Dash of Calabash

We don’t normally think of Hawaii and Puerto Rico as all that similar. Sure, both are islands, both have restless anti-US segments of the population, and both incorporate a lot of pork in the regional cuisine. And then there’s there’s the whole mass transit thing. Hawaii may get a rail system, Puerto Rico already has one. As Randal O’Toole explained in a recent ‘Grassroot Perspective,’ the experiences of our Spanish-speaking cousins should make us think twice before embracing a similar system here:

The Honolulu City Council is determined to spend billions of dollars on a ridiculous rail-transit line in Oahu. State Rep. Marilyn Lee happened to visit Puerto Rico and came back gushing about that island’s new Tren Urbano in Honolulu’s leading paper.

“There are many similarities between Hawaii and Puerto Rico,” says Rep. Lee. “We must proceed with our scheduled plan to build transit — our sister island state has shown it can succeed.”

There are so many fallacies in Rep. Lee’s column that it is hard to know where to begin. Needless to say, Puerto Rico is not a state. Further, Honolulu rail proponents have a nasty habitat of calling rail transit “transit,” implying that Honolulu doesn’t have mass transit because it doesn’t have rail transit.

In fact, there are lessons that Hawaii can learn from Puerto Rico, just not the ones that the apparently innumerate Rep. Lee learned. As Honolulu rail skeptic Cliff Slater has noted, far from showing that rail transit can succeed, the Tren Urbano is just one more rail disaster…. (click to read more)

For the month of September 2007, Letters to the Editor for the Honolulu Advertiser are running 20 - 10 and the Honolulu Star Bulletin are running 18 - 13 in favor of the Superferry or against the protestors. I am not counting letters which appeared to be against the government or were unclear.  I will update this post periodically.

wendy@grassrootinstitute.org

Received in an e-mail from Dale Evans (GRIH Board of Directors)

One of the problems we have is convincing the powers that be that they have the wrong costs for the HOT lanes aka Managed Lanes. The Hawaii DOT tells that, for example, that the latest estimate of costs for the Nimitz Flyover, 2.2 miles from the Nimitz Exchange to Pier 16 just two lanes wide, is $540 million.

Please see this powerpoint presentation, which shows the recently opened Millau Bridge in France. This bridge, the tallest in the world, costs less to build than what is estimated for the Nimitz Flyover. French construction labor costs are the same as ours.

Millau Viaduct - Worlds tallest bridge - FunOnTheNet

If you would like to see any particular subjects posted, email wendy@grassrootinstitute.org

Dale Evans (GRIH Board Member) makes her point very clear in this article on the rail project. Is this what most people actually believe?

The story of Robin Hood, in reverse, is what Honolulu’s rail project is all about — taking money from poor and common folks, and giving to the rich. Wealthy buyers of high-end real estate projects planned for Kapolei and other transit-oriented developments (TODs), stand to benefit from tax credits, exemptions, abatements and direct subsidies because of the proposed multi-billion-dollar rail project.

Read the rest on hawaiireporter.com: Hawaii Reporter: Robin Hood in Reverse

If you have topics you would like to see in our blog, email wendy@grassrootinstitute.org.