ST. LOUIS MO ( KTVI - FOX2Now.com )—
They vanished from the streets of St. Louis in 1966. Wednesday night there was word there's word they could be back 2012: street cars.This idea suddenly seemed to be on the 'fast track' at an open house at the Regional Arts Commission on the Delmar Loop in West St. Louis.
The "Loop Trolley" street car on display as an artifact outside the History Museum in Forest Park, could turn out to be sitting at one of 16 stops on St. Louis's new street car route.
The love affair with street cars seemed to be one St. Louis just wasn't ready to let go.
"We had them all over," recalled Kenneth Farmer, 70. The native St. Louisan grew up here, then moved to San Francisco before street cars disappeared from St. Louis. He said he never knew life without street cars until he moved back to St. Louis a few years ago. "I remember riding to Broadway, to Grand, to Jefferson," he said.
"There was something magical about them and there always will be," said Joe Edwards, who's spearheaded development on the Loop.
"It was a mistake to get rid of them," added Bill Heger, who attended the meeting with a functioning street car model; Heger wearing a conductor's hat. He said he actually pilots a working street car at the Museum of Transportion in West County.
Supporters presented the outline of a $45 - $55 million plan to build a 2 mile street car line from the Delmar Loop to the History Museum in Forest Park; an idea Edwards hatched at a brainstorming meeting a dozen years ago.
"I raised my hand and said it and everyone kind of said, 'hmmmm'," he recalled.
Wednesday night everybody seemed to saying, "yeah !"
"People love those streetcars," Farmer said.
At the meeting, planners asked people to write their suggestions for the project on the actual plans to build it.
Cappy Digirolamo of Manchester wrote down his idea.
"They had St. Louis songs from the World's Fair. I think they need to have some local St. Louis songs playing on the trolleys," he said.
A Judy Garland number from 'Meet Me in St. Louis' came to mind: "clang, clang, clang, went the trolley, ding, ding, ding, went the bell ...."
"When people got on them you'd see people smile, they'd smile at you," Farmer said. "You open the windows. It was always a joy to ride them. Part of it was just the fun of riding them. I don't know why it was so much fun. But they were quite a bit more fun than a bus."
"The idea was getting there was part of the fun," Heger said. Being 50, he said was old enough to remember riding a street car through St. Louis just one time. It turned out it was a life changing ride. "I'd gone to see 'Mary Poppins' at the Lowe's theater at Grand and Olive...both my grandmothers were with me. They took on downtown to go shopping."
"I rode them," Edwards said. "I put pennies on the track and watch them flatten out. It was fun," he laughed.
He said the push was "on" to get Congress to include the money in the new transportation bill this fal, in the name of economic stimulus and a return to a happier time.
"It would definitely stimulate things, in a major way. For every dollar invested in this it might attract $10 in real estate development and investment," Edwards said.
"It's a real charming way of getting around," said Farmer. "The cars even had a specific smell. The cushion had a certain 'way'."
"Today in the world we live in, we don't know how to value journeys anymore," Heger said. "Life is a journey. It's not a destination."
He worried the plan could fall prey to politics.
"St. Louis politics is like an Imo's Pizza, sliced every which way, and everybody only wants to see their pieces. Nobody wants to see the whole pizza," Heger said.
Still, people at the meeting seemed less concerned about the possible cost to taxpayers and more concerned about how noisy the system would be and its impact on traffic and pedestrian safety.
