June 2009

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September 2009

Vote Count Selling the Rail Proposal (Charles Carole) Milestone in Preserving Agriculture in Hawaii (Pearl Johnson) Corrections (Pearl Johnson) Slower Oahu Population Growth (Charles Carole) Rail and Ann Kobayashi's Election (Pearl Johnson) League News Welcome New Members Calendar of Events

Selling the Rail Proposal The Honolulu Transit Symposium in June featured experts from Seattle, Vancouver, Denver, Phoenix, London (England), Charlotte (NC) and Washington, DC. All the speakers expounded on the benefits and virtues of the rail system. In the afternoon, a city consultant moderated a so-called in-depth panel session featuring the symposium speakers. The audience had to submit written questions and the moderator selected the questions to be asked.  No response to the speakers’ answers was permitted.   This whole conference was very tightly controlled to sell rail. Then at the end of July, a risk analysis supplement prepared for the Federal Transit Administration was released. An engineering consulting firm prepared the supplement, called the Jacobs Report. Our newspapers reported that the firm raised the total estimated project costs by 2.3 percent to an inflated-adjusted $5.29 billion. What our newspapers didn't report was that the firm also said that the project has a 90% chance of being built for $4.8 up to $8.1 billion. With a 10 year construction period and inflation, Honolulu has an excellent opportunity to move up in the rankings of the world's costliest cities to live in, from the 41st of 143 metropolitan areas (Honolulu Advertiser 7/8/09). Charles Carole

June 2009

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September 2009