For everyone who laments the mistaken alignment of SW light rail (2c was far superior - should have gone thru uptown - would have saved money (no tunnel) and improved ridership), I would urge you to NOT support a street car. Why can't this be light rail? Either build light rail, or go with ABRT. Don't pick a middle ground option that no one will be happy with.
So instead of a reasonable compromise (which I'm happy with BTW) that's pretty darn close to LRT we should just throw it away for a bus with almost no dedicated lanes?
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
These plans do not show a project "pretty darn close to LRT."
This project isn't just not perfect, it's not even good. It's worse than current transit options in the corridor!
Don't let the good be the enemy of the worse but significantly more expensive so it feels good.
Cheaper doesn't equal better. If we went with that logic then our light rail system wouldn't exist. Hell, our aBRT system wouldn't exist. All of that costs money, so why do that when you can stick with the status quo for cheaper?
You're focusing way too much on the streetcar label and the small bit of mixed-traffic operation while ignoring the majority dedicated right-of-way, a new bridge with a deck for bikers and pedestrians, and service to Fort Snelling and Terminal 2 among the other benefits that are very much worth it to make this investment.
I've experienced streetcar/tram systems in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Ghent, Lyon, Geneva, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Munich, Helsinki, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo, Dublin, and Krakow. What all of these have in common is they operate in mixed-traffic for some segments, and it doesn't mean they're a useless waste that should be scrapped and replaced by buses (y'know, the thinking our region and other regions across America had through the 40s and 50s). Quite the opposite in fact, they need those trams because it would take a lot of buses to match the same capacity, and the trams are an important part of their transit systems. Riverview streetcar would be just like those.