Is the Streetcar the only hope for Downtown Bountiful?

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Recently I had the opportunity to take a walking tour of the downtown Bountiful area. As many of you know the Downtown Bountiful Business Association is opposing the proposal to bring the streetcar through the area. However, after looking at the current status of the downtown area, the association should be supporting this proposal as it may be the best hope of downtown bountiful surviving in the long term.

The first problem I see with downtown Bountiful is there is not much to attract people to the area. The only restaurant in the immediate area has closed so you have to walk to the extreme end of the downtown area to find a place to eat. In addition a shopping area needs a large variety of stores to keep the area vibrant. However, that is sourly lacking in the downtown Bountiful area.

Of course the city of Bountiful is not helping the downtown area. They used government money to put in a Costco obviously like many city councils lusting after the sales tax dollars. Sadly what city councils turn a blind eye to is that healthy small business bring in more sales tax dollars per square foot than a big box retailer.

While I am sure the city council sold the concept that Costco would bring in additional shoppers to the area, the truth is a Costco and stores like it do nothing for the immediate area businesses. A Costco is a destination store so that people go into the store, shop at it and then head home so they bring no money to the surrounding area.

So is the streetcar the magic that will save downtown Bountiful?

The answer to that question is no. However, what the streetcar does is bring new people into the area that would not otherwise travel to downtown Bountiful. It will create new business opportunities for those that take advantage of them.

To bring true success with the streetcar would probably take something that residents of the area would not be willing to do and that is to increase density and bring some infill development into the sea of parking lots that presently litters the area.

While downtown Bountiful has lasted longer than many downtown areas, its life its slowly being sucked away between their own city council and the Centerville city council slowly subsidizing their business away.

Transit Trip Report

Yesterday I had a chance to get out and spend the day riding transit which I have not had the opportunity to do in some time. My trip including Front Runner, plus a host of bus routes including one of the new flex routes that started running last month.

My trip started off on Front Runner. Since I have not had the opportunity to do so I decided to ride in one of the former NJ Transit Comet I cars.



While I still prefer the Bombardier cars, the Comet car rode just fine. I do prefer the cloth seats in the Bombardier cars as apposed to the vinyl in the Comet cars, but otherwise they're passable.

Before leaving Central Station I realized I forgot my pens however, being there is no place near the station to get any I decided to stop somewhere along my trip. I got off at Roy to catch the new 626. Since I had some time I rode the 604 over to 1900 West to see if I could find a pen but had not luck. I then walked back to the station and encountered this very pedestrian friendly area (yes that is sarcasm):



Traffic was fierce on 4000 South but I made it to the station in plenty of time to catch the little bus.

The 626 travels the extreme western end of civilization through Hooper then cuts through some residential areas. I will have a post upcoming talking about this route specifically for right now all I will say is that this routes days are numbered when the Federal funding runs out.



Next I rode the 470 up to 1900 West and 5600 South where I was able to find some pens and get some water for my walk up the Ogden River Trail. After a few minutes another 470 came along and I took it up to Washington and 22nd Street then walked up to the Ogden River Trail.

Following the Ogden River Trail I too a ride on the 612 and ate lunch at the Old China Buffet at Riverdale and Washington (bad experience) then took rode another 612 and 470 down to Bountiful. I walked around Bountiful's downtown area (yes another posting about that coming soon) then caught another 470 toward downtown Salt Lake.

However, the 470 with a 2007 Gillig Advantage BRT started to overheat and we finally came to a stop at 2600 South and Main where we had to wait for the following bus to come pick us up. I my 12 years of riding UTA this is the first time I have ever had a bus break down that I was riding.

The last time I was on the a bus that broke down was down in Miami when I was there for Railvolution and maybe once living in Spokane. In Los Angeles however, broken down buses were a way of life especially when they were dealing with 30+ year old buses but even the newest ones broke down frequently because of poor maintenance.



After the next bus came along we were once again on our way to Downtown. Once downtown I caught a 550 out to North Temple and 1950 West. Our bus was a 2007 Gillig Advantage BRT but in suburban configuration with no rear door. I had no idea that UTA had even purchased any of these.

I got off at North Temple and 1950 West which ended my day of transit riding.

More on the Davis Transit Plan

Image by Steven Vance via Flickr

Opposition reroutes UTA's corridor plan

While most of the media attention on this line has focused on the people up in Centerville, it looks as though there is also opposition down in Bountiful which would really benefit from this line, especially the small business owners.

Sadly the people that are forming the opposition seem to be confusing what exactly UTA is proposing here. Of course part of the problem is that there is only two modern streetcar systems in the United States so far, so many of them have not been exposed to what is being proposed.

In the article Cecilee Price-Huish calls the system light rail which is not being proposed here. I can understand her fear picturing the construction that takes place when a true light rail system is being built since that is the experience Utah has. However, while any construction is going to be disruptive for the construction period, construction for the Portland Streetcar in now way disrupted the area like its MAX light rail service.

In fact once construction has been completed, the local stores in the community would greatly benefit from the presence of a streetcar especially if marketed properly.

Having been a small business owner, and having a mother that was a retail business owner, I know the struggles that they go through. Having to compete with "government enhanced" competitors such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Cabela's, IKEA and so on, it is hard to compete. In addition like most of the United States, many small business owners carry too much debt and do not have an emergency fund to deal with construction plans.

However, having heads in the sand is not a solution to these problems. A trip to Portland to see the success that is along the streetcar system may open some eyes.

Of course this puts UTA between a rock and hard place. If they paid for people to travel to Portland to see the streetcar success they would get bashed for it, but of course none of these people will actually go check things out for themselves and if they did they would take their tunnel vision with them and not see the true success of the system.

Bountiful has an outstanding walkable downtown area, a streetcar would enhance the experience by creating the freedom of a new option to access the area.