I seem to recall some Portland planner types going to Honolulu to spread the Portland smart growth religion.

Portland also published the Streetcar sales brochure called "Development Oriented Transit"

Metro(?) partly funds railvolution.

Has the Goldie crowd turned Portland into a showroom for selling their crappy hardware worldwide?

Thanks
JK

How scary is it when the phony budget number starts out huge?
$5.125 billion? At least they knew enough to pretend to make it precise.

You know damn well they could have said "5 billion" but that .125 is there to give the illusion they know exactly what they're doing. We've seen that movie, haven't we?

Maybe it'll be useful for tsunami evacuations.

Nice to see bow tie is over spreading his blue manure in the Island state.

Marge vs. the Monrail again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEZjzsnPhnw

We need something to distract the simpletons from potholes, overflowing sewers, bad schools and almost daily gang shootings.

I've been following the fight in Honolulu for quite a while.

Virtually the identical fight we are having.

The pro light rail people are all the ones that control the process, like here.

HERE is the longer version of "marge vs the mono rail" which includes the broken promises of the Church of light rail...

What a great episode...

It's pretty crazy to think about how screwed up everything is in their city as far as funding goes when you consider that they have a lodging tax of 9.5%, in addition to all the sales taxes they pull in from the tourists. The "brown water" alert for sewage overflows onto Waikiki certainly sounds more pressing than a 5.5 billion eyesore train to nowhere, and, wait for it...the residents of Hawaii will be on the hook for a whopping 70% of the cost! Of course the construction Mafia in Honolulu is legendary, and there will be lots of greased palms between the crooked union bosses, politicians and contractors while the everyday resident gets to foot the bill.

Re: the longer mono rail episode INCLUDES the fact that the streets were ignored so they could put in the MONO RAIL!

JUST LIKE PORTLAND!

How funny is that?

Well, they do need something. Traffic on Oahu is infernal.

Well, they do need something. Traffic on Oahu is infernal.

Bikes, Allan, bikes...

Has the Goldie crowd turned Portland into a showroom for selling their crappy hardware worldwide?

It sure does look like it.
Not only the light rail but to sell all other aspects of their agenda as well...
has that been the plan to turn our city into a showroom for others to sell?
Only the "showy" parts of course, not the ghetto housing, horrendous planning,
congestion....or garbage and rats in our parks and on the streets come this summer.

From link above:
The Rickety Rail Project

Yet the city of Honolulu would tax its residents even more to pay for a 20 mile rail line to empty farmland well beyond the urban fringe. This is a project not unlike the early 1900s land speculation schemes of Henry Huntington in Los Angeles and the Sweringens of Shaker Heights (Cleveland). There is, however, one important difference. The Huntington and the Swearingens bet their own money. Honolulu is betting the money of its taxpayers.

The city hopes to receive $1.55 billion from the federal government, with local residents left to pay a hefty 70 percent of the cost. This $3.575 billion local share would create the highest tax burden for any urban rail line ever built in the nation, at more than $10,000 per household. But residents should "thank their lucky stars" if that's all they have to pay, given the history of cost overruns on such projects around the world.

Meanwhile, back on the subject, it appears that the Clackistani Rebellion is moving west. Tigard's mayor loves loot rail (he has to, as he's hoping to garner a spot on the Metro Council), but some in Washington County are moving toward a Clackistan process to derail the plan. Rumor has it that Metro has already spent some $10 million on "planning", so they're going to try to ram it through.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=133158931062867200

Traffic on Oahu isn't any worse than Portland

It's hard to understand how or why deliberate plans to munipical bankruptcy should be spreading like some highly-contagious disease.

Is it possible that bankruptcy is actually the ultimate goal?

Tigard Mayor Dirksen, it isn't a "rumor: of opposition to lightrail on Barbur/99. It's true, and for many people they just want a chance to weigh in with a vote. Maybe it will fly.

But the Planning cabal keeps planning with rigged charettes, small focus groups, select neighborhood meetings, and typical/select bureaucrats-pols who have an hidden "Metro Agenda". So a few select people cram the railvolution onto citizens.

Then, to top it off, they claim that they looked at 3 or 4 "Alternates", "open minded", and "outreaching". Just like they did for MLR, LO Streetcar, Central Eastside Streetcar and the list goes on.

Having voting on major transit and urban renewal issues that burden ourselves and the next generations is only common sense. Having rigged "surveys" by METRO or CoP determining our future without reality checks is not good planning.

Mr. Grumpy,
It sure seems like it.
What else are we to think?
No reasonable prudent person would deliberately
debt swamp a community.
For those who are aware it is a situation to weep over, however, there are many others who are just enjoying the fun, lattes and being entertained.
Wait til they find out!

lw,
Sounds like you as disgusted with the planning cabal and
their mode of operation as many of us are.

Problem I have found is that citizens who are not aware of this almost find it unbelievable, as if we are the ones making something up or exaggerating.

As I have mentioned before, one has to go through what I have termed
their "tunnel of deception" to really understand what is going on around here.

The public could use a little “tunnel of love” from their city council.

“Tunnel of Love?”

“Tunnel of Deception?”

Pick your poison!

I have it! We should all move to Hawaii. After all if all of the population lives there...we're stuck on an island and it'll have to be dense urbania developments from beachside to beachside! Then we can preserve what is now the continental 48 United States into being a massive nature preserve.

Take a look at the future for those politicians that support boondoggle spending:
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Last weekend, Norfolk’s Tide light rail line opened to big crowds and lots of excitement in a state that has never before seen modern light rail technology in action. But the project was overbudget and the subject of years of controversy. What was once supposed to be a $232 million line had ballooned in cost to $318.5 million and in the process taken down political leaders (all voted out now) who had supported it. Perceived mismanagement delayed consideration of extensions into nearby Virginia Beach. And the scheme’s implementation flaws emboldened conservative activists insistant on playing up the poor performance of government.
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How significant an opportunity for reducing U.S. construction costs? « The Transport Politic