The Broadway Shuttle has proven to be a huge success thus far in Oakland.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that after less than five months of service, ridership has grown to nearly 2,000 passengers per day.  The city is now close to expanding service until 1am on weekends to tap into the emerging dining and entertainment destinations in the Downtown, Uptown, and Jack London Square areas.  The success of the shuttle further demonstrates the positive economic impacts of expanding transportation options along the corridor, and bodes well for the city's long-term goal of replacing the shuttle with a streetcar.

Check out this great article from the Cincinnati Streetcar analyzing the economic development potential of the city's upcoming streetcar line.  The numbers thrown out in the article and study are in fact pretty conservative, considering the outstanding economic impacts in both Portland and Seattle which vastly exceeded expectations.  Full article here.

In yet another blow to Oakland's struggling economy, the BayCitizen reports that Emeryville appears poised to lure a new Macy's store, albeit with some opposition.  Oakland already loses over $1 billion in retail sales to its suburbs annually, which translates to over $10 million in lost sales tax revenue and 10,000 lost jobs.  Oakland's solution to this retail leakage was supposed to be the Upper Broadway Specific Plan to create the East Bay's largest retail district just north of Downtown.  However, this project appears stalled, with no web updates posted since February even though the plan was supposed to be completed by late Fall 2010.  Macy's was supposed to be one of the major retail anchors for the district, along with Target, JCPenney, and others. 

The success of Oakland's economy, as well as the effectiveness of its city government, rests upon its ability to reduce its retail sales and job losses to its suburbs.  Oakland must increase its sales tax revenue to help prevent further budget crises and cuts to schools, police, and city services.  The Oakland Streetcar would be a much-needed catalyst to bring the Upper Broadway Retail District into fruition.

Today the East Bay Express has reported that Oakland has selected Victory Court as the proposed site for a new ballpark for the Oakland A's.  Victory Court presents a tremendous opportunity to create a beautiful waterfront ballpark (similar to San Francisco's AT&T Park) right in the midst of upcoming Jack London Square and Oak to Ninth districts, as well as the Lake Merritt Channel. 

The Oakland Streetcar could play an integral role in making a Victory Court Ballpark a reality.  Like AT&T Park in San Francisco, a ballpark at Victory Court would have to make the most of limited parking resources while encouraging fans to arrive by public transit.  By connecting the ballpark with existing parking structures in Downtown and Jack London Square, the Oakland Streetcar would minimize the need for new parking garages in the area.  In addition, the Oakland Streetcar would enhance connectivity with BART, AC Transit, the Oakland Ferry, and greater Downtown Oakland as a whole, allowing fans to comfortably arrive by public transit, and travel to and from dining and entertainment establishments throughout the area before and after games.

AT&T Park in San Francisco has shown that urban waterfront ballparks can do wonders for revitalizing neighborhoods.  A similar project at Victory Court is exactly what Jack London Square needs.  A Victory Court Ballpark only strengthens the case for the Oakland Streetcar as a means of connecting the city's major retail, dining, and entertainment destinations in Jack London Square, Downtown, Uptown, Upper Broadway, and Piedmont Ave.

Congratulations to Jean Quan, who edged Don Perata in the final ranked-choice voting to become the next mayor of Oakland.  We look forward to working with Mayor Quan to make the Oakland Streetcar a reality.

Read about the Oakland Streetcar Plan on FastCompany.com's blog.

Stanford Magazine has a great article on the Oakland Streetcar Plan by The Oakbook's Alex Gronke.  Read it here!
Update 10:45pm Wednesday: The article is currently on the front page of Stanford's website!

Today the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) awarded $33 million in new Climate Initiative Grants to innovative projects which reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.  Projects such as smart parking management systems, bicycle sharing programs, and electric taxis received funding.  This program represents yet another possible funding source for the Oakland Streetcar moving forward.

In addition to Atlanta, today Salt Lake City's Sugar House Streetcar project was awarded a $26 million TIGER II Grant by the Federal Department of Transportation.  The $45 million project will act as development-oriented transit by linking the region's light rail system to major redevelopment areas.  This grant is yet another example of the Obama Administration's growing commitment to funding streetcars: nearly $400 million has now been awarded to streetcar projects in the past year to cities including Atlanta, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans, Portland, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Tuscon. 

Big news out of Atlanta today: the city has apparently received a $47 Million TIGER II Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for a $70 million streetcar line, the initial piece of what could grow to be a larger streetcar network.  This is not the first time that streetcars have performed very well in the highly-competitive TIGER Grant program due to their focus on economic development: Tuscon, Dallas, and New Orleans received a combined $131 million earlier this year.  While the official awards are due to be released soon (and will probably include more streetcar projects), Altanta's early success further illustrates the growing interest by the federal government to fund streetcar projects.