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Ongoing Deception by Rail Proponents

Submitted by Guest on Tue, 09/20/2011 - 15:43
Kioni Dudley

by Dr. Kioni Dudley

Is there any end to deception by rail proponents? Last week in the paper, in an article filled with misleading and downright untrue statements, the three authors even misrepresented who they were. Alicia Maluafiti, former leader of Go Rail Go, listed herself as “president of Lo’ihi Communications,” Reginald Castanaras, Business Manager of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 675, listed himself as a “director of the ‘Ewa Villages Community Board,” and Tesha Malama, Planning and Development Director of Kalaeloa and former member of the Mayor’s Transit Solutions Committee, listed herself as “a member of the Landfill Selections Committee.”

The title of the article was, “A main reason for rail is to help focus growth on the Ewa Plain.” That statement, at least, is true. Though most of us are unaware of it, Rail is being built mainly to encourage growth on the ‘Ewa Plain. That’s why it starts in the middle of open farm fields. Developers and landowners will reap hundreds of millions by creating “growth” around its stations. This train will benefit developers, not us.

The article states, “Rail transit will give us respite from gridlock.” Not a chance. The Rail is not being built to solve our traffic problems. Thirty thousand Leeward residents are expected to ride the train. But there are only 1,900 park & ride stalls planned for all of Leeward. How will we park and ride? We won’t. The train is not for us. We need to get it straight: this Rail will primarily serve new people who will live in dwellings yet to be built by profiteers who own the land around the stations. It has little interest in, or connection with, our traffic problems. The Ho’opili Environmental Impact Statement itself confirms that: After they have built their 12,000 houses, even with Rail, freeway traffic will be worse than today. The freeway will be at standstill, Level of Service F. The Inrix survey says we already have the worst afternoon traffic in the U.S. What record are we striving for?

The article states, “Without rail, all agricultural land will be in jeopardy.” Just the opposite. Rail is the principal threat to continued agriculture in Leeward. Transit Oriented Developments (TODs -- rings of dense high-rise buildings around rail stations) will raise developers profits exponentially. Two TODs are planned on the Ho’opili farmland alone. They are the greatly sought jewels. Worth a mighty battle. If the city and D.R. Horton win, we will lose the highest producing farmland in the state, land that produces a great part of our local, fresh vegetables. Loss of these lands could affect future survival on this island.

Putting Rail across the Ho’opili farmlands has been steeped in corruption from the very beginning. The most fundamental document for the Rail project was the Farmland Conversion Impact Rating, which should have forced a study of alternative routes in order to avoid touching the farms. This rating, which should have been filled out by the federal Department of Transportation, was instead completed—and grossly falsified—by an employee of Parsons Brinkerhoff, under city oversight. The required study of alternative routes thus was never done. Instead, the city paid millions to Parsons Brinkerhoff to plan the route and put the stations with their Transit Oriented Developments on the farmland.

The article states, “Without the rail, there is no reason to focus economic development on the second city of Kapolei.” Will someone make the writers aware that the Rail doesn’t go to the planned “business section” of Kapolei? It stops in the fields almost three miles short of it. Rail will do nothing to develop the second city. It will carry no workers; it will bring no clients. People on the West side know that developing the business district of Kapolei is the real solution to our traffic problems. Placing thousands of good jobs in the second city will take thousands of people off the freeway. Why is the city not promoting that? Do they have any interest in solving our problems?

I support Rail, but this Rail is all wrong. Get it out of the sky, and out of the farms. Route it through ‘Ewa on the wide-open old OR&L rail path. We need a Rail our local workers can build, a Rail that solves our traffic problems, a Rail we can afford.

Dr. Kioni Dudley, a community activist, is a retired educator. As president of the Friends of Makakilo, he is an Intevenor before the Land Use Commission, opposing the Ho’opili development. He is also the leader of Save O’ahu Farmlands Alliance. Read more at www.stophoopili.com. Contact him at 672-8888.

Link:

Is Rail Chair Don Horner Shamelessly Dishonest? [Hawaii Reporter] by Panos Prevedouros