Pushback against rail gains momentum with new allies

If government does something big, moves mountains, changes the landscape, there is always a debate: Build it now, study it and then build it, or talk about it and don’t build it.

Now it is Honolulu’s turn. The project is the rapid transit line from Kapolei to Ala Moana.

Robert Moses, one of the nation’s most polarizing builders, rebuilt much of New York, saying, "If the end doesn’t justify the means, what does?"

His advice to those wanting that big-ticket project but leery of the pushback was: "Once you sink that first stake, they’ll never make you pull it up."

Today the city is straining to get that first stake hammered down, while the opponents see that now is the best chance they have of stopping the train.

That is why the federal court case starting next week is so critical. On Wednesday, former Gov. Ben Cayetano, University of Hawaii law professor Randy Roth, former state appeals court judge and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Walter Heen, and businessman and transit critic Cliff Slater will get their day in court.

The quartet of distinguished and disgruntled Honolulu citizens are suing in federal court, claiming the city is rushing ahead with construction without first doing the required investigations into alternatives.

Cayetano previously told the Star-Advertiser that the city was thinking of the $5.2 billion project as a "done deal."

Already Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle says: "There is too much momentum now for it to be stopped."

This is where the anti-transit four say: "Tell it to the judge."

Asked for the latest progress report this week, Cayetano said his legal team is fighting a city motion to dismiss the case.

"We consider the city’s motion frivolous," he said.

At the same time, more groups concerned with how we go about living on Oahu are standing up to fight the rail project. The Historic Hawaii Foundation has not taken a position on the transit system as a whole, but Kiersten Faulkner, its executive director, in a 2009 assesment said the rail line "will fundamentally change the cultural landscape of Oahu and could forever diminish the civic experience in Honolulu’s historic areas."

The foundation found at least 33 historic properties that would suffer adverse effects from construction of the train line.

"It will have a major visual impact on the entire (20-mile transit) corridor," the foundation said on its Web page.

Yes, floating that hulking concrete monolith down Nimitz Highway and ramming it through downtown’s harbor district and forever slicing up Kakaako could lead to a whole lot of diminished civic experience.

Now comes Honolulu’s venerable Outdoor Circle with a much more dramatic reaction.

"The project is destined to become an ugly scar across one of the most beautiful places on Earth while there is little evidence that it will bring relief to Oahu’s unacceptable traffic situation," The Outdoor Circle said in a position paper this month.

The group calls for the city to "put the brakes on" until the city can offer a real and serious solution that brings "true relief to Honolulu’s traffic madness without pillaging the beauty of the place we call home."

The four gentlemen suing the city and the two long-time community organizations raising concerns are all serious. The point they make is the planning was a rush job, the financing was a rush job and the result looks like a rush job.

Now the city should come to the table and talk about options to save Honolulu, not scar and disfigure it.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.