Sunday, October 5, 2008

Boom Box Moves from Sideshow to the Street

We can’t let the weekend go by without noticing the “Stop Rail brings the noise” story in yesterday’s Advertiser. The “I didn’t notice anything” quote pretty much says it all, along with comments by spokespersons for the City’s steel wheel system. 

We’ll only suggest that the boom-box-in-a-truck tactic is part of the Sideshow we wrote about here three months ago. Tactics that attempt to divert attention from Oahu’s mobility problem are being used by the anti-rail “barkers” who stand in front of the smaller tents.

The real issue the system is intended to address is the lost mobility of Oahu citizens. That’s the reason to build the system – the Big Tent issue. With the system, mobility is restored; without it, mobility would continue as a dream for commuters who simply want to move quickly and reliably on-time between the ewa plain and town.

For a longer discussion of the issues, visit our September 22 "multiple truths" post, which prompted more comments than any other here.

2 comments:

sumwonyuno said...

It seems that Stop Rail Now has resorted to gimmicks, because they realize (not publicly) their counter-arguments to rail cannot stand up in the general public. They seem to play on fears (noise and cost), persuasion of the ignorant (population size over density and imagining a choo-choo train set) and bet on those with biases (pro-highway and pro-automobile).

I can't tell from the Advertiser photo where exactly the truck was. It doesn't matter; Chinatown is already quite a noisy place, with its bars, shops and restaurants, and all of the buses, cars and people going through it.

I bet they'll try the truck in other places like Downtown, Ala Moana, Waikiki (all places with high activity), and people wouldn't notice their artificial noise. Or maybe they'll try a Sunday drive on Farrington, Kamehameha, Salt Lake Blvd., Dillingham, Kapiolani, or University (already noisy thoroughfares). I think the only place they'd have luck in is in the currently empty fields of 'Ewa, but soon enough, the rail itself will be in place.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure they will come up with more publicity stunts just to keep their name in the papers and on the news.

Most of them have managed to get themselves kicked off the newspaper forums with their foaming-at-the-mouth persoannl attacks.