Silent Majority Who Support Rail Told To Go Public

The Honolulu Advertiser today continues its consistent support for the Honolulu rail project. Both local newspapers have never wavered in that support, and today, the Advertiser calls out the silent majority to speak up.

Here’s the challenge: Show up at the Governor-sponsored one-sided presentation by the American Institute of Architects, Hawaii Chapter, on Monday in the State Capitol Auditorium. Speak up for rail in terms that can’t be mistaken.

This event is quite amazing. The invitation some received (not us) “cordially invites you to attend a special panel presentation…. This presentation will provide an opportunity for you to learn more about and ask questions regarding this major proposed project on Oahu.”

I supposed you could say this is about learning “more” since it’s impossible to learn “less,” but in this case, “more” represents the views of only some architects within the AIA. Other local architects disagree. Shouldn’t a government-sponsored event have some semblance of objectivity and balance?

Of course it should. This is the crazy atmosphere a vocal minority of anti-railers has managed to create here. The State government can hold a panel discussion about the biggest project in Hawaii’s history and make it slanted from the start!

The editorial’s first sentence says it nicely:

“It smells like politics on the rail transit front.”

You bet it does – and throw in bad decision-making by public officials, too. Someone posted a comment below the editorial’s online presence that attendees to this one-sided AIA PowerPoint show are advised to park either in the lot beneath the Capitol or across the street in the Department of Health lot.
That's right -- park. There’s no information in the invitation about bus routes that serve the Capitol. That omission says a lot about the mindset of the decision-makers who work on the Executive level of the Hawaii State Capitol on behalf of all citizens.

Transit riders? Forget about it.