H Street was wrecked by the 1969 riots and left destitute by D.C.'s crash and burn of the 1970's. It is one of those puzzling but interesting areas that has resisted innumerable attempts at revival, for reasons that call for a modern Jane Jacobs to chronicle. It is now reviving, with Capitol Hill's gentrification to the south and the neighborhoods north of H flipping fast. H Street is becoming a playground for the current wave of gentrifiers, and is filling up with restaurants and nightspots. If I were 30 years younger, I'd probably be down there; as it is, 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue S.E. are a lot closer, and more sedate.
The streetcar was originally supposed to link the Minnesota Avenue metro station on the other side of the Anacostia River with Union Station, a major hub for metro, bus, and trains. There were conceptual notions of eventually building a much broader network as well, eventually creating a surface light rail network to complement (and fill some of the major gaps in) the below-ground metro system. To make this work, of course, the city would have to decisively privilege streetcars over automobiles, and that remains politically difficult. That said, if you have logged enough quality hours in D.C. congestion, you would be tempted to at least consider the idea.
The congestion is driving gentrification, as more and more people are weighing suburban square footage against brutal commutes, and choosing closer-in neighborhoods. Streetcars are attractive to the gentrification demographic. They are resisted by many of the people who are threatened by gentrification. (Reason, of course, was careful to seek a couple of these out, and to put a racial twist on the story.) Suburbanites are mixed; some of them, especially those who use the city for recreation, like the idea. Those who care nothing for the city outside of their own office building are likely to dislike streetcars as impediments to traffic.
Anyhow, the danged thing is built. It is a sunk cost. It's time to go operational. If the city needs to close a traffic lane on H Street to create the needed space, that's fine with me. The only people that will seriously inconvenience are PG county commuters using Benning Road, which connects to H at our infamous starburst intersection. Benning Road commuters can find another route, or take metro.
Two trims are especially significant. The project now does not connect at either end. To the west, it stops short of Union Station, and on the other side of the rail tracks coming in from the north, leaving a walk of several blocks to actually connect with another train. To the east, the streetcar line stops well short of the river. As a practical matter, at either end, you will wait for a bus.
What is left is a two mile tourist excursion shuttle up and down H Street. This amounts to deliberate sabotage. Taking a bus to take a streetcar to take another bus is dumb. This is not what was planned, but it is what happens when the city elects the wrong people, who don't quite have the guts to pull the plug on a project well along in implementation, but lack the will to complete it properly.
Of course, one of the “unforeseen” problems is that the tracks were built either too close or not far enough from the curb to allow parking, for any reason, to include temporary for delivery on the street in front of businesses. I’ve heard about this ‘almost boondoggle’ on the local radio here the last few years. And don’t forget about the several accidents of the test street car runs where the street cars have hit wheeled vehicles.