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Tuscon, AZ  local business leaders say the streetcar has already revived the center of this sprawling, artsy city of 524,000. Roughly 150 businesses have opened their doors along the route in the last five years, and the once-dormant area is in the middle of a $230 million construction boom, according to the Downtown Tucson Partnership. The group estimates that 2,000 jobs have been created or relocated to the area.

Shellie Ginn, the streetcar's project manager with Tucson's Department of Transportation, said the streetcar  would bridge both "mental and physical" divides between neighborhoods.An interstate highway isolates the Mercado district, a largely empty area west of downtown targeted for development""The streetcars have been able to obliterate those barriers by providing that direct connectivity between all of these areas,n the meantime, restaurants and boutique shops are now opening where tattoo parlors and abandoned storefronts once stood." You're starting to see that diversity, that density that pulls people in," Ginn said. "And with all of these (college) kids living here, it brings a lot of liveliness to the downtown that it frankly hasn't seen in a long time."

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The New Orleans Streetcar project will create new jobs, economic opportunities and greater transit choices," Secretary LaHood said. "Not only will it stimulate development along Loyola Avenue, but it will also provide residents greater access to the central business district."

"We are proud to be expanding America's greatest streetcar line," said Mayor Landrieu. "Streetcars are one of the things that make our city unique, and this line will breathe new life into our transportation system. 

ATLANTA — Pushing aside years of funding problems and construction dilemmas, this city on Tuesday opened a small loop of a transportation option that last operated here more than six decades ago: streetcars. as they glide across nearly three miles of track, the system is part of a broader strategy that supporters contend will help remake a city long regarded as something less than an archetype of urban design.“These are not projects for right now,” said Keith T. Parker, the chief executive of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. “These are projects for the future, and when you look around, the cities who we’re competing with around this nation and around the world, they’ve made investments in public transportation.”

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