Earlier this week, New Haven’s Board of Aldermen rejected a $780,000 federal grant that would have funded a study on bringing a streetcar system to the city’s downtown. This shortsighted decision lets crucial federal funding slip through the city’s fingers at a time when transportation support from D.C. is anything but assured.

Some aldermen expressed concern that the streetcar study—which would have focused on downtown—would not have examined a broad enough area, while others objected to the small financial contribution that New Haven would have had to make towards the study. Both of these complaints miss the point: federal funds would have gotten the ball rolling on a streetcar project without binding the city to any action. Worries about conflicts with the city’s popular bus system could also have been resolved over the course of the study.

“I think it would be foolish of us not to give this grant an opportunity. It is very important to leverage public funds whenever we can and here is an opportunity in which we can do more with very little,” said Alderman Douglas Hausladen, going on record in favor of the study before it was voted down.

Tri-State has submitted written testimony urging New Haven to provide local matching funds for the study, and hopes that the Board of Aldermen’s recent action does not indicate a shift in the body’s philosophy, which has historically made New Haven one of Connecticut’s most progressive municipalities for transportation and development (New Haven passed the state’s first complete streets policy).

More importantly, the Board of Aldermen’s decision could mean the loss of capital investment and permanent jobs, a fact that did not escape Alderman Justin Elicker.

“Streetcars equal money. Period,” said Elicker during Monday’s meeting. “The investment will benefit everyone in the city.”