Riding the Rail that I Opposed

 Earlier this year, they finally opened part of Oahu's rail system. After decades of delays.

While it's officially called SkyLine, everyone here just calls it TheRail! 

On Thanksgiving morning, I finally got the chance to ride TheRail. 

I felt like a tourist. Even though I lived on this island my entire life!

While I initially opposed the building of TheRail, I ended up riding it. Yeah, I know, it sounds hypocritical.  I know I'm not the only one. 

Here's a blog post from 2004 opposing the building of TheRail 

(https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2004/03/my-1st-hawaii-reporter-editorial-you.html)

Part of why I opposed the building of the rail was the use of eminent domain to confiscate property to make way for the rail.

I posed a question about it to the local papers back in 2006

Who will be forced to move for rail?

With all the talk about light rail, there is one question that needs to be answered: Who's going to be forced out of the way to make room for light rail infrastructure?

Pablo Wegesend
Honolulu

 

I also addressed such concerns in 2008

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2008/06/light-rail-and-property-confiscation.html

Property issue should have been addressed


Last Sunday's article on the possibility of people's property being confiscated to make room for the rail project addressed an issue that should have been addressed long before the City Council voted to approve rail.

I have previously written letters, as have others, warning about the possibility of people being forced off their land to make room for the light rail. I also wrote letters to the mayor and my City Council representative on this issue.

However, we have been ignored by nearly everyone.

I'm not against the idea of a rail system. I am against the idea of people's property being confiscated to make way for light rail (or any other project), and it's a shame very few have addressed this issue.

Pablo Wegesend

Honolulu

Guess what?

The issue came up again earlier this year and the city & county government is expanding the rail system into Kalihi, and now the government is threatening to confiscate land without consent to make way for the rail

from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser 11/17/2023 article (at https://archive.is/LcF8p )

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board of directors Thursday approved filing an eminent domain against one family’s industrially zoned property in Kalihi.

The rail agency’s planned condemnation of property at 1829 Dillingham Blvd. also will force a nearly 60-year-old business to relocate.

and

In that year, HART said it presented an acquisition offer to the property’s named owner — Jennine Hatsue Takara — for the parcel’s full acquisition.

That offer, however, was rejected.

Over the years, the agency said it attempted several times to negotiate terms with the owner toward the property’s acquisition but to no avail.

By May, HART sent a notice to the City Council regarding its intentions to formally condemn the Takara family’s Dillingham Boulevard property, despite its owners’ objections.

In other words "take my offer or else" 

It's the Suge Knight way of doing business. No it's worse than that, because the government has more enforcers with more weapons than Suge Knight! 

My Friend Stuart Hayashi wrote a letter to the newspaper earlier this month 

HART’s Eminent Domain Is Brutal Use of Authority

The front-page story, “HART Board Approves Eminent Domain Filing for Kalihi Property” (Star-Advertiser, Nov. 17), shows HART has no heart.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) invoked eminent domain to dispossess the Takara family of land on which their family business has stood for 59 years. Rationalizations for eminent domain always mention payment to the victims. That downplays the real issue: freedom and consent versus coercion. Eminent domain is ultimately backed by armed force. Enforcing it in Los Angeles in 1959 had armed officers literally drag a widow, Aurora Arechiga, from her home.

People assume cities need eminent domain. In January, I emailed development officials of Carson City, Nev., about this. They informed me that although the city can enact it, at the time they knew of no instance of Carson City actually exercising eminent domain in its history.

During these holidays, ponder whether slogans about “the greater good” are justification enough, and if passively condoning eminent domain’s brutality is what we truly want.

Stuart K. Hayashi

Stuart Hayashi expands on this more in his blog post "Eminent Domain is Inhumane" at                                                             

https://stu-topia.blogspot.com/2023/11/eminent-domain-is-inhumane.html