How’s This for a Hoot? WSJ Columnist Weighs In On Rail, Says Public Apathy Keeps It Alive; Plus, Our Prediction about S-A Columnists Is Still Good

Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund with HawaiiReporter.com's Malia Zimmerman.

HawaiiReporter.com proves the point again: If you spend all your time inside a closed information loop – e.g., listening only to the likes of Slater, Prevedouros and other opponents of Honolulu rail – you’re likely to miss what’s really going on outside.

Rail opponents were on prominent display at this week’s small business conference, sponsored by one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that wants to kill the project. One of the speakers was John Fund, Wall Street Journal columnist and Fox News contributor..

Here are some of his quotes from an interview by HR's editor (YouTube has the entire encounter):

“…The Honolulu rail system…is a train from nowhere to nowhere….I don’t see commuters taking it, I really don’t. I do see a lot of construction for the next eight years, which would tie up traffic even more. I do see government has finally admitted that this will actually, traffic will be worse and more congested after the rail system is built than before, so what are you getting….? I don’t see the average Hawaiian benefiting from this.”

Mr. Fund existed inside the closed ant-rail loop spun by Cliff Slater, Panos Prevedouros, Malia Zimmerman and other rail opponents during his short stop in our city, which explains why he repeated Cliff Slater’s major misleading talking point and why reality didn’t penetrate his consciousness about what Honolulu citizens think about rail.

Let’s review the facts for Mr. Fund – not that he’s still around to care:
• Of the 296,869 votes cast on the steel-on-steel Charter amendment in 2008 (excluding blank and over votes), 52.6 percent favored the amendment, 47.4 percent opposed the question. I.E., 15,233 more Oahu voters supported an obvious pro-rail question than opposed it.
• A scientific public opinion poll conducted in 2008 for the Business Roundtable found 59-percent support for rail.
• A QMark poll in 2009 said 60 percent of the respondents either strongly or somewhat supported the project.
• Pro-rail mayoral candidates Peter Carlisle and Kirk Caldwell in the 2010 special election to fill a mayoral vacancy received 38.8 and 34.6 percent respectively of all votes cast. Anti-rail candidate Prevedouros received 18.5 percent.
• in 2010’s general election, 68.6 percent of the 246,736 valid votes cast on the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation amendment approved its creation; only 31.4 percent were opposed.
• A 2011 scientific opinion poll by QMark found 57 percent pro-rail sentiment and 40 percent opposed. (See our “aggregation” site for links to these public opinion surveys beneath the Public Opinion heading.)

According to HR’s editor, Mr. Fund believes “the only reason the (rail) project is still alive is ‘public apathy’ – too few citizens are participating in the process." To that we’d offer this rejoinder: The vote is the most basic, important and powerful way for citizens to participate in the public process. Oahu voters were and are part of the process.

Finally, here's a reasonable response to Mr. Fund: Sir, Hawaii citizens have grown weary of outside experts who fly in and tell us what’s good for us. We have repeatedly demonstrated our strong support for rail as a critical addition to our transportation infrastructure. It’s unfortunate you were encapsulated in a closed information loop during your cup of coffee here. Had you managed to escape it, you would know what we want – and we want rail!

Columnist Prediction – Week 2

Based on their writing in last week’s paper by three Star-Advertiser columnists, we boldly predicted not one of them would have anything good to say about Honolulu rail in 2012. By that we mean they’ll not allude in any way to rail’s achievable goals that would benefit commuters here – improved mobility (i.e., traffic avoidance), improved travel reliability, support for smart growth and travel equity.

We’re going to keep track of their writing throughout 2012. We’re one week into that prediction, and so far, it’s still accurate. David Shapiro didn’t mention rail on Wednesday; Cynthia Oi is on vacation this week and Richard Borreca avoided the subject today. (Mr. Borreca writes about three columns a week, and we’ll keep an eye on all of them, not just those published on Friday.)

As we noted last week, newspaper columnists love to fire away at big government projects, but in 52 weeks of opining, you’d think they’ll eventually say something that just might hint at a neutral comment about rail, let alone a positive one. It's a reasonable expectation for a troika that paid to comment on the major issues of the day.

Portland Asks What’s Boosting Transit Ridership, Wonders whether It’s a Desire To Text and Talk; Plus, LTE Forum Refutes Gang of Four’s Latest

A recent study found "curbside" bus patrons are technologically adept. Graph shows their stated intent to use a mobile device while traveling.

Yes2Rail’s LTE Forum (below) focuses on a letter to the editor that refutes the most recent Gang of Four commentary. But first, we report on the latest from a city that receives a lot of praise for its public transportation system.

TriMet, the agency that provides public transit in the Portland, OR metropolitan area, reported earlier this month on significant ridership increases in December compared to the same month in 2010. The TriMex website notes the agency’s mission and says:

“Our transportation options connect people with their community, while easing traffic congestion and reducing air pollution – making our region a better place to live.”

Note the use of “easing.” We have to wonder whether someone opposed to TriMet’s mission has ever tried to misinterpret that mission by saying Portland transit is supposed to reduce or eliminate congestion, not ease it. That’s what Cliff Slater continuously attempts to do with Honolulu rail – repeating his big fib ever chance he gets, and we’ve posted several of those chances at our “aggregation” site. Civil Beat found no merit in his accusation that the city misled the public on this point.

Mobile Freedom

TriMet is speculating on why transit ridership was up so much in December compared to a year earlier, and one possible reason is the freedom to talk and text on their mobile devices. Says TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch:

“(Transit) is a safe environment where you can be texting or be on the phone or reading a book without the stress of being behind the wheel. People just may be enjoying taking transit more these days.”

Joseph Rose, writing for OregonLive.com, links to a study by DePaul University that found the ability to text and talk while riding so-called “curbside” buses is a perk “that could revolutionize public transit ridership.” Curbside systems provide inter-city bus service in competition with traditional fleet companies like Greyhound that operate out of bus stations.

Honolulu doesn’t have this kind of transportation option, of course, but our commuters are just like those in the Midwest and East who have fallen in love with their mobile communications devices. There’s every reason to believe future patrons of Honolulu raill will be as enthusiastic as their mainland cousins about hands-free travel while on the ‘net.

The study noted, “…almost 90 percent of passengers today use a portable digital communications device at some point during their trip.” And “today” is literally present-day; think of the array of new communications options we’ll have by 2019, when Honolulu rail goes into service.

LTE Forum

Honolulu rail’s deputy chief project officer has a letter in today’s Star-Advertiser (subscription) that goes beyond disagreeing with the Gang of Four’s Sunday commentary, the focus of our post yesterday. His letter doesn’t merely dispute the Gang’s op-ed piece; it refutes it, as in “proves to be false or erroneous.”

The evidence continues to pile up that the Gang's anti-rail media campaign has been producing misleading statements, accusations and innuendo starting with the August 21st commentary, “How the city misled the public.” That’s not surprising if our presumption is correct that Cliff Slater writes most if not all of the Gang’s material. Bending facts or simply ignoring them is one of his favored tactics, as today’s letter makes clear:

Rail’s financial plan was OK’d by FTA (Star-Advertiser, 1/12)

“Once again, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to kill the rail project have misled the public…. In fact, the Federal Transit Administration approved the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s latest financial plan and cleared the project for its final stages of development.

