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Comment by DrScump | Hacker News Reader

Can you name examples where this oft-predicted result has actually happened (in the USA, anyway)? That certainly hasn't been the result in the Bay Area.

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It definitely happened in Portland when they ran the Orange line. We were house-hunting a year or two before the new light rail opened, and realtors showing houses along its route were already starting to make a point of mentioning it.

As soon as it actually opened, neighborhoods that could use it suddenly got a lot more desirable (read: expensive).

Bethesda, Maryland. It was very sleepy before it became a metro stop. In the last 30 years it had a crap ton of development mostly centered around the metro.

Actually... Can you name a few places in a metro area that didn't experience such a boom after a transit stop was introduced? In the bay area even? I feel like I have only ever seen examples of it being good for retail, restaurants, home values.

Metro considers itself traditional fixed rail, not light rail.

  a metro area that didn't experience such a boom

I was responding to the specific claim "Light rail will create demand to live near and locate businesses near the stations." The point isn't about whether a broad area benefits from rail (vs. no rail at all) but whether adding light rail to a fully built-out environment will drive more dense business development near the added rail and because of the addition of rail. I don't know of any USA data that supports that.

Ok. I thought you meant transit in general.

Take a ride from the Seattle airport to downtown on the light rail sometime, then. You will see a lot of nice looking apartments that didn't used to be there. And you will see some less nice neighborhoods interspersed.

Columbia City is a perfect example of this

This certainly happens very obviously in European cities. It’s possible that it happens less so in the US for cultural reasons, I suppose.

It's happening in advance of the Beltline transit in Atlanta. The Beltline has been building out park/trail and surrounding neighborhoods are doing very well. The light rail is currently just a promise.

Definitely didn’t happen in Houston. There was a spike of enthusiasm but light rail proximity has almost no effect on property values.

Is Houston's light rail actually useful? Last I knew it really only ran from one end of downtown to the other.

Houston is a bit too spread out. Where can you get to on the rail?

Denver. Lots of high density developments near the light rail and A line (technically commuter rail) stops.

Chicago and "El" train stops.

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