The 2012 Honolulu mayor’s race and its tactics will be debated for years, but the unmistakable bottom line is that the $5.26 billion Oahu rail project has a clear green light.
Political muscle is aligned behind rail for at least the next four years from the White House to the congressional delegation to the mayor to the City Council.
Recent legal setbacks in state and federal court aren’t long-term deal breakers.
Rail opponents will — and should — continue pursuing legal avenues to assure the train is built to the letter of the law.
But obstruction for obstruction’s sake in the hope of achieving "a death by a thousand cuts" is unproductive in the new political reality and will only run up costs to taxpayers.
Focus should shift to holding Mayor-elect Kirk Caldwell to his promise to "build rail better."
And building rail better means more than just superficial changes to reduce the train’s visual impact. If Caldwell is serious, it means:
» Changing the poisonous tone set by his predecessors Mufi Hannemann and Peter Carlisle in which those who raised contrary voices on rail were bashed by the administration and its army of PR consultants.
» Keeping his campaign promise that rail will be fully paid off by the end of construction from the city’s half-cent excise tax and federal funds, with no "mortgage" left for taxpayers. This means not tapping the $450 million line of credit Carlisle pushed through or extending the excise tax.
» Fighting to get back the 10 percent of the rail excise tax the state is siphoning off for no good reason; this could provide the city a nearly $400 million hedge against inevitable cost overruns.
» Honestly addressing rail operating costs, which are projected to double the share of the city budget taken by public transportation, with an open community discussion of how we’ll pay for it and of the impact on other city services.
» Correcting the imbalance on the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board, which Carlisle and the City Council filled with banking, development and labor interests that expect to feed off rail, with no representation from the commuting public.
» Ending the incestuous arrangement in which city Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka is an ex-employee of the main rail consultant, Parsons Brinckerhoff, where his wife still works. The transportation director should be seen as overseeing contractors for the city, not overseeing the city for contractors.
After winning a rail referendum vote in a 2008, pro-rail forces seemed to have the train in the bag but came within a hair’s breadth of blowing it with their greedy and high-handed execution of the project.
It’s now on the new mayor to heal the wounds, restore confidence and see that history doesn’t repeat.
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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
