vi

vi
 The Oakland Streetcar Plan

vi Project Summary

T
Oakland Streetcar at a he Bay Area is in need of rejuvenation. While
Glance the past half-century has brought unprecedented
growth and prosperity, the area’s long, congested
• Length: 2.55 Miles
• Major destinations served: commutes, high cost of living, prolonged droughts,
• Downtown • Fox & Paramount polluted environment, and susceptibility to volatile oil
• Jack London Square Theaters
• Uptown • Kaiser & Alta Bates
prices all point to a region stretched beyond its means.
• Upper Broadway Summit Medical As a leader of the national economy and a role model
• Chinatown
Old Oakland
Centers
for sustainability, the Bay Area in the 21st Century is in
• • Future A’s Baseball
• Piedmont Ave Statium need of a makeover to preserve its livability and reduce
• Mosswood Park its carbon footprint.
• Transit Connections:
• 12th St. & 19th St. • Oakland Ferry
BART Stations Terminal Few Bay Area cities necessitate revitalization as much
Jack London 18+ AC Transit Bus
•
Amtrak/Capitol
•
Lines
as Oakland. Over the past half century, Oakland’s
Corridor Station suburbs have prospered as the city’s economy has lost
• Construction Cost: $87-$92 Million businesses, sales, and jobs. Oakland’s low sales tax
• Operations Cost: $2.9-$3.2 Million/year
• Ridership: 6900-7800/day (2030)
revenues, high unemployment, and lack of economic
• Economic Development: investment are directly responsible for the city’s current
• 10,000-12,000 housing units
education, public safety, and budget crises—Oakland
• 2.5-3.7 million sq. feet retail space
• 4.1-4.5 million sq. feet office space loses over a billion dollars in retail sales to its suburbs
• 37,000-44,000 construction jobs every year, translating to a loss of over 10,000 jobs and
• $600-$800 million in annual sales
• CO2 Reductions: 99,000-114,000 tons/year
$10 million in annual sales tax revenue. For Oakland
• Gasoline Savings: 4.9-5.7 million gallons/year to remain regionally competitive and economically
• Funding: sustainable in the 21st Century, it must actively seek new
• Capital Costs: 30%-55% Federal, 20-25%
Regional, 20-50% Private industries, new businesses, new jobs, and new paths
• Operations Costs: 70-85% Private, 15-30% Public toward opportunity.

The 21st Century will require a new order of urban

development—smarter growth which gives people the
opportunity to live closer to where they work and shop,
encourages walking, bicycling, and transit use, and
reduces the need to drive. With the Bay Area expected
to add 1.7 million new residents over the next 25 years
and potentially export another half a million households
to the Central Valley, continuing the sprawling develop-
ment patterns of the 20th Century is simply not sustain-

9
vi Project Summary

CO2 Emissions for Oakland Infill able and will increase our greenhouse gas emissions,
vs. Suburban Sprawl exacerbate our dependence on oil, clog our roadways,
250000 intensify our droughts, impair our public health, reduce
200000 42% our open space, and decrease our quality of life.1
Savings
Tons CO2

150000
Oakland has numerous assets which make it an ideal
place to set smart growth in action: a central loca-
100000
CO2
50000 Emissions tion, a temperate climate, a good transit system, and
0 a substantial amount of developable land. Over the
next 25 years, Oakland is projected to add 150,000
people (+34%), though this total could be even greater.2
The potential impacts of growth within Oakland are
substantial: every household diverted away from the
Central Valley into Oakland will reduce its CO2 emis-
sions by at least 47%, and every workplace diverted
away from suburban office parks into Downtown
Oakland will reduce its emissions by at least 33%.3 The
biggest hindrance toward achieving these benefits is
attracting the developments, residents, and businesses
themselves.

