Imagine a public-private partnership that leverages tremendous value for property owners and local businesses, helps market new high-rise residential development, mixed-use and a "green" lifestyle, and helps achieve public goals like affordability, sustainability, parks, and high-quality public spaces. Streetcars can be the catalyst for these goals – in downtowns and in urban and suburban neighborhoods. The spectacular success of the Portland streetcar has revolutionized the way cities think about transit and development by stimulating $3.5 billion in investment in two new neighborhoods near Portland’s downtown. The brand new Seattle streetcar is having similar success in South Lake Union -- where property owners put up half the cost of streetcar construction. San Francisco’s F-Line streetcar has played an important role in the rebirth of the Embarcadero as a walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood since the freeway was taken down. And streetcars have promoted…