates that new transit investments are a critical economic development tool for Northern Virginia, according to the coalition. A 2013 study for the U.S. calculated that the economic value of transit for a jurisdiction could be up to $1.5 to $1.8 billion.
Both sides in the battle over Arlington County’s proposed streetcar lines are weighing in on a big decision by the county board.
Arlington is a national leader in the smart growth movement. Throughout the country, we are seeing a strong trend for younger workers and older suburban homeowners to choose to move to transit-oriented communities.