Mainstream | billso.com

Entries tagged as 'mainstream'

Honolulu newspapers to City Council: Enough already!

all

Posted Sunday, 20 April 2008

Read 6 comments

This morning, both major daily newspapers in Honolulu published editorials that were highly critical of the City Council. As I discussed last Thursday on billso.com, Mayor Mufi Hannemann has prevailed in his quest for a steel-on-steel rail mass transit system, despite the laughable efforts of several council members to amend, postpone, revisit, second-guess, and micromanage the proposal.

Today’s editorials are significant. Any member of the City Council who wants a newspaper endorsement in upcoming elections should be concerned. In Honolulu, the mainstream media still wields considerable influence over voters.

Enough is enough

I’ve written several articles on this issue because the fixed guideway mass transit project is the largest ever proposed in the state of Hawaii. The decisions that have been made over the last 3 years have led to a US$3.8 billion proposal that will determine how Honolulu’s residents will commute, park and live for the next 50 years.

Oahu has far too many automobiles already. Adding and expanding the roads and highways would only bring more cars and traffic problems.

“A bewildering bill”

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s lead editorial today asks the City Council to let steel-on-steel rail go forward. Their opportunity to make this decision has passed.

The editorial’s description of Wednesday night’s meeting is apt:

Only two members voted for a bewildering bill naming three technologies — rail, rubber-tire and magnetic levitation.

This editorial ended with James Oberstar’s assessment that Honolulu’s train system might become the country’s most efficient light-rail project. Oberstar runs the US House committee on transportation. Hawaii’s senior senator, Daniel Inouye, is his counterpart on the Senate committee. Oberstar’s promise of US$900M in funding seems linked to steel-on-steel rail.

Today’s Honolulu Advertiser has a front page article about the height and placement of the transit stations and guideway. Much of this information was available last year, when the city presented its proposals along with computer-generated images of the project.

An editorial in the same edition implored the council to “stop the games” and recommend one technology in their final vote this Wednesday. The front page article acknowledged that the Mayor Hannemann can veto the Council’s final recommendation, and that the Council probably does not have enough votes to override his veto.

Calling out the opposition

The editorial also asked Barbara Marshall and Charles Djou to abstain from the vote, citing their long-standing opposition to the fixed guideway transit project. Romy Cachola is called a flip-flopper who put his district ahead of the island’s greater interest.

Finally, Ann Kobayashi got a reminder that the Council had three years to do their homework and make a decision. Kobayashi and Donovan Dela Cruz both fought hard and long for a bus-based system that resembled previous Mayor Jeremy Harris’s recommendations. Fellow council members were not swayed then or now.

There will be more hearings and decisions about the exact route of the trail, and the placement of the rail stations. Bills have already been proposed to regulate building activity and growth around the project. The Council’s inability to recommend a transit technology may become the enduring legacy of the current council members.

It’s time to end the discussion and move forward on light rail.