A Citizen's History of the Grand Rapids Streetcar

[natetheguitarkid]

That place where he was at the beginning is really close to where i live. I get my food from the store 2 streets away (Duthlers)

[nebraskafrankcourtny]

I love that music. stop making me cry!

[mondays89]

Haven't you seen the lip dub? We have so much history and we are so unique, we don't need a revolutionary transit system to stand out in the world anymore.

[InfraUSA]

Great video! We added it to Show Us Your Infra! on InfrastructureUSA, as well as our YouTube playlist. If you do anything else in the future that you'd like to share with the infra community, please don't hesitate to sign up at Show Us Your Infra and join the discussion!

[1nickknock]

Didn't Mich vote in a Tea Bagger for Governor. Be glad if you get an old bus.

[kabooki09]

In Pittsburgh the street car companies & bus companies were bought out by the city.

Now we have fewer routes, less trips per day and no one wants to travel all over the city for an hour when it takes less than 15 minutes by car.

[kabooki09]

I'm from Pittsburgh PA and we lost our streetcars in the 70's. Pittsburgh's topography is hills & mountains but the streetcars could go where our present bus system cannot.(especially when its snowy, icy weather. The people in one neighborhood fought valiantly to keep trolleys & just lost recently.

Instead we're getting an under the river system that nobody but the pols want.

Pittsburgh would be delighted to have the old street cars back, you never even had to have a schedule then.

[jonrwert]

congratulations, the millage passed!



[TheFreemindmachine]

look at europe and our public transportation system :) its a thing where you Americans are still underdeveloped in....

BTW this is not a "worldclass" transportation system ;)

[budnboston]

did the same thing in boston , had great street cars that went all over the city into the suburbs , all the lines torn up , the cars gone , this was a national phenomena by the car companies and then they poisoned our cities permanently really with leaded fuel and created bogus science to try to justify lead in our bodies as safe , there is nothing more contemptible than auto companies and i lived in Grand Rapids when I went to Calvin College, loved the city but you need a car too bad

[sfmertman]

We still have a vintage street car line in S.F.

[kenfagerdotcom]

Very well done. The part where the automobile industry burns the streetcars seems so smug and shortsighted. I posted your video at my American Urbex website. Well done!

[aboveriver]

Well done folks! Is this countywide or just affected city and townships? We're in Plainfield Twp.

[ewermike]

@aboveriver The millage increase is only for those that pay the millage already, that is the 6 cities: GR, EGR, Walker, Grandville, Wyoming, Kentwood. They want to bring the bus to Plainfield Township and there's plans to do so in the Master Plan but this needs the support of the township (or at least of the businesses in that area). Our local bus is the 11 but it cuts short of most of the businesses up on Plainfield Avenue so we don't shop up there much. Also plans for north riverbank route.

[ejulpboy]

michael j fox

[KimCarsonNOW]

enjoyed this video very much!

[warpdrivedude]

Proud of you Fred! Wonderful video and a very energized, passionate delivery. I hope it works and people vote yes!

[mikeknorr1]

I heard ex-mayor Logie talk about this once. He was pushing to get new streetcar lines in GR. He said one of the big arguments against it was that engineers couldn't get the streetcars to go up Michigan St. Hill... But, he pointed out, "they did it 100 years ago"

[ewermike]

@mikeknorr1 Trams/streetcars go up hills all over the world. In most cases there's some kind of cog system to help them up. I have been on trams going up hills all over Europe. It's not impossible. Just a little more challenging. But the technology exists already.

[donkui]

wwwDOThistorygrandrapidsDOTorg Then select "photo essays" "our city" "infrastructure" then "Grand Rapids Streetcars"

[donkui]

Interesting. Important to note that the original streetcars were a private enterprise - they had to make a profit on their own. And the streetcars were burned in 1926 when the electric streetcars were introduced - not in 1935 when the streetcars were disbanded. It was the Great Depression that killed the streetcars in Grand Rapids - not the auto industry.

[jdchesla0324]

@donkui You have no clue. 

[EricLarsonSucks]

One quick note, its $17.50 per house, not per person. Thanks for the great video, its nice to learn a little about my city's history. Vote YES May 3rd!

[streetcargr]

Excellent job Fred!! This video is great! The story of our streetcar history needs to get out to the citizens. (Unfortunately, it's missing from most history books.)

*minor point of correction: The burning of the old streetcars was actually a celebration of the arrival of the new "modern" streetcars in 1926. It symbolized getting rid of the old and ushering in the new. These new streetcars, customized for Grand Rapids, were the ones that gave Grand Rapids world recognition for urban transit.

[jackhoffmangr1]

Great Job Fred. A real contribution to the effort.

[wanttoread5]

Nice. Where did you get the old footage?

[victoriaupton]

WOW!

[blueconversechucks]

great video! the auto industry bought and ruined streetcar systems all across the country. here in oakland, too! there used to be a streetcar that went all the way from berkeley, through oakland, and all the way across the bay bridge into san francisco.

[ricosuave616]

hell yeah!!!....

[veloise]

Bicycle at 0:26!!

[corrive9]

Wow. This was great, thanks for putting in all this work guys.

[lauraandcalin]

GR history buffs:

Sorry for the advertisement, but I have some original real photo stereoviews of the Grand Rapids area for sale on Etsy right now. Here is the link: etsy.com/shop/lauraslastditch?­section_id=7956244

[opensourcestudio235]

absolutely fabulous-

[avdpols]

Fantastic! Makes me want to learn more about the old streetcar lines and where in the city they ran. Also about the auto companies buying them out.

[luisa1071]

FANTASTIC

[Kravis63]

Awesome! 

[standardflake]

heck yeah, fred.