PatrickFreitas - ^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.
Pat: If Panos becomes mayor, he will, by definition, become a career politician. IMO, he can do more for Hawai'i by teaching at UH than by serving our city as mayor.
falsecrack - 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.
I cant believe he got away with that My brother ran a private sewer treatment facility for years and he said that if he had decided to do that they would have thrown him in jail. They did a good job making everyone believe that it was the only option and it wasnt.
Im not against the rail it would provide jobs which we do need as long as they keep as much of the workers local and dont bring a bunch of mainland companies to do the same job that local people here can do
accepting federal funds for needless projects are the reason why we've become so dependent on gov't. new technologies exist that are responsible, reliable and capable of creating jobs. gov't holds on to old ideas to maintain power and control.
the rail is to service the current and future occupants of the kakaako/waikiki area. more high rises (vertical structure is the current term now) are in the works and waikiki has transitioned to condotels.
as the federal gov't does less to help the auto industry and seek more control over the worlds oil production, i feel the pushing of rail may be another sign that gov't will force us out of cars in the next decade or 2. socially engineering us to be too busy to do anything but commute to work. enslaving us at our jobs and whatever form of transportation they choose, giving us no time or freedom to blog or train martial arts.
a vote for panos is a vote against big gov't spending and corruption, and keeping our right to pursue happiness. it would be the first step for us to reclaim our gov't.
If the rail gives me an alternative of getting somewhere in five minutes instead of sitting in traffic I would ride it. I rode it all the time in Japan and it was awesome. If the rail is reliable and on time it will work. People who want to sit twice as long in traffic will stop once they see that the rail is cutting that time in half or more. People who don't want to drive home drunk after partying will ride it too just like they do in Japan.
wannaberich,I would assume depending on how many stops that the morning commute for someone coming from Kapolei/Ewa to town on the rail would be considerably less than it is now. Not five minutes but it would seem to make it drastically less than it is at this point.
People are going to vote for the rail hoping their neighbors are going to ride it. The people of Hawaii are creatures of habit. They are not going to give up their cars to ride the rail. Besides, we don't have a centralized area (ie Downtown Seattle, San Fran) where you can ride into town and walk around to take care of your errands.
Rail transit is the best option for Hawaii's progress. And Oahu is very centralized. We have only one major city, and the bulk of the population travel east-west to and from it.
Even when/if they further develop the "second city", it still lies along the rail line.
seems smarter and more fiscally responsible to take a 1/3 of this huge $3-6 billion rail investment and buy Oahu the worlds greatest & largest per capita fleet of eco-friendly buses. we wouldnt have to construct an entirely new rail system...all we'd have to do is make road improvements.
i really think the politicians and unions are going to use this rail issue as a way for taxpayers to pay for a giant public works project. its in their interest to tell us that rail is the only solution.
^but more buses = fewer individual drivers. so that would relieve traffic. thats theory, yes, but so is the notion that people will give up driving for a $3+ billion rail system.
i agree that our current bus system is both not adequate and not marketed well enough to attract users. but still seems much smarter to create the greatest municipal bus system in America at 30% the cost of building an entirely new rail system...in my humble opinion, of course.
other good thing about buses:
1) buses actually serve individual communities, delivering users just steps from their home. the rail will still require most people to drive to rail stations, where they have to fight for parking.
2) if one bus breaks, the system keeps working. if the rail has a malfunction, the entire line is shut down.
3) if the rail system is a failure, we are stuck with it and its giant expense. if a mega-bus system fails, we can more easily adopt other changes.
i do see your arguments, and you bring up some good points.
However, do you not think rail is inevitably in our future no matter what? My fear is, the longer we delay, the more it will cost, and the more difficult it will be to actually get done.
My feeling is that no matter when this takes place, there will always be a funding issue.
Also, the problem with buses is the convenience. Or lack there of, in terms of schedules and duration of ride.