The Portland Streetcar led the way for the 1 ABAG Projections 2009
redevelopment of Portland’s abandoned 2 ABAG Projections 2009
industrial areas adjacent to its Downtown. 3 See Section 4

Portland’s Pearl District, pre-streetcar Portland’s Pearl District, post-streetcar

10
 Oakland Streetcar Plan

Portland’s Pearl District

Oakland Streetcar
The Oakland Streetcar presents a tremendous Proposal
opportunity to attract sustainable investment Oakland Streetcar
BART Station
Capitol Corridor/Amtrak Station
to Oakland. Following in the steps of Portland Ferry Terminal

and Seattle, the Oakland Streetcar would

help unleash Oakland’s potential to become a
more livable, sustainable, and prosperous city.
Streetcars fill a unique niche in transporta-
tion because they excel at catalyzing compact,
mixed-use, transit-oriented development,
particularly in economically depressed areas.
The Portland Streetcar helped transform the
city’s abandoned railyards and industrial areas
into a vibrant urban environment, generating
over 10,000 housing units and 5.4 million
square feet of commercial space in a span of just
over 10 years, carrying 11,000 riders per day.4
Seattle’s streetcar has followed suit, attracting
2,500 housing units and 6.5 million square feet
of commercial space in just five years, trans-
lating to 16,000 construction jobs.5
4 Portland Streetcar Inc.
5 Seattle Department of Transportation

11
vi Project Summary

By linking major civic, arts, and retail destinations, the

Downtown Oakland has begun to capital-
ize its large amounts of underused land in
the past decade, though substantial poten-
tial remains.
Oakland Streetcar will help fashion greater Downtown
Oakland into an attractive destination to live, work,
and shop. Spanning from Jack London Square through
Chinatown, Old Oakland, Downtown, Uptown, Upper
Broadway, and ending at Piedmont Ave and the Kaiser
Medical Center, the Oakland Streetcar will connect to
two BART Stations, 18+ AC Transit bus lines, a ferry
terminal, a Capitol Corridor/Amtrak station, the Kaiser
and Alta Bates Summit Medical Centers, the Fox and
Paramount Theaters, Mosswood Park, Lake Merritt,
the Jack London Market, potentially a new baseball
stadium, and a wide variety of new retail, dining, and
entertainment destinations.

Economic Development
Potential
Underdeveloped Land
Upper Broadway Developments
10K Projects Approved/Planning
Major Development Plan Boundary

Total Development Potential Along

the Oakland Streetcar (See Section 3)
Factor Low High
Housing Units 10,457 12,123
Retail Space 2,543,000 3,709,000
Office Space 4,169,000 4,494,000
Construction Jobs 36,305 42,907
Permanent Jobs 20,246 23,759
Residents 20,914 24,246
New Sales (mil. $) $577.9 $811.2 Jack
Jac
ack
k London Square
qu
u

12
 The Oakland Streetcar Plan

The Oakland Streetcar will help catalyze development

in areas currently ridden with surface parking lots and
other underused land. In spite of its numerous assets,
for years greater Downtown Oakland has not been able
to fully capitalize on the opportunities to create a lively
urban environment. While some new investments
have begun to change this trend in recent years, over
120 acres of underutilized land remain within 1/4 mile
(3.5 blocks) of Broadway, such as surface parking lots,
vacant lots, run-down buildings, and other non-resi-
dential, non-retail lots which serve little benefit to the
neighborhood and city as a whole. As a fixed, long-term Existing Streetcar Systems
investment, a streetcar would stimulate new transit-ori- • Little Rock • San Francisco
Memphis • Seattle
ented development, which encourages new pedestrian •
• New Orleans • Tacoma
activity and increased neighborhood desirability; that, • Philadelphia • Tampa
in turn, facilitates even denser urban development and • Portland • Toronto
more vibrant neighborhoods. When examining the total
impacts of potential developments and developments in Streetcar Systems in Planning
planning along the Oakland Streetcar, 10,000-12,000 • Atlanta • Fort Worth
housing units, 2.5-3.7 million square feet of retail space, • Charlotte • Los Angeles
and 4.1-4.5 million square feet of office space could be • Cincinnati • Sacramento
constructed on presently underutilized land, translating • Dallas • Tucson
to 20,000-24,000 jobs, 21,000-24,000 new residents, • Denver • Washington DC
36,000-43,000 construction jobs, and $600-$800
million in new sales.6 With these new developments
and increased mobility and connectivity along the
Broadway Corridor, the Oakland Streetcar could carry
6,900-7,800 riders per day by 2030.7

A unique trait of the Oakland Streetcar would be its

minimal impact upon Broadway. Streetcars run in
mixed traffic and do not require a dedicated lane
like many light rail and bus rapid transit systems.
Moreover, the Oakland Streetcar could be constructed
with no major streetscape redesign and essentially no
loss of parking—streetcars would run in the outside A simulation of the Oakland Streetcar on
lane and use refurbished AC Transit stops. The biggest Broadway

