There is a saying that "politics make for strange bedfellows".
An example -- back in the late 1990's, when I was in high school, I used to blame then-governor Ben Cayetano for nearly everything going wrong in Hawaii.
When the rest of the USA was in the middle of it's greatest economic boom, Hawaii was lagging behind. Many young adults were moving to "greener pastures" even in desert states like Nevada. Business were struggling with excessive regulations and bureaucratic red-tape from permitting agencies. It got to the point where Forbes magazine taunted Hawaii as a socialist "people's republic".
And the teacher's strike in 1997 (which was planned for MONTHS) was only stopped because AT THE LAST MINUTE, governor Cayetano finally got involved.
So I wasn't much of a Cayetano fan back in the day!
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However, times have changed, the issues have changed!
And the big issue is the rail project.
Yeah, it sounds nice to have rail!
But to make room for rail, people's property WILL BE confiscated to make room! Imagine if that was your property getting confiscated
(I wrote on that issue back in 2008 : http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2008/06/light-rail-and-property-confiscation.html)
Not only that, rail is a waste of money we hardly even have!
While the city is struggling to pay to update our sewage systems, water pipes, roads and to keep the buses running .................................................somehow we got money for rail?
Makaha beach bathroom has faucets that DON'T WORK.................but we have money for rail?
Bus services have been drastically reduced for Windward Oahu and the North Shore. And more cuts, this time affecting urban Honolulu, will be coming next month ............................... but we have money for rail?
OH HELL TO THE NO!
And of the 3 major candidates for the mayor of Honolulu, we got Peter Carlisle, Kirk Caldwell and Ben Cayetano.
Only Ben Cayetano wants to stop the excessively expensive, and unneccessary rail project!
So yeah, I'm a Ben Cayetano supporter now!
Funny how times change things!
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And will rail really reduce traffic from West Oahu!
Well, if you're from West Oahu, will you really ride rail or do you just hope everyone else except you rides the rail ?
The reality is that the proposed rail stations are inaccessible to many West Oahu residents.
Rail does well in High-Density areas (ie. Manhattan, Tokyo, Paris, etc) where many people can just walk to the rail stations. There's NOTHING High-Density about West Oahu neighborhoods, and the rail stations will NOT be walking distance for many West Oahu residents.
This video (titled "Who Would Ride the Train?") explains more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7J7YZUTqNA&feature=share
End the rail project. Get more buses on the streets! And vote for Ben Cayetano!
This just might be our last chance to end the unneccessary, expensive rail project!
