The Ogden Streetcar Corridor Must Run Up 25th Street

Be sure to sign the online petition, and register your support for a 25th Street alignment

By Dorrene Jeske
Ogden City Council Member

UTA has posted information and maps for the Ogden Downtown to WSU/McKay-Dee corridor on their website. You can find the 11-page document www.rideuta.com/files/Ogden_WSU_briefing%20materials32309.pdf. It provides several suggested corridors and asks for public input.

After attending two Rail-Volution conferences (San Francisco, 2008, and Boston, October 2009), and taking several mobile workshops to suburban towns who have embraced and planned for transient-oriented development, I am convinced that the streetcar corridor must run up 25th Street at least to Monroe. The city has been working for years to revitalize east central Ogden and the historic district. We now have the perfect impetus for the project with the streetcar and planned transit-oriented development.

I have provided City staff members with information and examples of how transit-oriented development transformed deplorable areas in these metropolitan cities into thriving, desirable living communities.

Public input will have a great deal of influence as to which corridor is chosen so please don’t be silent. Voice your choice for the corridor with your reasons for supporting such a route. All agencies involved realize that the success of a mass transit system is public acceptance and use.

The reasons that support a 25th Street corridor are: 1) It passes through two different developing historic districts; 2) The main Weber County Library is located on 25th Street and Jefferson; 3) The Golden Hour Senior Center is located just east of the library; 4) The Ogden L.D.S. Family History Center is on that route; 5) Old historic homes and houses within the area are being renovated and turned into owner-occupied single family dwellings; 6) All of these are ridership resources with more potential than other proposed corridors, and 7) The revitalization of the historic districts.

The only drawback to this corridor is the cost. It will cost tens of millions of dollars more than the proposed corridor along Washington Blvd. (UDOT will be a major provider of readily available funds because of a currently proposed major road construction project). Ogden needs to decide how much they are willing to pay for a mass transit system and how to fund it. It really should be considered as an investment in Ogden’s future and economic growth.

For those who agree with me, be sure to sign the online petition, and vocally register your support every chance you get for a 25th Street alignment.