6 See Section 3
7 See Section 5

13
vi Project Summary
Step 1 Step 2
Low-floor, modern streetcars would be ide-
al to handle the capacity and accessibility
needs of the Broadway Corridor. Accessi-
bility is particularly an important with the
presence of both the Kaiser and Alta Bates
Summit Medical Centers—in Portland, 9%
of all passengers are handicapped.
14
A Simple Design
Streetcars systems are built cheaply without
significant construction impacts: about two
blocks worth of track can be constructed
every two weeks with little impact on the
surrounding streetscape or parking.
Step 3 Step 4
construction asset of streetcar systems, however, is the
simple and quick four-step construction process which
requires only an eight foot wide and 12 inch deep cut
into the street, minimizing costs and allowing for two
blocks of track to be constructed every two weeks. The
Oakland Streetcar would mesh into Broadway’s existing
streetscape without significant changes.
At a total cost of $87-$92 million8, the Oakland
Streetcar would be funded with a diverse array of
federal, regional, and local sources. Following the
models of Portland and Seattle, funding for the Oakland
Streetcar would be driven by the increase in property
values that it would induce through Community Benefit
Districts and Tax-Increment Financing (roughly 35% of
total funding). Numerous regional funding opportuni-
ties will also open up over the next 2-3 years, including
MTC’s Climate Initiative Grants and the ACTIA sales
tax reauthorization (roughly 25%). The remaining 40%
could be matched by the Federal grant programs such
as Urban Circulator grants, TIGER grants, and other
programs. Therefore, numerous opportunities are
available to fund construction without any city funds.9
8 See Section 6
9 See Section 7

Funding the $3.0-$3.3 million in annual
operations costs could also occur with a
minimal contribution from public sources.10
The Oakland Streetcar could consolidate four
shuttle services (Kaiser, Alta Bates Summit,
Downtown-Jack London Square, and Upper
Broadway), generating roughly 45% of oper-
ating costs from private sources. 30% of
operating costs could be recouped through
advertising and fares, leaving the final 25%
($750,000/year) to be split between transit
agencies such as BART, AC Transit, Capitol
Corridor, and WETA in exchange for free
transfers, as well as 5-10% from city redevel-
opment funds.11
The Oakland Streetcar represents a practical
and easily-implementable project to reshape
greater Downtown Oakland into a vibrant,
attractive, livable, sustainable environment.
While it is only one piece of a larger economic
development strategy for Oakland as a whole,
the Oakland Streetcar will serve an integral
role by stimulating new investment and revi-
talizing the city’s core while reducing energy
use and CO2 emissions.
The cost of doing nothing is not zero. While
the Upper Broadway Retail District, the
Waterfront A’s Stadium, and significant
growth in the greater Downtown could still
occur, absent the streetcar these develop-
ments would be less dense, less transit-
oriented, and more car-dependent. Millions
of dollars more would have to be invested
into parking, which means less housing,
10 See Section 6
11 See Section 7
The Oakland Streetcar Plan
Streetcars are good for the economy:
The Oakland Streetcar would signify a long-term
committment to making Downtown Oakland a
more desireable place to do business, helping to
induce substantial redevelopment and bringing
new residents, workers, and shoppers to Oakland.
Streetcars are good for the enviroment:
New households and workspaces along the
Oakland Streetcar would emit 42% less than
suburban alternatives, amounting to over
100,000 tons CO2 saved annually.
Streetcars are good for mobility:
The Oakland Streetcar would dramatically
increase mobility and connectivity in greater
Downtown Oakland while reducing automobile
traffic.
Streetcars are good for Oakland:
The Oakland Streetcar would bring new jobs,
residents, retail choices to Oakland, potentially
generating $4-$6 million in annual sales tax
revenue that could be applied to schools, public
safety, and other city services.
retail, and office space, less housing afford-
ability, more traffic, and more greenhouse gas
emissions, both within Oakland and beyond.
Moreover, without the marketability and
certainty that a streetcar would bring, it is
unclear when (if ever) Oakland might reach its
potential for a successful Downtown, Uptown,
Upper Broadway, and Jack London Square.
Oakland has the opportunity to remake its
greater Downtown into vibrant, one of a
kind urban environment with the Oakland
Streetcar. This opportunity should not go to
waste.
15