In an 8 to 1 vote, the Honolulu City Council has given their approval to have the city’s administration sign an agreement with the Federal Transit Authority to accept $1.55 billion in federal funding for the Honolulu Rail Project. Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle stated, ”Before the end of the month I will be going once again to D.C. and it will be ultimately with the effort to try and make sure that I can sign that little thing that will get us $1.55 billion, which is going to be circulating through the economy and do all sorts of wonders for the future that we have. It’s always been our hope to have a lean, clean, smart city in the future that has opportunities for people to stay living here in Honolulu and opportunities for us to grow as a city. This is going to be the vehicle that will allow us to do that.”
Tom Berg was the only city councilman who voted against accepting the federal funding. Once a supporter of rail, Berg now disagrees with the steel-wheel on steel-rail project and believes that there are newer, cheaper, and more efficient alternatives to reduce Honolulu’s traffic problems. Berg stated, ”Everything about this is not fiscally sound. This is a nice to have project and if it were monorail, if it were Maglev (magnetic levitation), it’d be a third of the price. We could go to UH, Waikiki, it would be a better bang for your buck. But this steel-wheel, steel-rail, archaic behemoth, is not the solution.”
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 12-6-2012, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