“The FTA would not have moved this project forward if the plan were not acceptable. HART is now working with the FTA to strengthen its financial plan in preparation for the full funding grant agreement.

“This is typical of the process with federally funded transit projects.

“These four plaintiffs falsely stated that the project has not received any federal funds. The project has received $120 million in federal funds and is slated to receive its share of $510 million in fiscal year 2012, as reported in the Star-Advertiser.

“U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood stated Honolulu’s project has been done ‘by the book,’ and that if we continue to work together, he has no doubt the project will move forward.

“We couldn’t agree more.”

This post has been added to our "aggregation" site under the LTE Forum heading.

Reader Responds to ‘Partisan Anti-Government Wing’ of Rail Opponents Who Fight Transit Option

It’s axiomatic that those who oppose projects and initiatives are usually more visible and vocal than the supporters. Protestors attract media coverage, and NIMBY-ism produces video that plays well on television.

The Comments section below rail stories in the Star-Advertiser supports this axiom. It attracts rail opponents like ants to a picnic or, judging from many of their anonymous comments, flies to a sewer.

Well-constructed, articulate letters supportive of Honolulu rail stand apart from anti-rail op-ed pieces and letters for both their civility and depth. A good contrast can be seen between a letter in today’s paper (see LTE Forum, below) and the Gang of Four’s (aka Cliff Slater’s) op-ed piece last Sunday (subscription required for both).

Here’s a summary of the Gang’s main points on 1/8:
• The piece disagrees with the newspaper’s coverage of the FTA’s December 30th authorization for the city to enter into Final Design. It says Congress hasn’t appropriated any of the $1.55 billion in federal funds for the Honolulu project. Call it quibbling. (Jan. 12th Update: Rail official refutes Gang's allegation.)
• The commentary says the FTA has “firmly rejected” several project financial plans. Call it not true; here’s what the FTA wrote: “Regarding the Financial Capacity Assessment, FTA notes that the financial plan HART submitted is sufficient to advance the project into final design (emphasis added). However, it must be further strengthened before FTA will consider awarding (a Full Final Grant Agreement).”
• The piece “doubts” HART can justify its several assumptions about future financial considerations. Call it standard anti-rail skepticism.
• The Gang cites other city financial obligations beyond rail and says paying for rail might exceed the city’s capabilities. Call it wishful thinking.
• Finally, the commentary once again scrambles facts in suggesting the city duped residents by promising rail would reduce traffic congestion below current levels. Call it dishonest – and we have in numerous posts. See our “aggregation” site below the Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends) heading.

LTE Forum

It’s easy to see why the Gang’s commentary motivated the Kailua resident to write his letter to the editor that leads the pack in today’s paper. It’s a model pro-rail statement that presumably could be echoed by the majority of Oahu residents with the same opinion:

Oahu rail system is long overdue (Star-Advertiser, 1/11)

“Since the 1970s, Honolulu has needed, and tried to get, a rail transit system. The move into final design makes it appear as though we are finally on our way despite dealing with the same kind of irrationally emotional opposition we've always had to put up with. It's been coming from the same blindly partisan anti-government wing, from has-been politicians using the issue to make personal attacks and from incredibly ill-advised environmentalists, among others.

“The opposition has failed to offer any serious alternative transportation solutions and instead continues to push reliance on the expensive petroleum-addicted automobile for everyone. The opposition also doesn't seem to care at all that the project will help put people back to work.

“Still, thankfully, it does appear that the third time will be the charm for Honolulu rail transit, and future generations that the selfish opponents don't care about will have transportation options.”

The letter is a straight-forward, thoughtful assessment of the rail project and one reason it’s being built – as an alternative to continued reliance on cars and what fuels them and the congestion they cause. The writer sums up the opposition neatly from his perspective; he uses common sense and doesn’t quibble about the present or past, doesn’t misstate the truth and doesn’t obfuscate the issues.

And since the writer lives in Kailua on the opposite side of the mountain from the rail system, his pro-rail letter reflects an attitude that what benefits others along the route benefits everyone on the island. It’s called “community” – an appreciation missing in most anti-rail commentaries, along with their answer to the question, “If not rail, what?”

The letters column has two other rail-related letters – both reacting to Bette Midler's anti-rail letter printed on Sunday. One asks, "Does Bette Midler think that the high-rise monstrosities that line our coastline, and are now the view, are better than a 20-foot-high rail?" Our sentiments exactly.

LTE Forum: Bank Responds to ‘Payoff’ Allegation

The old advice on dealing with newspapers is probably still valid: “Don’t get into a ----ing contest with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” Still, when a newspaper or someone who writes for one throws a blow that’s obviously low, counter-punching might do some good.

First Hawaiian Bank produced a one-two-three flurry on today’s Star-Advertiser letters page in response to David “Volcanic Ash” Shapiro’s “payoff” column last week (subscription required to access all S-A content). We called attention to his piece for its hint-hint, wink-wink, connect-the-dots innuendo that HART Chair Carrie Okinaga’s new position at the bank was a “payoff” – his word.

Our Friday post predicted that neither Mr. Shapiro nor his S-A columnist colleagues will write “a single paragraph of positive content about the Honolulu rail project in 2012.” We’ll see tomorrow whether our prediction still has legs and whether Mr. Shapiro has had time to find something concrete to back up his “payoff” allegation. Here’s the bank’s executive VP’s response:

Shapiro column contained errors (Star-Advertiser, 1/10)

“…Shapiro’ states that First Hawaiian Bank is a major landowner along the rail route. Only one of First Hawaiian Bank’s 35 Oahu branch properties – our Waipahu Branch, built in 1970 on leasehold property – is directly adjacent to the proposed rail route….

“Shapiro said that First Hawaiian Bank’s parent company BNP Paribas has business ties to Ansaldo…. That’s true. It also has a relationship with the two companies who lost the bid….

“Finally, Shapiro insinuated that Carrie Okinaga, who was recently hired as an attorney at the bank, got the job because of her position as chairwoman of the HART project. In fact, Okinaga was hired by the bank’s new president and CEO…for her exceptional skills, broad range of experience and strong educational background.”

The damage already has been done, of course, and Mr. Shapiro’s “payoff” column will be hanging out there in cyberspace forever more prominently than the bank’s response.

This post has been added to our “aggregation” site beneath the LTE Forum heading.

News Flash: Rail Opponent Is Human, Capable of Seeing What He Wants To See; Plus LTE Forum

Can we all just agree on something? Can we agree that all anti-rail material published in the newspaper that’s allegedly written by the Gang of Four – Cliff Slater, Ben Cayetano, Randall Roth and Walter Heen – is actually the work of Mr. Slater?

Let’s take that further. Let’s agree that all commentaries, letters and analyses on rail signed by any one of the Gang is also Mr. Slater’s work. Why should we expect the other three to have written them? They have evidenced miniscule interest in transit issues compared to Mr. Slater, so what we see repeatedly is from Mr. Slater, with the other three “caboosed” onto the pieces for their name-recognition PR value.

Good. Now that that’s agreed, let’s move on to a key plank in Mr. Slater’s anti-rail campaign – that the city has lied to the public about rail’s effect on future congestion. He did it again yesterday in a Gang of Four commentary (subscription) that revealed once again Mr. Slater's tendency to see what he wants to see in the city’s statements about rail and why it should be built.

