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City Council OK's Funding for Downtown Streetcar
One of two proposed routes; download full-size .PDF maps here (via goLAstreetcar)
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The long-awaited Downtown Streetcar project is one step closer to reality thanks to Friday's City Council vote to approve funding for the transit endeavor, according to ABC7. Backed by AEG, who have their finger implanted mightily in the pie that is urban Los Angeles, the system would "serve a four-mile area including Bunker Hill, the Music Center, historic Broadway, L.A. Live and the L.A. Convention Center."Last summer, the streetcar project missed out on being awarded federal funding, but local advocates have been pushing hard in support of the project. In October, Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc. raised $200,000 to help sustain administrative costs for their non-profit group working to get the streetcar operational in the next five years.
Projected figures associated with the construction of the streetcar indicate an addition of 9,300 jobs and $125 million in private investment, and, once the line was running, an extra $24 million in added annual revenue from tourism and consumer spending.
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