“Downtown construction of The Tide is 50.923% complete,” an email from the The Downtown Norfolk Council tells me. I don’t know how they calculated that exact percentage, but at least we know they’re on it.

The email announced “Walk the Tide,” a celebratory event Wednesday featuring a guided tour with Councilman Randy Wright and other knowledgeable hosts. The tour traces The Tide’s future route, starting at Harbor Park. It will stop at California Pizza Kitchen in MacArthur Center and the new Residence Inn along the way, and ends at Voila Cuisine (at the corner of Brambleton and Botetourt), where a reception with food, drink and music will take place. The tour is free and open to the public, however the DNC would like you to register (in order to accommodate with enough said food and drink), so here’s the link.

I’ve been a long-time advocate of the light rail, and often when defending it to detractors, I use the success of similar transit systems in places like Colorado and New Jersey to back me up. A recent article in The New York Times details how a recently-built line in Phoenix has now also quieted many, many early critics.

The scenario there sounds strikingly similar to our own. Criticism of light rail in Phoenix (also a sprawling, low-density city that has in recent years had something of a renaissance) focused mainly on a huge price tag–$1.4 billion. With ticket prices set at a mere $1.75, many argued that the line would run riderless and never pay off.

By comparison, the cost of The Tide (estimated at $288 million) is rather reasonable. Granted, the length of our light rail (7.4 miles) versus Phoenix’s (20 miles) puts that ratio into perspective, but the point is that even at $1.4 billion, light rail has proven to be worth the investment.

The most interesting and important part of the article, though, is how exactly light rail has boosted the economy in Phoenix. “Unlike the rest of the country’s public transportation systems,” reports Jennifer Steinhauer, “which are used principally by commuters, the 20 miles of light rail here…is used largely by people going to restaurants, bars, ball games and cultural events downtown.”

Which is great news for Norfolk and HRT. Maybe the Navy, shipyard and hospital folks aren’t going to break out of their cars for their communite, but we are also a heavily tourist-driven economy. Perhaps after all is said and done, us townies may be following suit and taking The Tide to enjoy a great downtown weekend. Only 49.077% to go, and we’ll find out.