Streetcars are romantic to some, unnecessary to others, even considered menaces to some bicycle riders whose tires get trapped in grooves.

But suddenly at least one City Council member sees them in the city's future. Jan Drago told a crowd at the Nordic Heritage Museum last week that "Each mode of transportation has its strengths and weaknesses but different modes serve different people." The veteran Council member added that we need more bus service but "we also need more options."

The South Lake Union streetcar has become a rallying cry for some, even though much of it was paid for by a fellow with a lot of personal wealth; Paul Allen. The idea for extended streetcars - one to Fremont and Ballard, ending at Ballard Commons - has taken Drago's fancy so much that she is staging her own hearings. In the Page One story in this issue, she was enthusiastic but unprepared for the slew of resident's questions about streetcars versus more bus service.

Council member Nick Licata thinks, we believe rightly, that the cost of operating streetcars is too high and that we should spend our money on more and better buses.

Frankly, we have always believed that the only real solution to transportation in this city was repaired and upgraded streets and the now nearly forgotten monorail. The monorail is, and was, the only mode that would get transit off the crowded streets. Streecars won't do that, neither will buses, but that argument is off the table.

There is no money for streetcars and the only idea so far floated is asking businesses to form Local Improvement Districts to tax themselves - and us by extension - to pay for this form of transportation. We already pay for buses, and as much as we think buses clog rather than relieve streets, they are the obvious and best choices at this stage.

Streetcars may be romantic but they cost a lot and they don't add anything that a better-managed Metro Transit could not do.

Let's stop wasting time with dreams and get to work finding ways to make our buses more useful and our streets less crowded and pothole-filled.

Let's get real about transporation and stop the expensive investigation into offbeat ideas.

- Jack Mayne