[OKC] From NPR: All-American Streetcar Boom Fuels Urban Future

[Miles, Karen]

All-American Streetcar Boom Fuels Urban Future

by Ari Shapiro <http://www.npr.org/people/2101154/ari-shapiro> 
February 12, 2011
  
 
Enlarge <javascript:void(0);>  Don Ryan/AP 
A prototype streetcar made by Oregon Iron Works gets to work in Portland
in 2009.
 
President Obama spent the past week talking about his plans to improve
America's infrastructure. These speeches sometimes sound like something
out of The Jetsons, when the president talks about high-speed rail,
futuristic airports and nationwide, broadband Internet.
One growing part of America's infrastructure, however, has a distinctly
19th-century feel. It's the return of the streetcar.
Like so many urban development stories in America, this one begins in
Portland, Ore.
Outside the famous Powell's bookstore, a 21st-century streetcar glides
to a stop, opens its doors, and lets out a mix of tourists and locals.
Modern streetcars have been running in this city for about a decade, and
Chandra Brown lives right along their route.
"I love the streetcar," says Brown, who's lived in Portland for 17
years. "They had told me that there were no streetcars built in the
United States, and I basically said, 'You're a liar, that can't be,
honestly.' So I did some research after that and found out, yes, that
was absolutely correct. There was no builder of modern streetcars in the
United States."
As it happens, Brown is a vice president of Oregon Iron Works. Her
company has been making bridges, boats and other heavy equipment since
the 1940s. A few years ago, they created a subsidiary called United
Streetcar. Now they are manufacturing the first American-built
streetcars in more than 50 years.
The Oregon Iron Works factory is a cavernous space in a Portland suburb,
where men with hammers are busy constructing a streetcar base. Seventy
to 90 percent of the parts are made in the U.S.; seats from Michigan,
upholstery from North Carolina, windshield wipers from Connecticut.
"It was 2009 when we finished the first prototype, made-in-the-USA
streetcar," Brown says. "Now this little fledgling company is building
13 cars with $50 million-plus in orders." Those orders are all for
cities in the U.S., too.
Article continues at: 
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/12/133682892/all-american-streetcar-boom-fuel
s-an-urban-future&sc=nl&cc=nh-20110212
 
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