i believe his position is that rail is a good thing, but that Hawaii simply cant afford to build it. he claims to have a plan that will reduce traffic by 30%, but i'll admit that I dont know the details.
^^^prollem is the longer we wait, the costlier it gets.
And i agree with Mike, we NEED it done! And done NOW!
PatrickFreitas - ^you know Panos isnt an entrenched career politician...that alone makes him better than the rest.
I think it's naive to think that just because Panos isn't a career politician he won't have support staff that were part of the political machine. Government corrupts.
SUBstitude - ^^^prollem is the longer we wait, the costlier it gets.
And i agree with Mike, we NEED it done! And done NOW!
Plus, we aren't going to have Inoue around forever to get us federal support. He is literally our bread and butter at this point - with the American economy in dire straits, we cannot afford to sit on what could potentially prop up Hawaii's economy for the time being.
Akaka may be out even before Inoue, and then what, we're left with a Republican governor in a Democrat-controlled legislature (national,)potentially a Democrat president who won't be handing anything out to Hawaii, and a couple of junior Senators...we can just about kiss our asses goodbye at that point.
Further, to get back on track about the mayor's debate in this thread, is now really the time we want to be running a little experiment in politics to see if a civil engineer professor who has made his career telling others how to do instead of doing, has what it takes to keep our state's economy and infrastructure afloat in what can only be labeled trying times?
I keep hearing Kobayashi's stupid ass ads talking about our roads, sewer, and landfills as if that is something Mufi himself created during the last four years he was in office- and not the result of decades of neglect of which she is directly a part of...it takes time to fix the jacked up state of our state's infrastructure, and it will take a pretty smooth politician to navigate the screwed up waters we have coming ahead of us.
on olelo, i saw a great informative interview of panos w/ a guy that supported rail going through his ewa community. don't know if it will be rebroadcast. anyone else see it?
^did not see it.
has it been proven that rail is the ONLY solution to the traffic problem? i think most of us have been sold the rail concept as the sole solution without any consideration of alternates. we've all been talking rail for so long that we're brainwashed into thinking its the only solution to the traffic crisis.
i'm not against rail, but if we cant afford it, we shouldnt buy it. this mentality of "lets buy it, no matter the cost" by many rail supporters is a little scary. what if an additional freeway system was 75% as effective but 50% the expense? has it even been considered? i dont know...but that seems like a more efficient use of our taxpayer funds.
^^actually Pat i think a double level freeway has been put on the table before, but was found not to be a good option because of building cost, maintanance cost, eye-sore factors, space.
i can remember back when i was in middle school people were talking about rail trans (20 years ago). Of course it never got done. It might take 5-10 years to build once we decide. Just don't want to put it off anymore then it already has been.
And i think in terms of financing, if there's a will...there's away.
Maybe they'll finally give gambling a second thought :)
rail and fixed guided systems have been the only thing on the table. both won't take cars off the road. building more freeways don't work; no space and it'll just bottleneck. an example of this is socal. lived there for 12 years after high school and revisited in july. still more freeway construction. still traffic in the same spots. btw, they have rail, too. those are just platforms to funnel are taxes into the corporations/businesses that feed the coffers of certain politicians or political parties. panos' solution is to utilize and enhance what we already have. his solutions (there isn't just one) cost less and would be implemented almost immediately- granted the council has the guts to monitor the unions work. no lies, no smoke and mirrors, no political agenda.
take a serious unbiased look at his proposals and compare it to rail/fixed guided system.
i think rail WILL actually work here once people give in, get too fed up with traffic, and they get used to the concept. Rail has proven successful in other cities like SF and DC.
And one reason it doesn't work as well in LA is because it's so damn spread out. People are going everywhere, from everywhere.
Oahu, however is not, in that the majority of people are travelling into one location that has limited routes to begin with.
successful rail cities are long commutes, not 20 mile stretches. would ride bus doesn't equate to do ride the bus. for honolulu, for most to get to the rail, they'll have to catch a bus. if the majority of drivers buy buss passes tomorrow, thebus would create more routes, more express buses, and have less traffic to maneuver. but then all the drivers would say, no more traffic anymore, and hop right back into their cars. the rail is like brett favre playing in GB this season instead of aaron rogers. favre is the "sexy" pic but unnecessary and expensive.
i ride bike to work when i can; i gotta take my kid to school when my wife works. great easy way to stay fit and save $. my wife rode bus when we moved back but too many uji (spelling) riders. cleaning up the buses and stops would help ridership.
^totally agree and guilty of doing. i've got a neighbor friend w/ kids that goes to or went to the same school as my kid for over 3 years. only recently have i brought up the idea and he politely dismissed it.
is it just me or does Kobayashi's face looks like she got hit with a skillet
online poll at the Honolulu Advertiser's website suggests that the site's users are Panos fans:
Which of the top candidates for Honolulu mayor gets your vote?
17124 votes cast
kteam - is it just me or does Kobayashi's face looks like she got hit with a skillet
LOL maybe Mufi hit her in the face
PatrickFreitas - online poll at the Honolulu Advertiser's website suggests that the site's users are Panos fans:Which of the top candidates for Honolulu mayor gets your vote?
17124 votes cast
Wow, 39.5% are truly risk takers!
well 14.4 % are just idiots
46.1% forgot about him dumping a whole bunch of shit in the ala wai which is the single worse thing ever done by a mayor screw the rail issue there are at least some pros to it but the Ala Wai that was just bull shit
39.5% are just tired of the same old political bull shit
IMO the rail system isnt even Hawaiis biggest problem pretty soon no one will have jobs to drive into town for which will reduce traffic
id rather have traffic then see any more people lose their jobs what are they going to do to about it
would you rather have just had shit coming out through your toilet into your house? That would have been the stark reality if it hadn't gotten dumped in the ala wai...I can't believe Muffi still takes hits for that one given the state of the city when he took over.
Rail will provide jobs...it might not make us rich, but it will give us a chance to survive for the time being while it's being constructed and subsidized by federal dollars.
SUBstitude -PatrickFreitas - online poll at the Honolulu Advertiser's website suggests that the site's users are Panos fans:
Which of the top candidates for Honolulu mayor gets your vote?
17124 votes cast
Wow, 39.5% are truly risk takers!
That 39.5% are your hard working professors sitting around their computers between classes cackling about some crackerjack idea they've just come up with but will never be able to implement due to its impracticality.
^obviously havent been to Panos' website and read about the man. he's an intelligent, educated man. not a career politician who is on the take.
my own grandmother, who is 87 years old, laments that she voted absentee already without knowing about Panos. she told me this weekend she wishes she had voted for him now that she knows more about him.