Give voters a say on transit
April 23rd, 2008 by David ShapiroI don’t know how I’ll vote if a citizen initiative to defeat rail transit makes it onto the general election ballot, but I do intend to sign the petition to let voters decide whether the rail line between Kapolei and Honolulu is a wise expenditure of $3.7 billion.
Our elected representatives have failed to inspire much confidence in their chaotic deliberations on the biggest public works project in Hawai’i’s history, creating exactly the scenario that the voter initiative provisions of the City Charter were intended to address.
If bringing the decision directly to voters causes the federal agency providing partial transit funding to doubt our commitment, so be it; maybe they’re right that the community isn’t fully on board with it project.
My quarrel with organizers of the referendum is that they’ve put all their eggs in the initiative basket and haven’t taken advantage of more traditional opportunities to put the issue before voters — elections for mayor and council.
In 2006, transit opponents put up no serious fight against rail supporters Gary Okino or Rod Tam, and this year, nodody has signed up yet to run against train advocates Todd Apo and Nestor Garcia or the vacillating Romy Cachola, the poster child for council dysfunction after he used his swing vote to divert the rail line from the airport to his Salt Lake district, then wavered when constituents raised concerns about noise and property values.
Hannemann also appears to be cruising to re-election in November without serious opposition.
If the referendum fails and the elections for mayor and council go uncontested, transit opponents will lose any credible argument that the public is behind them.
I further explore some of these issues in my column in the Opinion section of today’s Advertiser, “Maybe it’s time for voters to weigh in on rail.”
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:07 am
“Maybe it’s time for voters to weigh in on rail.”
And maybe not.
This issue has been before the voters before, if indirectly with the council members, etc. elections as you have pointed out.
The entire process has been open to the public at a cost of multi-millions of dollars and schedule delays and other pain and disruption; the decisions have been made with public input and/or buy in to the point of paralysis.
It seems our so called news media has reported on each and every special interest group, possibly excluding those who think or at least claim that the Earth is not round, but flat.
Just build it, with gas at $4/gallon and climbing and existing leeward traffic at gridlock with a 4 hour morning and evening rush the need for an alternate mode of transport has been proven for over a generation. And it takes something like half a generation to build!
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:07 am
Agreed with Voters above. In addition to the people who just don’t want rail, I can see a lot of people in east and windward Oahu who will oppose it based on the fact that they don’t want to pay for something that’s “not for them.” Of course, they ignore the fact that Kalanianaole Highway was widened, H-3 was built, and Pali and Likelike were improved at everybody’s cost, including those who would be served by the rail system. Putting it on a ballot is just going to skew the decision against solutions and for more of the same. Just build it already.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:15 am
The key to successful rail projects is “population density,” or the number of people who don’t have to drive their cars, take the bus, ride a bike, or walk a mile just to get to a rail station — before their just as fast train ride to another rail station, where they again have to drive their car, take the bus, ride a bike, or walk a mile to get to their ultimate destination.
So once the Mayor’s public relations teams can convince us (mainly the newspaper editors/writers — I doubt that anybody else is as gullible) that an empty pineapple field is “same-same” Manhattan, what does it matter if their train is made steel, gold, plumeria flowers, or plastic?
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 am
couple of comments:
mike hu - as a responsible citizen of honolulu, you should be accountable for your actions. in other words, you should decide whether you want rail or not based on your review of the pros and cons and not let others convince you that they are right. This leads to my next comment about dave’s commentary favoring a public vote on rail.
dave, sorry but you got it wrong again. allowing emotional people vote on something as signficant as this is not a good idea. further anti rail folks are not providing accurate information about their proposals, they are only attacking the “negatives” about rail. No system is perfect, but it is the best among all currently. (by the way, if we have people like hu, who are easily swayed by false arguments by the anti rail folks, we will all lose in the long run). we must let the experts decide what is best. this rail is not merely a mode of transpotation, but is lifestyle system - it will dictate how our growth and development will be done in the future. many of the anti rail folks are not thinking clearly and seeing the big picture. they are selfish, not wanting to help finance something they might not use. since there are more people on the “other” sides of the island than the leeward side, it is likely rail might be defeated if put to a vote. however, this decision will not benefit the island in the long term. building more roads whatever form is not the answer, we must limit the use of cars, the very cause of our traffic congestion. economics will help in restricting car use due to rising gasoline prices, parking etc., but a rail system will give those who does not want to drive their cars to work another alternative to get to work without increasing the congestion on the roads as buses do.
