Capitol Hill Seattle blog is reporting that the Seattle Department of Transportation has chosen Broadway as the spine for the First Hill streetcar alignment. At a meeting Wednesday, Mayor Mike McGinn "revealed that the city Department of Transportation has made a recommendation in support of the Broadway route, and attendees at the meeting report that the mayor indicated that he was leaning towards the Broadway route as well," Scott writes.

The First Hill Streetcar alignment has been a source of great debate—with strong advocates that it run on 12th Avenue and impassioned calls to run it through the hospital district along Boren. In the end, however, it seems Broadway may have won out because it has short travel times and cost the least.

Posted to the left is a map—click to enlarge—of the Broadway alignment that The Stranger made a couple months ago (we're not sure if the route reportedly recommended by the city follows this map). I have a call in to a couple SDOT officials and will update this post when I hear back. [Update: The confirmed route recommendation and more info is in this sparkling new post.] The streetcar is slated to be complete in 2013.