The Human Filter

Seeing and hearing what one wants to see and hear is a trait all humans probably exhibit to some degree. We filter out information that doesn’t fit our concept of reality. Mr. Slater’s reality is that the city never told the truth about the inevitability that traffic congestion will continue to increase along with the population even after rail is built. Here’s how his Sunday commentary put it:

“Elevated heavy rail was initially promoted by the city as a solution to traffic congestion. Since then, the city has quietly admitted that traffic congestion would get worse than it is today even if rail is built.”

Over and over and over again, Mr. Slater has repeated this myth about the city only reluctantly talking about future congestion. His HonoluluTraffic.com website has an extensive archive with links to other sites that Mr. Slater says support his thesis, but the quirky thing about those sites is that they do not support his claim. His personal filter lets him see only what he wants to see, what he wants to hear.

Here’s one example from an undated post at HonoluluTraffic that presumably was written in 2007. It links to a KITV video report on a “Traffic Sucks” city hall rally in 2005 that Mr. Slater’s website says “typifies the grossly misleading statements emanating from our elected officials.”

Watch the video and see if you can find anything misleading in Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s sound bite: ”I want the Governor to know very clearly. This is our last chance. Traffic sucks! We need to spend time with our families! Quality of life is important! Put your signs up, gang. Let me see it! Let me see it! Transit now! Transit now! Transit now!” Pacific Business News’s report on the rally paraphrased the Mayor in saying “the city needs a rail system to alleviate increasing traffic congestion” (emphasis added).

Ease, Not Eliminate

Elsewhere at the 2007 post, Mr. Slater calls out the Mayor’s quotes from a Honolulu Advertiser story: “He said the system will help all parts of the island, easing traffic overall because ‘there will be less cars on the road.’” Mr. Slater’s filter lets him conclude the Mayor was promising to reduce traffic congestion below current levels; that’s the implication in nearly all of his public presentations on rail (see numerous posts at our “aggregation” site below the Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends) heading).

But that isn’t what the Mayor said. He promised exactly what rail will deliver – “easing” of traffic congestion because there will be “less cars on the road.” Those statements are irrefutable, but in Mr. Slater’s world, they support his allegation that the city has misled the public on the congestion issue. That’s what his filter tells him.

The same 2007 post has a link (no longer good) to the project’s Alternative Analysis report, which is dated November 1, 2006 – still early in the rail process. On page S-3, the AA states clearly: “Traffic congestion on key corridor facilities is expected to continue to exist under all alternatives, particularly during peak travel periods.”

The city didn’t hide its assessment of what traffic will be like in the future, with and without rail. It’s been forthcoming in “obscure” documents like the AA as well as in the spotlight in public meetings before the City Council, on the radio and on TV.

Expect Mr. Slater to continue his deliberately misleading campaign against rail. It’s what his filter demands.

LTE Forum

Kaneohe resident Tom Coffman’s letter today (subscription) – ‘Final design’ won’t assure rail funding – is a repeat of other anti-rail commentaries recently, including the Gang's Sunday piece, and isn’t worth quoting. The only other rail-related letter is worth quoting in full:

Modern cities need good transit systems (Star-Advertiser, 1/9)

“Please notice that the old men and past leaders who want to stop rail always seem to meet mid-morning or mid-afternoon at some convenient place and avoid the thousands of residents who spend hours in gridlock, commuting in bumper-to-bumper traffic every single day of the week. They seem to have no idea what a crisis traffic is. It is time for the old men like Ben and his crew from the past to sit down and let modern leaders move ahead. Honolulu needs to become a real city like Singapore or Sydney or Boston with real transportation systems. Yes, we need rail from the west side and guess what — then we will need lines to Hawaii Kai and Central Oahu and then finally windward. The old people, like them (and me), need to get out of the way and let progress happen.”

The Honolulu resident’s assessment seems pretty much on the mark to us. Attempting to kill rail, as the Gang of Four is trying to do with the federal lawsuit, would be an anti-progress step backward from achieving the modern transportation network Honolulu requires for the rest of the 21st century.

This post has been added to our "aggregation" site below two headings – Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends) and LTE Forum.

LTE Forum: Someone Should Tell Bette Midler the Facts about Rail: It Won’t Be Built on the Beach!

Today’s letters to the editor page in the morning paper (subscription) includes a missive from one of Hawaii’s most famous daughters, star of stage and screen Bette Midler, who was born in Honolulu (here's her yearbook photo).

Ms. Midler objects to Honolulu’s plan to build an elevated rail system to connect downtown Honolulu with the growing bedroom communities in the west and several communities in between. The letter shares Ms. Midler’s fear that the project will “sacrifice the most important amenity (Hawaii) has to offer the world, the beauty of its environment….”

With the expectation that her publicist will eventually find this Yes2Rail online post, today’s LTE Forum offers some perspective that may be helpful to her appreciation of what Honolulu rail will be, and what it won’t. First, some of her letter:

Rail would be blight on Hawaii’s beauty (Star-Advertiser, 1/8)

“…I have lived in New York City for many years, and can testify to the noise and ugliness these elevated trains bring to every community through which they pass. This project is 40 years too old. In the last 40 years, there have been many advances in public transportation and many new ideas about how to integrate need with environment… Why does it have to be 20 feet in the air? There were trains in Hawaii in years past, and there were electric buses, too...”

As we noted a few days ago, the beach is the attraction for visitors to Hawaii, along with our perpetual summer. We would hope Ms. Midler might come to appreciate that rail’s route will be nowhere near the beach! The vast majority of visitors to Honolulu book hotel rooms in Waikiki, and most their transportation while here is walking to and from that world-famous stretch of sand.

Should they venture by bus or rental car beyond Waikiki, they’ll find a beautiful island with mountains, valleys, gardens, world-class surfing on the North Shore and seascapes, but they’ll also experience a 21st century city with world-class traffic congestion – so much worse than what Ms. Midler remembers during her high school years (Radford HS, class of ’63) that any word picture fails to adequately describe it.

Not the ‘El’

Tourists to Hawaii escape hometowns with big-city problems, too, and although some may expect to find grass shacks and an idyllic paradise, most are savvy enough to know that Honolulu is just a better version of where they live, with temperatures in the 80s every day of the year, sunshine and showers, rainbows and palm trees – and traffic.

Also dissimilar to the 1950s is the 21st century train technology Honolulu will be building. Objections to elevated rail transit often are grounded in memories of yesteryear and the obviously inferior technologies of the era. New York City’s first elevated line went into service in 1870! The Chicago El also began operations in the 19th century.

We’d be as appalled as Ms. Midler if Honolulu were building a rail system with the look, feel and noise of the elevated line outside Jake's and Elwood's Chicago apartment in The Blues Brothers film (at right). That’s not happening here.

Elevated rail will give commuters an alternative to some of the worst traffic in the country. It will be largely built through an urban environment that may soon include two dozen more high-rise buildings 300 to 600 feet tall.

We hope Ms. Midler and her people will take a bit of time to better understand Honolulu rail and that those skyscrapers will be what tourists see from Waikiki Beach – not a rail system hidden in their shadows.

This post has been added to our "aggregation" site under the heading LTE Forum.

