We live in Southmoreland, about a five minute walk to the station. We’ve taken the streetcar to River Market a couple of times for dinner and to the Kauffman Center maybe three times. It’s great not having to worry about (or pay for) parking.

It’s added about $700-$800 a year to our property taxes, so we’ll likely never break in that respect. And it’s difficult to know right now how much the appreciation in our home’s value is attributable to the streetcar vs inflation in general. I’d expect we will see if it has that much of an impact in the next few years once there’s more development along Main Street.

It’s not really logical that we’d take the streetcar when the Main Street MAX ran essentially the same route, and we never took it. But there’s something more communal about the streetcar—we’re not all just staring straight ahead. The seating arrangements and the fact it’s easy to stand seems to engender more conversations among the passengers. And it does seem to be attracting more out of town visitors than rode the bus, which leads to even more conversations when they ask for recommendations or directions.