1) On the proposed light rail on Oahu, here's some comments from Don Rochon
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/24/op/op10pletters.html
Rep. Marilyn Lee, ......., recently opined in your newspaper about the need to raise the general excise tax to fund a new rail system. She said "driving a car is expensive" (as if people who drive cars don't already know this). Then she provided statistics from the American Automobile Association that a motorist would save over $2,000 a year by driving 10,000 fewer miles.
This is where the logic breaks down. Her assumption begs the point that just because you build a mass-transit rail line, motorists will give up their cars as their primary transportation vehicle. It's not about the $2,000. It's about the convenience of leaving home when you want to, taking children to school (and picking them up afterward), of going to the bank or running other necessary errands at lunchtime or after work, or even stopping by on the way home to pick up something for dinner from the market.
Rail transit will not decrease the number of motorists on the highway. This is nonsense! Moreover, motorists will not drive to a place just so they can get out of their cars to catch a rail line, then worry about their cars being broken into all day long.
Unfortunately, light rail proponents dont care about the facts! Most people who support building a light rail aren't even going to ride it. They want a light rail in hopes that it will get others (not themselves) off the road. With thousands of people with that mentality, traffic jams will still exist on the H-1 freeway.
Plus, chances are, something would have to be forced out of the way to make room for a light rail station. It might mean (though I cant say for sure yet) my apartment near UH might have to move. Or it could be your home that would have to move!
However, every light rail proponent that appeared as a guest in my Urban Planning class last semester were evasive when I asked them about what would have to move out of the way in order to move room for the light rail!
They thought their evasiveness would mean more support for the light rail. WRONG! It made me LESS supportive of light rail. That I didn't start a screaming match with those loosers just goes to show how much restraint I have. (Plus my respect to the rest of class by me refusing to waste their time with listening to screaming matches with evasive light-rail supporting guest)
2) On Mufi's proposal to force all high-rises to install sprinklers, Stephany L. Sofos has this to say
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/24/op/op10pletters.html
Alternative ideas must be looked at before the Legislature makes laws. Many people purchased condominiums because they could not afford single-family homes. Many live within very tight budgets. An average retrofit will cost the individual apartment owner anywhere from $5 to $15 per square foot for his unit. An average unit today is approximately 850 square feet, so the cost is anywhere from $4,250 to $12,750. This is not counting the individual condominium association's direct costs for the common areas. The burden of money will again come to the individual owner in the form of assessments, which will run in the thousands.
This means people would be forced out of their apartments, and have to find somewhere else to live. That might mean more people finding living space in West Oahu, while still having to work in Honolulu. That means higher risk of car accidents! So much for "if it saves one life" nonsense (By the I mentioned that in my letter to Mayor Mufi Hannneman and my City Council representative Ann Kobayashi)
I live in a low rise apartment without fire sprinklers. So I might end up getting screwed by this.