A Not-Very-Courageous Prediction for 2012: Newspaper Columnists Will Continue To Blast Rail

The season for making predictions for the New Year ended about a week ago, but we’re offering up one anyway because it's such a sure thing:

The Star-Advertiser troika of weekly columnists will write not a single paragraph of positive content about the Honolulu rail project in 2012.

Had we made this prediction a week ago, it would still be holding true through this week’s Wednesday-Thursday-Friday cycle of columns by Wednesday’s Dave Shapiro, Thursday’s Cynthia Oi and Friday’s Richard Borreca (left to right, below).

Frankly, there isn’t much courage in this prediction, since all three columnists have made their anti-rail views known repeatedly over the years – either with a cudgel over the head or their more subtle choice of words to describe Honolulu’s elevated transit project.

Take this week’s columns (subscription required). On Wednesday, David “Volcanic Ash” Shapiro used a connect-the-dots approach to imply there may be something unsavory about Carrie Okinaga’s acceptance of a new job with First Hawaiian Bank.

Ms. Okinaga is chairwoman of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), along with fellow board member Don Horner, who until last week was the bank’s CEO. Mr. Shapiro’s well-practiced cynicism leads him to conclude “…it seems at every turn (of the rail project) that payoffs are going to the connected few.”

“Payoff” is a loaded word that implies unethical behavior. If that was Mr. Shapiro’s intent, he undoubtedly succeeded in his ongoing campaign to erode public confidence in the rail project by painting it in the darkest colors possible.

On Thursday, Cynthia “Under the Sun” Oi added more hype to Ben Cayetano’s potential candidacy in this year’s mayoral race. The former governor wants to kill rail so bad he’s lent his name to the federal lawsuit conceived by anti-railer-in-chief Cliff Slater to block the project.

As the leading anti-rail candidate should he actually run, Mr. Cayetano would provide Ms. Oi with an abundance of material to work with in a continuation of her long-standing opposition to elevated, traffic-avoiding transit.

On Friday, Richard “On Politics” Borreca continued the discussion on Mr. Cayetano’s candicacy, saying it would be a game changer. As a columnist for several decades, Mr. Borreca knows how to turn a phrase with the best of them, but he also lets his personal views on the project slip through, intentionally or not. His column today calls rail a “huge, landscape-scarring, irreversible concrete monolith of heavy rail.”

Doing Their Job

Journalists often describe their business as comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. As for the latter, there’s no bigger target to view with alarm than the biggest construction project in state history.

The three columnists have a total of more than 100 years working in Honolulu journalism. Ms. Oi started at the Star-Bulletin in 1976; Mr. Shapiro’s “Volcanic Ash” website says he’s spent four decades in local journalism, and Mr. Borreca was already the Bulletin’s City Hall reporter when we took over that beat for the Advertiser in 1974.

That kind of longevity is explained by a combination of talent – they’re all excellent writers – and their selection of content over the years. Afflicting local government, elected and appointed officials and their projects is what they do and have done for decades. It’s their calling, and they’ve made it work for them.

Make no mistake about it, if public confidence has been shaken about rail, the Star-Advertiser’s weekly columnists have had a significant role in doing the shaking. They wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s their job, and their editors obviously are fine with it, too.

But the bigger picture is more telling. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has consistently supported Honolulu rail in its editorials, just like the two independent papers that existed before they were joined in 2010. That support has been unshakable throughout all the twists and turns of this major infrastructure project.

We know what the troika doesn’t like, so maybe it’s time to ask them the same question rail’s leading non-journalist opponents like to avoid: “What kind of mass transit DO you support?”

The columnists won’t be any more eager to answer that one than Mr. Slater and his Gang of Four. If they tried, they’d be sunk as soon as “at-grade transit” passed their lips – for all the reasons we’ve thoroughly covered here at Yes2Rail.

The columnists might just learn something new about Honolulu's future train by visiting our “aggregation” site and the dozen posts below the Elevated vs At-Grade heading. Today's post has been added at that site under the Project Goals, and more heading.

What Matters Most to Visitors, Beaches or Transit?

Sand restoration project will add 37 feet to Waikiki Beach.
See photo below this post for same view as it now exists.

Hawaii sometimes makes news on the mainland even when the President isn’t vacationing here. Two stories that survived the cut this week caught our eye – the Waikiki Beach restoration project and a New York Times piece on Honolulu rail.

The latter included the seemingly mandatory quote from anti-railer Cliff Slater, who has secured himself a sizeable niche in cyberspace for all eternity with his decades-long opposition to mass transit projects. Need some negativity in your story? No problem; call Cliff.

Mr. Slater predictably had nothing good to say about rail in the Times story. This time he played the "what will tourists think?" card, but he mixed his message by alluding to the tremendous changes Honolulu is experiencing – a tough commute by car among them:

“(The project) starts to remind everyone that we are not all grass huts anymore. There’s this illusion as to what Hawaii is all about, and New York-style trains don’t cut it.”

Mr. Slater clearly shows more concern over what mainland visitors will think about Honolulu’s rail system (paradise lost?) than in providing new transportation infrastructure to meet local residents’ current and future needs. As the Times story says, “…the few highways here have routinely been as crammed with traffic as those in Los Angeles, a problem that seems likely to get worse.”

Catering to New Yorkers

A little common sense is needed when evaluating Mr. Slater’s alleged concern for how visitors will react to Honolulu rail. It’s part of his repertoire, of course, but it’s also not believable to think they’ll have any reaction whatsoever to Honolulu’s elevated rail line.

New Yorkers who routinely ride the city’s subway trains could give a fig about Honolulu’s future transit system, which will connect jobs in town with suburbs in west Oahu. They come for what Hawaii offers their world-weary souls – sun, sea, surf and the beach. (Photo shows yesterday’s blessing of the restoration project, which will widen Waikiki Beach 37 feet at places; see video link.)

While visitors lie on the beach in today's late-afternoon January sun, taxpaying Oahu residents of west Oahu will be commuting home and fighting their way through some of the nation’s worst traffic congestion.

Widening Waikiki Beach to accommodate more New Yorkers, Iowans and even Floridians is much more relevant to Hawaii’s visitor industry than Honolulu’s future rail system. And if visitors want to “leave the driving to us” to visit Aloha Stadium, the Arizona Memorial or other stops along the 20-mile route, Honolulu rail will be there for them, too.

Yes2Rail is enjoying a big spike in readership this week thanks to the Times story. Here’s hoping some of those readers are so taken by the pretty pictures of Waikiki Beach that they'll be lying on it soon.

The going can get a little wet at high tide these days.

Rail Project's Goals Motivate Intervener Requests; FACE Says Transit Line Supports Regional Equity

We’ve called attention to the Honolulu rail project’s goals over the past year to correct their mischaracterization by rail opponents in their ongoing confusion campaign. Yesterday’s request by two local organizations to intervene in the anti-rail lawsuit provides another opportunity to accentuate the goals (see our "aggregation" site), since they have everything to do with the request.

As reported today in Civil Beat (free for occasional visitors), two organizations and an individual – Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE), Pacific Resource Partnership (PRP) and Kapolei resident Melvin Uesato – have filed requests with the court to intervene on the side of the lawsuit’s defendants.