we have to base our fixed guideway decision based on what other cities and countries have done. Most fixed guideway systems have rail (SOS), a proven technology being most efficient and economical. we can opt to use cutting edge technology but if it does not prove to be reliable, it will cost us more in the long run. this is a huge undertaking and we must choose the best now - there is no room for changing later on..
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 am
Dave–
You are right about there not being any serious contenders to challenge these rail advocates. As big of an opponent that Councilamn Djou has been of the rail and of a variety of other Hannemann proposals, he refuses to challenge Mufi for the Mayor’s race. Instead, he has announced not a run for Congress in 2008, but, instead, a run for Congress in 2010. Who ever heard of someone announcing their candidacy for an office at a later date and time? As for Councilman Todd “Status Quo” Apo, you would think he would be a little more adverse to the Mayor given the way the Mayor treats the people of the Waianae Coast. The bottom line is that when it really boils down to it, they are both pretty weak and are eseentially afraid of Mufi.
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Dave, I sorta agree with you about the petition. Just wish it would provide alternatives instead of saying we can’t build a train. I’m not neccisarily agaist a train as a mass transit option, I just think the current proposal is too flawed to succeed. As anyone knows who drives H1 during commute times, the traffic is not that bad when UH and/or the private schools are not in session. So:
The train should go to UH and have feeder buses to private schools located close to it. If it has a stop at Ala Moana, fine.
It should go to the Airport, the second highest emplyment area on Oahu.
Construction should begin at UH and go west..
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
myview2,
Sorry, but your condescending statement about not letting “emotional” people vote on something so significant will only increase my satisfaction in signing the petition to put it on the ballot. Maybe we shouldn’t let them vote on something as significant as who should be president, either. Oh, I forgot. Superdelegates can override emotional voters.
Dave
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Dave,
You sound a little emotional, there.
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
To me, the whole pro-rail argument smacks of “We’re the government and we know what’s best for you. - just give us a blank check and we’ll spend your money more efficiently than you can.”
I think it’s only reasonable that an expenditure of such magnitude be exposed to public input. The cost, the route chosen, and the visual and noise blight of such a system should be of concern to all the citizens of Oahu.
I would bet the farm that the final product will cost far more than projected and fall short on the ridership projections.
As far as the argument about voting out people who don’t support one’s views is concerned, the system in place heavily favors politicians with some name recognition and union support (having Uncle Dan’s blessing is also a big plus).
Let the public decide.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
another alternative to building a train is to do…nothing. just continue on with the commuting as is and let the chips fall where ever…people will get thru the congestions and the high fuel costs,etc by making adjustments…consider this….cars are an american way of life…individualism,consumerism…freedom to travel with your family at any time of the day or night in your own automobile…go where you want,when you want…we cannot force americans to ride a train…i live on the corner of river st. and nemitz hwy.. i can look out the window and see the highway both directions…peak hours it slows to a crawl for a while,but then the flow resumes back to35-40mph….drivers are courteous,and they stop for pedestrians…yes, even after a hard day at work, these drivers going home are courteous.if the train is gonna be built there will be cost over-runs,corruption.money wasted. let’s save money bynot doing any thing.we have TheBus which is not fully utilized….
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
It is great to see democracy is alive and well here and the people have a chance to vote their opinions and wishes. When the tax rates are escalating like crazy anyway, GET increasing and may go up again, the gas prices increasing like crazy, the food prices increasing like crazy, housing and everything else increasing they dump a 5 billion dollar white elephant on the good citizens of Hawaii.
Let them put the project to a vote and also have a number of options that the voters can evaluate to see what is viable and affordable. It is time the voters and citizens take back the decision making process after all we are the ones paying the freight.
