If you’re not at the Martin Luther King Day Parade, you might want to be at the State Capitol auditorium at 9 a.m. this morning for a special panel presentation on rail by the American Institute of Architects, Hawaii Chapter.
Backers of the city’s rail transit plan are urging their troops to turn out in force to oppose the views of local architects which will be presented at this morning’s panel discussion.
The panel was organized at the invitation of Governor Lingle, who must sign off on the project’s environmental impact statement before construction can move forward.
The Hawaii AIA chapter supports flexible light rail technology, which would allow Honolulu’s train to run either at ground level or on elevated tracks, as appropriate.
The city originally said its EIS would compare several alternatives, including this type of light rail, but the draft EIS failed to include an assessment of rail alternatives.
Flexible light rail is by far the most widely used in cities across the U.S. and internationally.
According to one email sent to rail supporters over the weekend, Honolulu Managing Director Kirk Caldwell urged them to turn out to rally for rail.
Georgette Stevens, secretary and a director of the West Oahu Economic Development Association, urged supporters to bring family and friends to the capitol before 8 a.m. today.
If our Governor makes recommendations to amend the environmental impact statement to include on ground rail as well as above ground rail, the likelihood of rail moving forward will more than likely come to an end. Any changes to the EIS will take at least a year and that will end our chances of securing federal funds.
So it could be quite a scene, despite the holiday.
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Superferry vs. Rail. What political lessons have we really learned? And what is it about the EIS process that continues to wreak such havoc in our State?
I don’t live on O’ahu but I was there as the H1 viaduct and H3 were built. Man, do you people need a real mass transit system. That said, the current Mayor has “railroaded” this plan through, lying by omission to get “his” plan through.
I really dislike our current Governor and see her actions as pure politics and an effort to stall the Mayors run for Governor. (Her boy has a very slim chance of getting elected, in my opinion.) Honolulu’s Mayor, being a top candidate, needs all these items to use in a successful series of advertising spots to gain votes. The naming of Magic Island for the President would be one of these if it goes through.
Citizens, we the voters, must learn to discern the real tactics of these politicians. I am not certain if enough people can if they accept the PR campaigns as presented.
Quite a scene, indeed.
Trying to get into the Capitol this morning was almost impossible. It being a holiday, the only unlocked entrance was through the basement doors opposite the auditorium where this event was being held. Unfortunately, chairs were set up in the hallway and out the door so that it could not be safely used as an entrance or an exit.
I called the Fire Dept. and they said they have no fire inspectors but they could call HPD. I told them HPD won’t do anything because the Sheriff’s are responsible for Capitol security. Oh . . . I called the Sheriff’s and they said they were blocked into their office by the crowd, and that they couldn’t do anything anyway because “it’s the Governor’s event.”
So, I called the Governor’s office and was informed by their nice voicemail message that they were closed for the holiday but that my call was just terribly important to them. I later got a call back from the Fire Dept. informing me that they had spoken to the Sheriffs who assured them that they were “monitoring” the situation. Yeah, right, isn’t that reassuring.
Clowns. The whole bunch of them.
With regards to Honolulu, Oahu, and Hawai’i present economic status, a revote on the stupid rail proposal is appropriate.
The dailies have both recently run glowing editorials about the rail project. So positive in fact, bending some truths while selectively ignoring others, you wonder if they were really ghosted by Bill Brennan.
Hey, a two paper town means you can get twice the crap!
We citizens of Hawaii just can’t pull the trigger on anything. Even when it’s put to vote….no matter. Let’s argue until we turn to butter about how big, how tall, how many…….it’s how we deal with everything now. Homelessness, economy, super ferry, furloughs, education, taxes, roads, civil unions, blah blah blah……but hey, it’s warm and sunny every day of the year. Leaders??? Nope…..and none on the horizon either. But who’s to blame someone for not running? All we do is aim for the top and try to bring them down. sigh…..
The governor’s acceptance of the EIS is a simple checklist review. Her role is not to decide whether she likes the project or has another idea.
Since her agencies have reviewed the document and found no problems, I don’t see what kind of issue the governor could hang her hat on for not accepting the EIS. AIA’s wish to have a different project is not a basis for not accepting an EIS. Economic and financial issues, if there are any, are also not a basis for not accepting an EIS.
In fact, the state won’t pay a penny for the project. Oahu citizens are paying for it with the surcharge tax they voted on themselves. Lingle needs to mind her own business; i.e., the terrible state of the economy caused by her administration’s poor planning.
This is purely mudslinging by Lingle to support Aiona’s run for governor against Mufi. But even if she muddies up Mufi, both Mufi and Abercrombie lead Aiona in the polls by a HUGE margin. So why kill Honolulu’s transit solution by chasing windmills?
Acceptance or rejection of an EIS is NOT a simple checklist process.
The rail EIS is fatally flawed because it did not consider all reasonable alternatives, period. The EIS is also flawed because numerous impacts were superficially analyzed, with no basis for comment.
The draft is so significantly flawed, it cannot be fixed by adding alternative analysis to the final. The only way to fix it is to republish a new draft.
A supplemental EIS will not fix the flaws, because you need an accepted and unchallenged EIS first, and this is not what we have or will have.
IF Lingle were to accept the EIS, it would be challenged in court and the courts should uphold the challenge to the acceptance.
notice how those on one side of the issue refuse to acknowledge the concerns of folks on the other side
they simple thing to do is to attack the respective politicians — Lingle or Hanneman
what a pathetic intellectual community we have if we always engage in such nonsense
as Lingle’s prepared statement indicated, the Feds have a neutral party looking at the fiances of all if this — I guess we will be asking if this person is neutral too depending on what is found and our own perspectives — but it will be interesting to hear the results of this analysis nonetheless
Well put. A very limited number of alternatives were reviewed YEARS ago, but not as the result of a formal RFQ or RFI response as we recall. Better, far more flexible and less expensive alternatives to elevated AND light rail exist — our ideas are portrayed at http://www.prtstrategies.com/honolulu.html.
My thoughts on this at:
http://hisuperferry.blogspot.com/2010/01/jesus-christ-cant-frickin-believe-we.html
Blame the politicians.
Blame the voters.
Blame the process.
Blame something. . . somebody. . . anything. . . anybody.