FACE is all about equity; the concept is in its name, and Transportation Equity is one of FACE’s key ongoing issues. It’s also one of the rail project’s goals. From Chapter 1 of the Final Environmental Impact Statement:

“Equity is about the fair distribution of resources so that no group carries an unfair burden of the negative environmental, social, or economic impacts or receives an unfair share of benefits…. Improvements to transit availability and reliability would serve all transportation system users, including minority and moderate- and low-income populations.”

In an email to Yes2Rail, FACE state director Drew Astolfi noted rail’s future contribution to making life on Oahu more equitable for all:

“Oahu is slowly becoming a two-tier society, where leeward and ewa people live differently and worse than downtown, windward and East Honolulu people do because of the time they lose in traffic. In some cases it is 10 hours a week. Rail helps fix this by shortening the time of their commute. Rail is the biggest investment in infrastructure that we are likely to see in our lifetime, so it gives the city a chance to plan for affordable housing on the rail route.”

Although FACE seeks to intervene on the city’s side of the lawsuit, the organization doesn’t automatically “rubber stamp” the city’s transportation projects. FACE’s Transportation Equity page notes the group’s ongoing concerns about ensuring that bus service will not be degraded by the rail project, but it also describes FACE’s support for rail:

“The rail means the development of affordable housing along the transit stops, job growth and creation, and focused development along the urban corridor – leaving the country country.”

While job creation is important to FACE and PRP, both groups also believe intervening in the lawsuit supports the project’s long-term goal to contribute to the rational development of the ewa plain to meet the island's critical housing needs.

PRP executive director John White said PRP’s motion to intervene was filed “to ensure our members’ voices are heard. Rail transit is the clear catalyst that will get our members back to work and lays the groundwork for a 21st century Honolulu that is truly sustainable…  Honolulu will only reach its fullest potential when we ensure that housing becomes affordable again, that people have alternatives to costly automobiles, and that saving our environment becomes a top priority. Rail is the only project on the horizon that moves us closer to that goal.”

The rail project’s four goals are described in detail in the FEIS, Chapter 1, paragraph 1.8 and 1.9.

Hidden Message Alert: Paying Close Attention to Anti-Railisms Can Reveal Opponents’ Motivation

Honolulu rail has the ball in the 4th quarter, driving for yet another big score.

The New Year isn’t even 72 hours old, and already we’re seeing the same anti-rail arguments being recycled by leaders of the opposition.

Cliff Slater’s HonoluluTraffic.com website is topped this morning by a link to the Gang of Four’s August 21st commentary in the Star-Advertiser, which was found by Civil Beat to be shot full of factual errors.

As we noted that same day in Yes2Rail’s response, “Absolutely Nothing Is New” in that post. In relying on it to begin his 2012 anti-rail campaign, Mr. Slater is tipping us off that we can expect more of the same recycled rhetoric in the months ahead, which will be rail’s “pivotal year.”

At the always-supportive HawaiiReporter.com site, Mr. Slater yesterday continued to play defense in light of the Federal Transit Administration’s decision last week to approve the city’s entry into the Final Design phase of the rail project. It’s an unquestionably positive development, one that tests the opponents’ creativity in spinning it into a negative.

It’s About Taxes

There’s a phrase within the HR.com piece that might well reveal the anti-railer-in-chief’s true motivation in fighting so long and so consistently against mass transit projects: “You can email, tweet and/or post on your Facebook page your objections to more taxes for rail.”

Look for the thread that runs through Mr. Slater’s many years of public commentary and you’ll likely find it boiling down to “no more taxes.” Most of us have a built-in aversion to taxation; we like to keep what we’ve earned, but most of us also accept the notion that taxation pays for essential services.

As a proponent of high-occupancy toll roads, Mr. Slater presumably has no problem with taxation to support construction of highways that would cover more of Oahu’s scarce open space with concrete.

Rail and Congestion

Also active early in the New Year is University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros, who twice has run for mayor on an anti-rail platform and twice has been trounced at the polls. Dr. Prevedouros announced last week he will not make a third run in 2012.

Here’s the revealing phrase in his interview with a morning talk show host today (paraphrased): “Rail systems are not solutions to congestion. The corridor needs congestion solutions, not rail attributes.”

Clearly, Dr. Prevedouros believes transportation projects can only be justified by the amount of congestion that allegedly is reduced by their construction. He’s a highway expert, not a transportation expert, so improved mobility through the corridor – one of rail’s major transportation goals – doesn’t register with him.

The ironic and fatally flawed link in his reasoning chain is that building more highway lanes on Oahu would not reduce congestion because of a phenomenon called “induced traffic,” which has been observed repeatedly around the country. Build more lanes and they fill up, bringing on more of the same congestion they were meant to reduce. That’s just the way it is.

Keeping Score

As the football bowl season winds down, it’s easy to reach (stretch?) for a football analogy in our own commentary on rail at the start of 2012. The project has for years successfully followed a game plan guided by “rules” outlined in federal law and regulations. Game officials (the FTA) know the rulebook better than anyone, and the only flags they've tossed so far are for minor issues – the five-yard variety – and not for any of the major fifteen-yarders.

At the end of the third quarter, the score is Rail Project 42, Opponents 7. There’s more time on the clock, and theoretically anything could happen, but realistically, Honolulu rail has possession and is driving toward the Full Funding Grant Agreement that the feds are expected to award later this year.

The Gang of Four rail opponents will get their hands on the ball sometime during the game’s final quarter, and you can expect more Hail Mary passes like the August 21st commentary. But the city is going to win this game for the basic reason that it knows the rules, has played by them and in building Honolulu rail is being cheered on by the “home crowd” – the majority of Oahu residents who know rail will be a mobility-enhancing critical piece of infrastructure that will serve them, their children and grandchildren for decades to come.

LTE Forum: Writer Plays the ‘What If?’ Card

Doomsday on December 21st looms 354 days away, according to the Mayan calendar. It’s therefore pointless to worry about anything beyond this year’s winter solstice, but some people won’t have it any other way.

Today’s contribution to the LTE Forum is a letter to the editor from a windward side resident who sees nothing but doom if this or that happens inside the Honolulu rail project.

Bankruptcy in city’s future? (Star-Advertiser, 1/2/12)

“Recently Jefferson County, Ala., declared bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy ever filed…. I can see Honolulu heading in this same direction with construction of a rail project that has very shaky funding and already many irregularities in the awarding of contracts. What happens if Congress does not provide us with the full $1.8 billion in federal funds?... What happens if (Ansaldo) defaults on its contract?...”

There’s many a slip between cup and lip, but playing “what if?” about imagined calamities can result in perpetual paralysis if that’s your game. Some rail opponents are locked into that paradigm and want everyone else to worry, too.

Fact: On December 29th, the Federal Transit Administration gave Honolulu rail permission to enter into Final Design. Fact: No contract irregularities have been found by any overseeing entity. Fact: Rail opponents will keep what-iffing about these and other imagined problems.

As a friend emailed this morning, “I woke up this morning hoping the New Year would start off differently, but so far, it’s just been the same old one-two, one-two.” (Think about it.)

The more things change, the more they remain the same, so we can expect more of the same extreme skepticism about Honolulu rail from the anti-rail minority in our community throughout TweTwe. (Think about that one, too.) 

This post has been added to our "aggregation" site under the LTE Forum heading.

