You cannot solve Oahu’s traffic problem with an over-budget rail system alone. Sprawl occurs when workers cannot afford to live near their jobs. Heavy traffic incentivizes workers to move closer, but housing prices and availability forces them to move farther away. The consequence of ever-higher dwelling rents contributes to the homeless population. It’s an entanglement of urban woes.

The public-private partnership our representatives should be exploring is not for rail, but for housing, the root of the problem. Take the budget for rail and apply it to urban development projects that create affordable apartments, where government pays a higher portion of development costs to spur vertical projects on the limited Honolulu seacoast. In return, cap rental prices and lock in sales prices and condo fees, using supplemental government funds.

When workers have secure housing at prices in line with earnings in the urban core, traffic will improve and homelessness will decline.

Jean E. Rosenfeld

Downtown Honolulu

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