The plan to spend $50 million on a streetcar circulator in Downtown Boise is built on Ray Kinsella-like beliefs that posit that more than 500,000 riders a year will use the rail system and the economy will flourish as a result. I don't buy it, and I can no more understand the nostalgic desire to rekindle a 1920s streetcar in Boise as I can visualize the need for the government to invest in pay phones or town criers. And really, I can't stand it when people start taking public policy advice from the disembodied voices in a Kevin Costner movie. That's what's happening now.