One-Stop Site for Major Honolulu Rail Issues

JANUARY 2, 2012 UPDATE: This post has become a "library" of Yes2Rail posts that we think are particularly significant for visitors' appreciation of the issues and personalities associated with the Honolulu rail project. Since 7/26/11, the day we created this post as a one-stop shop for visitors, it has grown from just a few links to dozens under various headings -- e.g., Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends). Rather than continue adding new posts to the 2011 lists, we've begun grouping new posts under "2012" beneath each of the headings as appropriate. In addition, we duplicated the entire July 26th post in a new post on January 2, 2012 to bring it into the New Year, which will be "pivotal" for Honolulu rail.   

What if there were a single post here at Yes2Rail that had links to numerous previous posts on a variety of topics? Instead of having to search through posts going back three years every time we wanted to link to what’s already been written, we could just link to this one post, an aggregation of many others.

That was the thinking that led to today’s Yes2Rail entry, so here they are – arranged by topics with earlier posts that we think help make the case for building the Honolulu rail project exactly as it’s been planned. (NOTE: To locate materials in both the Star-Bulletin and the Advertiser prior to their June 2010 "merger" that marked the end of the Tiser, go to the Star-Advertiser's website and click on Back Issues.)

Project’s Goals, Rail's Critics and more – We began 2011 by reviewing the project’s four principal goals and continued that emphasis in the new year.
2012:
• Here We Go – Charging into Rail's 'Pivotal Year' (Former Governor Cayetano "considers" running for mayor)
• A Not-Very-Courageous Prediction for 2012: Newspaper Columnists Will Continue to Blast Rail
• Media Panels on Honolulu Rail Coverage Note Challenges Supporters Face in Making Their Case
• Wednesday Columnist Can't Stand Government Spending and Can't Abide Pro-Rail Efforts in His Continuing Campaign against Honolulu Rail...  
2011 and earlier:
• Rail’s Goals Remain the Same in the New Year
• Rail’s All-Important Goal – Improved Reliability
• Rail Goal #3 – Support for Second City’s Growth
• Transportation Equity Rounds Out Rail’s 4 Goals
• Institute's Transit-Accessibility Study Shows Why Rail Will Be Successful Here
• High-speed rail video works for Honolulu rail: 'Mad Men' on Trains
• Open Letter to Outdoor Circle Members: Some of you Oppose Rail, but Have you Weighed Impacts vs Benefits? Unless Your Life Is Impacted Daily by Congestion, You Can't Appreciate Traffic's Costs

2012 Mayoral Race & Rail
• Civil Beat Challenges Mayoral Candidates To Talk Seriously about the Merits or Problems with Rail, So What Does Ben Cayetano Do? He Refuses To Talk with Civil Beat's Rail Reporter, Banishes Him
• Candidate Must Tell the Public Details of His BRT Plan Today or Violate a 'New Rule' by Tomorrow, Plus: Reporters Get a 'New Rule' of Their Own
• 'The First 100 Days' -- a Standard Good for US Presidents, Governors and Mayors; Time's Up for the Candidate Who Vows To Kill Honolulu Rail
• If Transparency Is the Goal (and It Is), It must Be Applied to Everyone & Everybody in Rail Debate; That Includes Candidate Who Vows to Kill project
• ...Some Questions for Candidate Cayetano
• Mayoral Candidates Face Off in First Debate, but One Man's Nakedness Goes Unreported: Cayetano Still Refuses To Provide Details of His BRT Plan
• With Anti-Rail Columnist in Cayetano's Corner, Media's Role in Transit Issue Looms Even Larger: Will Rail Supporters Finally Demand 'No Mas'?
• STOP THE PRESSES: Details of Cayetano BRT Plan Leak in Radio Show; Oahu Can Anticipate Buses Running in Highways' Shoulder Lanes
• Star-Advertiser Editorial Page Finally Calls Out the 'Elephant' in this Mayor Campaign, Says Public Needs to Know Details of Cayetano Transit plan 

Public Opinion – Three scientific opinion polls have been conducted by local respected firms QMark and OmniTrak in the past three years to probe the public’s views on rail.
2012:
• No 'Margin for Error' in Isle-Wide Elections; Rail Supporters Have Won Every Time Since 2008
• Newspaper's Rail Poll Can't Be Taken Seriously: It Was Conducted as Cayetano's Mayoral Campaign Dominated Broadcast, On-Line, Print Journalism; The Predictable Results Are Easy To Discredit
• It's Time To Blow Up the Star-Advertiser's Rail Opinion Survey because of a Flawed Question: 'Do You Think Work Should Proceed on Oahu's Rail Transit System?' Isn't the Same as Asking 'Do You Think the Rail Transit System Should be Built?' 
• March Review: The Madness Included Rail Poll that Questioned only Voters, Ignored the Rest...
• ...Still Waiting for a Believable Opinion Survey
• ...Where Does Public Really Stand on Rail?
•  Another Look at Excluding Non-Voters from Polls: There's Plenty Evidence Views Differ from Voters; a Problem-Free Survey on Rail Is Long Overdue
2011 and earlier:
• 2011 Opinion Survey Finds 57% Support Rail Project
• Every Council District Registered Majority Support
• Rail’s Ability to Address Growing Traffic Problem
• 57-to-40 Rail Split Isn’t Exactly ‘Razor-Thin’ Edge
• Rail’s Majority Grows When Economy Is the Issue
• Oahu Traffic Emerges as Public Enemy Number 1
• 2009 Poll: Behind the Numbers – Solid Support
• Poll Parsing: Big Majority Sees Economic Benefit
• Graphics Give Insightful Look at Opinions on Rail
• Story Criticizes Opinion Poll w/out Giving Results
• 2008: A Second Poll Shows Strong Support for Rail
• Support for Rail Soared in 3 Best-Practices Polls, so Remember It when the Media Roll Out Theirs

Elevated vs At-Grade – It keeps coming up, the view that at-grade rail would be a better option than Honolulu’s planned elevated system. We’ve taken pains to address the comparison numerous times.
2012:
• Questions for the Newest Mayor Candidate: Would His Preferred Trolley System Achieve REsults Needed To Address Our Road Congestion Issues? Are Views More Important than Safety?
• At-Grade Tragedy: 3 Die in Sacramento after SUV Ignores Barrier, Drives into Light-Rail Train's Path
• Phoenix At-Grade Train Hits Teen: 'It Is Unknown How or Why Pedestrian Got in the Train's Path' 
2011 and earlier:
• What Every Consumer Asks When Making a Purchase: ‘Will It Do What I Need It To Do?’
• Jogging & Keeping Pace with an At-Grade Train
• Among At-Grade’s Negatives: Vehicle Lane Loss
• Among At-Grade’s Negatives, Part 2: Accidents
• When Safety Is Crucial, Think Elevated Rail
• Train Meets Van in Another At-Grade Rail Collision
• Phoenix Citizens Want to Know ‘What’s the Problem with All These Crashes?’
• Architects Are Trying To Squeeze Through the Eye of a Needle with a Claim At-Grade Rail Is as Safe as Elevated
• At-Grade’s Drawbacks Can’t Be Airbrushed Away
• Human Factor Causes another At-Grade Crash; Bus Runs Light, Smashes into Houston Train; 12 Sent to Hospitals, Rail Service Halted for Hours
• Car-Train Crash in Long Beach Illustrates Major Drawback to 'Cheaper' At-Grade Rail Transit
• Yet To Open, Norfolk's Train Has First Car Crash
• Houston Truck-Train Wreck Prompts Question #2: 'Governor, Why Do You Favor Crash-Prone Rail?'

