With infrastructure on First Avenue now on hiatus until January, I hope anti-streetcar officials do not succeed in canceling this line. Studies indicate that with the connection between the two existing lines, ridership will increase through the entire joined route. There is a strong bias against the fledgling Seattle streetcar system. Even some who support other forms of rail denigrate the streetcar. Some of it is, frankly, semi-justified. The current system's track layout causes streetcars to get stuck in traffic (such as along Broadway on the First Hill line and at Fairview Avenue at Valley Street on the South Lake Union line.) I have been stuck at both bottlenecks and it is very frustrating. The City Center Connector should not have that issue. More than anything, I hope we do not make the same mistake and have bad history repeat itself, albeit in a "lesser" manner. As Evergreen mentioned, in the late 1960's the citizenry rejected a plan which would have built an extensive urban and suburban rail system, including subway, light rail and streetcar. Our late Senator Magnuson, who knew how to bring home the bacon, saw to it that the Feds appropriated something like 75 percent of the cost. Shovel-ready money, free for the taking. Except we threw it away. Back then, Seattle thought of itself as a minor, frontier town of little consequence (except for Boeing, which almost went under shortly thereafter in the wake of the SST debacle). I'm sure those voting against the plan couldn't understand why Seattle would need such a system as there were no traffic gridlock issues then and who needed big city transit anyway when we weren't one. How times have changed! If the naysayers of today get the Center Connection axed, then the current two lines will atrophy and, at some point, probably be shut down. If the line does get built, the result might be positive enough to extend the system, perhaps to Fremont to the north and along Eastlake Avenue to the University of Washington campus to the northeast. STAY TUNED.