Nothing is more aggravating than when something already proven successful is not rewarded by a resounding commitment to develop it further. Shortly after my latest post about a, well, post, the Tampa Rail Yahoo Group was tipped off by Motorman Steve about something far more interesting. One rather imagines he was at the healm of his news items rail car shaking his head "I gotta help the content situation here". Specifically, Steve was referring to the news article we all knew was imminent: The steady erosion of the Teco Line's endowment fund.

Bah buh BUM.

The unabashed reality is that while a smash hit for Tampa's tourists; a catalyst for hundred million dollar development, and, as a strategic in-road for the return of Tampa urban rail; financially speaking, the the Teco Line Streetcar itself is running out of money. Indeed, it's a bona fide Tampa success that appears about to go broke.

It's just too soon to tell whether or not the Teco Line will actually have to cease existence when the endowment drain finally gurgles. Nothing would pain this blogger more than to have to lift his fingers and type how the last regularly operating streetcar pulls itself into the car barn, only to show itself during its next special charter or one of a number of them pirate parades we got around here.

The article points out that the plan for averting this outcome is relatively straightforward. Make the system more appealing to people other than tourists or the David Pineros of the world. Develop express schedules; bring on modern Portland light-rail-like streetcars; and, most critically, get the Whiting Street extension done. Nothing could be more important now than that. Somehow, if part or all of these things could happen, the streetcar system could reach a level of ridership where it becomes self-sustaining. A pacifier landmark for those fixated on that.

Or, we could admit what a success the streetcar truly has been in marketing this city, encouraging development, meeting its own sole objective as an "economic catalyst" for the Ybor/Channelside corridor, and, recognizing that of the few things this city has endeavored to do in the past 10 years, this one is actually a home run. Its ridership, now closing in on a half million, easily trumps any single new project in terms of raw adaption. For god's sake, we should be asking ourselves, hasn't this thing earned a seat at the table as something we need to preserve outside a profit or loss business model yet? That ridiculous model has validated critics and has threatened the heart of Tampa's urban resurgance.

Pam wants those in-town circulators which is totally fine. Little buses can be funded and deployed at a rate far more quickly ahead of our urban rail evolution than any fixed guide way solution, including the streetcar. One day those little circulators will become streetcars, trams, or, the holy grail manifestation of all this: light rail. But for that to happen, we have to stay adamant that the streetcar represents phenomenal urban rail momentum that can't be easily reclaimed once surrendered. If Pam is pro-rail, she will have to concede that posession (or in this case, operation) is 9/10th the law. To peel back streetcar operations, park it, stunt it, deny it, and to marginalize about its positive impact on Tampa's own declared urban residential objectives, is outrageously contempt. The argument that it wouldn't be prudent to underwrite its continued operation as a city begs the fairly simple question, why not? It's absolutely worth it.

At a point where the endowment fund issue is about to rise above the horizon like the burning sun, it becomes the perfect time to separate the streetcar's radiating economic sunshine from the entanglements of petty anti-tax mentalities. The darkness of midnight if you will. I say, let the city take it, subsidize it if it must, and therefore, continue to reap its fruits and its benefits both short and long term. It is the best hope for a mass transit future involving city urban rail, the best hope for a future involving a real living society in the heart of Tampa, and the best future for this city's very validation over something other than strip clubs or our rate of pedestrian deaths. It's simple. When you have something as successful as the Teco Line streetcar on your docket, you run with it.