Generation Next – Oahu’s young adults speak up for rail.
• Next Generation Tells Council ‘We Will Ride It’
• More Pro-Rail Testimony by the Next Generation
• Another Poll Post: The Next Generation Speaks
• Poster Contest Shows Gen-Next Appreciates Rail
• Hey, Generation Next: HonoluluTraffic.com Says You’re Clueless, Belittles Your Pro-Rail Opinions

Oahu's Traffic Problem – Bad and getting worse.
• H-1 Segment Is #2 among 'Highways from Hell'
• Another Reminder that Honolulu's Traffic Is Bad, But for Many, It's Worse than Institute Study Says
• Latest Traffic Report Puts Honolulu in 'Top' Spot Ahead of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York; We Waste an Average of 58 Hours Annually, but Train Riders Will Avoid ALL Highway Congestion!
• Will Rail Improve Congestion or Not? It's Time We Get Real Clear about Project's Positive Benefits 

Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends) – Honolulu's Anti-Railer in Chief.
2012:
• Here We Go – Charging into Rail's 'Pivotal Year' (Former Governor Cayetano "considers" running for mayor)
• News Flash: Rail Opponent Is Human, Capable of Seeing What He Wants To See; Plus LTE Forum
• Does Mayoral Candidate Understand Rail's Goals? So Far, He's Only Channeling Cliff Slater, Who Deliberately Misleads Public on Rail's Purpose -- To Help Commuters Avoid Traffic, NOT END IT!  
• Anti-Railers' Main Tactic: Repetition Ad Nauseum, Plus: Law Students Get Lesson in Meaninglessness
• Anti-Rail Leader Works on His Confusion Game, Compares Reduced Town Traffic to All-Oahu Trips... 
• Land Use Commission Testimony Offers Insight on Why Traffic Congestion Simply Won't Go Away; It Also Amounts To Rebuke of Anti-Railers' Rhetoric  
• Candidate May Face Tough Questions Thursday 
• ...Rail's Opposition Shows Signs of Coming Unhinged
• Anti-Rail Leader Accuses City of Lying about Rail's Traffic Impact as He Misleads Public on Benefits, Plus: First Column Is Opponents' Worst Nightmare 
• ...Avoiding Traffic Is Only 'Small Benefit' To Slater; LTE FORUM: Letter Buys Into Slater's Mis-Information  
• Here's What We Say about Last Night's Debate:  
• Latest Anti-Rail Misinformation Piece Gets a Smack-Down Response from Someone Who Knows More about Honolulu Rail Transit than All of Its Critics Combined!
2011 and earlier: 
• 2008: Hot Seat Revisited: Dissecting Slater
• 2010: Cliff Slater’s ‘Ace Card’ Turns Out To Be a Joker
• A Closer Look at Cliff Slater’s ‘Whole Argument’
• True Confessions: Rail Opponent Concedes Transit Project Will Reduce Future Traffic Congestion
• Cliff Slater and His Magical Words about Traffic: Rail Critic continues his Obfuscation Campaign
• Sticking to His Story, No Matter How Misleading
• A Trip to Yesteryear with ‘Always-By-Car’ Slater
• Does Honolulu Want ‘Low-Height’ Underpasses?
• Critic Rolls Out Statistics
• Houston's Highway Traffic Is Nation's 4th Worst 
• Rail Critic's Latest Reads Like More of the Same 
• Lawsuit Backers Switch Tactics, Blast Honolulu Rail in Media Broadside Aimed at Influencing Public Opinion, but Absolutely Nothing Is New
• Question for Rail Critics: 'Where's the Beef?' Without Thoughtful Options to Traffic, Spare Us
• Fact Check Begins on Gang of 4's Anti-Rail Piece
• Civil Beat Fact Check: Slater Wrong on Stations; Gang of 4's Ridership Claim Is Ripe for a 'False'
• Going Beyond Fact Checks To Ask the Obvious
• Anti-Rail Pitch Men Work the Airwaves, Show Strong Appreciation of How To Mislead Public
• To Coin a Phrase, Garbage In, Garbate Out: Slater's Highly-Touted Poll Result Was Flawed, so Is Roth's Allegation the City Deceived Public 
• Final Civil Beat Fact Check is Half True/Half False; More Fiction Found in Rail Opponents' Radio Show
• Critic Says Rail Will Fail if Traffic Won't Be Cut, but His Beloved Tampa Highway Hasn't Done That
• 10 Questions: Rail Critics' TV Gig Could Be Their 'Waterloo' if Host, Public Ask the Right Questions
• Houston Truck-Train Wreck Prompts Question #2: 'Governor, Why Do You Favor Crash-Prone Rail?'
• Question #3 Is about Traffic Levels: 'Mr. Slater, HOT Lanes Don't Reduce Congestion, Do They?' 
• If Not Rail, Ex-Governor Owes Us an Explanation; Question #4 Wants To Know Why He Prefers BRT 
• Question #5: 'Mr. Slater, You Know the Truth, so Why Did You Ply Your Team with Falsehoods?' 
• Inquiring Minds Want Answer to Question #6: "Where's the Evidence Rail Rail Is 'On the Ropes?'"
• Questions Are For Discovering, so Question #7 on Holiday Delves into Decades-Long Rail Dissing
• Pro-Rail INSIGHTS Guest Deserves Question #8: 'Why Do You Support Building Elevated Transit?'
• Would Rotary Venue Bring Out Rail Critic's Best? Not a Chance -- which Leads Us to Question #9
ª Question #10 Is for Anti-Rail Guests on TV Tonight: 'If Not Elevated Transit, WHAT DO YOU WANT?!' 
• With a State-Wide Audience and a Chance To Give Their Alternative to Rail, Two Opponents Blinked 
• Does Repeating a Lie Over and Over Make It True? What Else Can Anti-Railer's Main Claim Be Called? 
• Something Else Rail Critic Wants You To Believe: More Highways Reduce Traffic, but It Isn't True
• Anti-Rail Charter Amendment Fails 1st Reading; Unmistakable Sign of City Council's Rail Support
• Prediction: Anti-Railers' Illogical Messaging on Future Congestion Issue Will Be Their Undoing
• Telling It Like It Is: Cliff Slater's Campaign To Mislead Oahu Residents on Rail is Disgraceful; His 'Big Lie' Doesn't Become 'Truth' with Repetition 
• Cliff Slater Won't Stop Using Same 'Non-Truth' in His Anti-Rail Campaign, but Is It Something Else?
• More from Misleader-in-Chief Slater: As Usual, His Latest Post Is Example of More Flash than Bang
• More on 'Honor System,' plus Flip-Flopping Rail Opponent Who Fought BRT Now Thinks It's Swell
• Anti-Rail, Anti-Bus Slater Now Touting Bus Rides; His Letter to FTA Is Classic Case of Obfuscation

