Plans for a major shopping complex and a basketball arena are still on the table. Planning well means making it easy for people to get from dinner on South Boulevard to a show at Ovens Auditorium, convincing people to stop by the future North Tryon Street mall on their way to a Panthers game. Benzing envisions a first rail line running, say, from Scaleybark Road in south Charlotte through the South End to the Charlotte Convention Center and uptown, with stops along the way. Or Charlotte could start with a smaller line, one running through uptown starting at Brookshire Boulevard. It' s never going to be our primary mode of transit in Charlotte.
History provides a mixed message.
In San Diego, Portland and Denver, light-rail has spurred millions of dollars in new development. But in San Jose, a light-rail line projected to carry 40,000 people a day when it opened in 1987 only topped 20,000 about a year ago.