Once upon a time between 1900 and 1930, New York City streets were ruled by trolleys before the evil, shortsighted government phased them out in favor of cars and buses. (Imagine an old-timey voice reading this to you, with a scratchy black-and-white film reel showing a transportation-evolution montage in the background.) Now a long-shelved plan to bring street-trolley service to Red Hook is back. The city is using a grant, secured back in 2005, to study the possibility of running a mile-long trolley or light-rail line from Red Hook’s waterfront to Atlantic Avenue at the edge of Brooklyn Bridge Park. In more steampunk-related transit news, Bob Diamond says his subterranean tours of Brooklyn’s nineteenth-century railroad tunnel, which start with a trip down the manhole on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, are back on. Diamond, a much-loved (though not by the MTA) native Brooklynite, was planning on leaving Brooklyn for “someplace where they have street cars, like San Francisco,” but borough president Marty Markowitz convinced him to stay.
City revamping plan for Brooklyn streetcar line [NYP]
Deep Under Brooklyn, the Tours Will Resume [City Room/NYT]