Dr. Panos Prevedouros – The University's highway expert.
2012:
 • Anti-Rail Highway Advocate Makes Extraordinary On-Air Admission: Rail Transit System's Goal Is Improved Mobility, Not Reduced Congestion. He Sould Tell that to Cliff Slater and Ben Cayetano
2011 and earlier:
• Checking References: Prevedouros’s UH Bio Lists Research Background, but Where's Transit? (Yes2Rail’s 3rd post 7/2/08)
• Anti-Railers Help Make Case for Honolulu Rail
• More Prevedouros Analysis: What Can He Mean, Saying Rail Would Not Be of Any Use During Freeway Closures, Tsunamis and Floods?
• Doctor’s Rail Dissing Is Demonstrably Dubious; Transit Scores Favorable Marks in USA Survey
• Highway Expert Offers Another Anti-Rail Critique
• Helping Search Engines Find Dr. Prevedouros
• Rail Critic Keeps Popping Up All over the Place
• Who's Deceiving Whom? Rail Critic's Illogical Conclusions Undermine His Familiar Refrain

LTE Forum – Comments on Letters to the Editor.
2012:
• LTE Forum: Writer Plays the 'What If?' Card
• LTE Forum: Someone Should Tell Bette Midler the Facts about Rail: It Won't Be Built on the Beach!
• News Flash: Rail Opponent Is Human, Capable of Seeing What He Wants To See; Plus LTE Forum
• LTE Forum: Bank Responds to 'Payoff' Allegation 
• LTE Forum Refutes Gang of Four's Latest
• No 'Margin for Error' in Isle-Wide Elections; Rail Supporters Have Won Every Time since 2008
• Columnists Still Follow Mothers' Advice: 'If You Can't Say Something Nice, Don't Say Anything' -- Plus: LTE Forum Examines Our Fixable Needs 
2011 and earlier: 
• Rail Court Case Will Make News Intermittently, so We Launch a New Feature on Letters to the Editor
• LTE Forum Covers Both Sides of Rail Issue, but Focusing on Opposition Seems More Productive
• Enlarging TheBus Fleet and Making Rides Free Would Do Nothing To 'Solve' Congestion Problem
• Rail Project Eyes Cost-Cutting Alternatives that Would Reduce Station Size, Improve Frequency
• LTE Forum: Will System 'Spoil' or 'Save' Island?
• Letter Reveals a Basic Misunderstanding of Rail; It Will Be Travel Option for EVERYBODY, Not 'a Few'

Please return to this space. We’ll be adding to Yes2Rail's aggregation of topical posts.

Here We Go – Charging into Rail’s ‘Pivotal Year’

Expected? Automatic? However it got there, the first word in the morning paper’s first major page-one story on the first day of the year was rail. Read it here if you have a subscription – or only the first paragraph if you don’t – under the headline Pivotal year for rail, elections and public school.

A story right next to it at the top of page one says former Governor Ben Cayetano, one of the anti-rail Gang of Four, is “considering” a run for mayor to kill the project. Having given the reporter several quotes for the story, Mr. Cayetano is more than “considering” a run. He's in the race.

So although it wasn’t our intent to begin blogging this soon in the New Year, here we go – with this necessary observation: Yes2Rail is not a “politics” blog; we leave commentary on what’s said by politicians inside City Hall for others to pursue. But when someone outside those walls announces his or her intent to gain the most powerful position in City government for the purpose of killing the Honolulu rail project, different rules apply.

Under the Microscope

Former Governor staked out his anti-rail position several times in 2011. He officially joined the so-called Gang of Four in May when he became a plaintiff in the lawsuit to kill the project. The other three “gang” members are anti-railer-in-chief Cliff Slater, former judge Walter Heen and UH law school professor Randall Roth.

In June, Mr. Cayetano participated in a panel discussion at the Plaza Club at which he expressed a preference for at-grade transit. Close followers of transportation issues on Oahu know by now why at-grade transit would not come close to addressing the island’s major transportation problem – highway congestion.

We won’t belabor on Day One of the year why at-grade transit is inferior to elevated rail, but what’s worth noting is that Mr.Cayetano isn’t creating quotes for close followers of transportation issues. As a mayoral candidate, he’s speaking to everybody else – the majority of residents/voters who don’t follow these issues closely and therefore may not see the gaping holes in his arguments.

Buses? Really?

From today’s Cayetano-focused story:

“(Cayetano) said he favors an enhanced bus system with dedicated lanes to speed bus traffic because buses in a dedicated lane ‘will beat the train all the time.’”

This and other of Mr. Cayetano’s expressions of support for bus travel presumably are not his own thoughts but those of Cliff Slater, the brains of the anti-rail campaign. Mr. Slater’s record of opposing all forms of mass transit (including his assessment of Mayor Harris’s bus rapid transit project) is well documented by now, but he’ll support other modes of public transit if he thinks it will help fight rail.

Mr. Slater is the chief architect of the buses-are-better theme, including in September when he was a guest on public radio’s “Town Square” program:

“…if you look at it, for example, coming in from the Kapolei transit center, trains will not be quicker than the country C bus than it is right now. You can come in on the country C bus any time from 40 to 50 minutes, depending on the time of day. The train is going to take 51 minutes, so it’s not going to make anybody’s commute any faster.”

Later in the same radio show, “John of Makakilo” had this response:

“I think the public needs to understand that the people who are against rail don’t live out on the west side. They don’t sit in traffic. They’re not the ones commuting day to day. They don’t view this as an investment in our future. They probably don’t remember Black Tuesday when people got stuck for hours when they shut down H-1. Every time there’s an accident on H-1 is when it take you up to an hour and a half or two hours. And when Cliff was talking about the buses taking 51 minutes from Ala Moana to Kapolei, that’s if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, it takes you an hour and a half. I know, I’ve done it. I do it on a regular basis. So everything they keep on saying the buses, the buses…you add more buses to the congestion, you just get to sit in more traffic. (paraphrased) Congestion is gonna get worse before it gets better, we all understand that. Opponents don’t take into account $5/gallon gas.”

We can almost hear the tappety-tapping of computers in Makakilo, Kapolei and Ewa Beach as residents type their letters to the editor to refute Mr. Cayetano’s pro-bus comments.

Jobs?

Also from today’s Cayetano-as-candidate story:

“Jobs? Tell that to the 1,000 workers who lost their jobs when two hospitals went bankrupt. If we want to create jobs, (let’s) build new schools, renovate old ones, build public housing, (which will create) jobs we know will go to local constructions workers.”

Those projects presumably have some merit, especially if they  result in more housing and improved health care for our citizens, but building public housing and hospitals would do absolutely nothing to help commuters improve their travel through the urban core by avoiding highway congestion.

In highlighting jobs, Mr. Cayetano appears intent on convincing the casual transportation follower that Honolulu rail is a “jobs project.” It’s not. Read the goals; they're the same at the start of this year as last. Jobs will be created in building rail, of course, and that will be an important benefit for our economy, but job creation is not a project goal.

Restoring transportation mobility is a goal. Improving travel reliability through the urban core is a goal. Providing a development rationale for Oahu throughout the 21st century is a goal. Assuring travel equity for people of all ages and financial means is a goal. Creating jobs isn’t.

If Mr.Cayetano is focused on job creation, there are many ways he could make a contribution to the community, but killing Honolulu rail – which will truly create thousands upon thousands of jobs – would be his worst possible option.

This post has been added to our "aggregation" site under two headings -- Project Goals and Mr. Cliff Slater (and Friends).