You ask residents who are for the rail project what they think and they will say yes, let’s build it. Then ask them if they use the bus and or will use the rail back and forth to town and they cough and sputter. Most expect others will ride the rails and they will continue to use their cars and enjoy the freedom of the road (less traffic) well think again, everyone is thinking the same way brother.
The operating expense of this boondoggle and the maintenance will bankrupt the city. The bus is a great example; the bus is great, well managed and well maintained and an award winning piece of work. Do we know how much in the red the operation would be without the Fed subsidies that they kick in every year? Are the Feds going to offer subsidies the rail riders?
We take the people who ride the bus now and they move over to the rail because it will be faster and more efficient then who will ride the bus? They answer that, well we will take the bus off the present routes and use them elsewhere. Who pays for this, the subsidies will drop and then where will that money come from. We will have the same percentage of the population taking public transportation as we do now and be paying millions more.
Who will provide security on the rail to protect the riders from vandals and bullies?
There are many other alternatives to solve the traffic issues. We pay public servants good money to manage and be efficent, hold their feet to the fire and expect them to do their jobs. Just eliminating the people who drive without valid licenses and valid insurance coverage would take 20-25 percent of the vehicles off the road. Stagger the work hours of the public servants by 1.5-2 hours would be a big help, eliminating the featherbedding jobs would also be a big help.
The managing of the traffic lights more efficiently, developing/ engineering better exits and entry’s to the free way, extending the freeway over Nimitz, increase the fees on parking, downtown, and eliminate the free/subsidized parking for public servants.
There are many solutions to the issue without blowing 5 Billion or more on this project. They say that if we had done this the last time around the system would be in place and it would not have cost this much. Wellllll we know better. It would have cost us a bunch, we would be looking at the operating costs, overruns, and maintenance costs all these years. Then today we would be faced with upgrading the system which would cost us 3 Billion more.
We have many people retiring in the next few years from the City, State, and Federal positions. If they expect to have funds to pay the pensions we better manage the way we budget and spend the tax dollars or they will be wondering where the money went..
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Jay from Pearl City hits the nail on the head. Todd Apo’s people in Waianae have been kicked, spit on and left for dead by the present Mayor. He promised to take care of the Leeward coast but all we got is more trouble, garbage and other filth that he dumps in our community. Auwe to the Mayor Mufi who can’t keep his word!
April 24th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz deserves kudos for questioning the absurd pre-rail spending that has occurred with Mayor Mufi’s administration. $1.5 million dollars on community outreach services? What the heck is that and how can I get in on the action?
April 24th, 2008 at 9:57 am
There are PLENTY of better options than Rail . . . just none that give the payday bonanza for special interests like rail does. The other options such as HOTLanes, synchronized lights, intersection underpasses, and the rest work better for less money, and don’t create a way for developers to make more money in Hawaii than they already do.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:50 am
David:
I agree.
If those who want the public to have a vote are successful, it will put to rest for all time the criticism of the elected officials who have been promoting rail for Honolulu. If they do not succeed in securing enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot, it will always be a sore spot, with some blaming the noisy steel-on-steel elevated rail on the Mayor and some members of the Council.
The questions put to the public on this major issue should include “yes” or “no” on rail? Elevated or not? Even the route, where one of the options should include both the airport and Waikiki, to move tourists to and from.
Let the public decide this one.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
We do I sign the petition?
April 28th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Ok, lets vote on the rail.
But lets vote at the same time on 2 or 3 other items that make the rail necessary.
1. No more development on the windward side. Who decided that? We need to move development off the ewa plane back to the windward side, since they have the infrastructure in place (H3, Pali and Likelike) to handle the traffice.
2. Height restrictions in Makiki and Honolulu. Who decided that? Yes, people there are restrictions on population density on the areas within walking distance of most of the businesses in Honolulu. So, where are the people suppose to live, Oh yeah, Ewa - NOT windward.
3. Mandatory birth control - i.e. China. Hey if no one has any more children then we won’t have as many people and we won’t need as many homes. When some of the people finally die in Honolulu, their houses will open up and we’ll need no more homes in Ewa, no more rail.
So let’s decide on all 3 at once with one ballot. All or nothing. I’ll sign that petition.