Streetcar Suburbs Without Streetcars?

"The streetcar is once again becoming a key tool for economic development, this time to spur redevelopment of central city areas in transition. Examples of streetcar systems in the US include: Portland, Oklahoma City, and San Francisco. Each of these streetcar systems has resulted in major private-sector investment in the adjacent properties with windfalls to local jurisdictions resulting from increased property values, sales taxes, and job creation.

And yet in this go-round, the streetcar has not fundamentally changed access to an area. Where the streetcars of the early 1900’s provided access to areas otherwise inaccessible, the current streetcar systems provide additional capacity to move people, but only nominally so and often at the expense of auto capacity. And the streetcars are often very slow. I have walked from Portland State University to the Pearl District staying ahead of the streetcar the entire mile-plus distance. So while we are infatuated with the streetcar (what is it about trains that gets people so excited?), is it really the streetcar that facilitates change and economic development? Or is it simply government investment?"