West Oahu Ewa Plain Headed For Disaster: Destroyed Farmland, Depleted Fresh Water, Horrendous Traffic
by John Bond Kanehili Cultural Hui
The public thought they were voting for a transit system to ease traffic congestion but instead they are getting huge massive Transit Oriented Development and tens of thousands of new buildings paved with concrete and asphalt. There will be a massive increase in cars and trucks on all the roads yet the City, HART and developers want people to believe nearly everyone will be walking and talking bicycles everywhere.
Just hop on the crowded cattle car train which stops at every single station and do all your shopping and every daily errand you can think of. There will be NO BUSSES running straight into downtown Honolulu. People MUST go from shopping center to shopping center twice a day, every day. It will be paradise...(for those who make the big profits from this land and shopping center scheme.)
The Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) aspect make these trails National Register eligible.
The only mitigation has been HART "tombstones" which say "here lies a one thousand year old highly developed native Konohiki culture" that HART and their land developers have destroyed in the second coming of the Honouliuli Apocalypse (the first was the massive and nearly total annihilation of the native Honouliuli population in the early 1800's.)
Decorated HART Rail pylons are NOT "mitigation" for putting in three rail stations on 1000 year old agricultural lands and then spawning Transit Oriented Development projects covering over EVERYTHING with massive amounts of asphalt and concrete and creating major
water pollution from imperious surfaces.
The public thought they were voting for a transit system to ease traffic congestion but instead they are getting huge massive Transit Oriented Development and tens of thousands of new buildings paved with concrete and asphalt. There will be a massive increase in cars and trucks on all the roads yet the City, HART and developers want people to believe nearly everyone will be walking and talking bicycles everywhere.
Just hop on the crowded cattle car train which stops at every single station and do all your shopping and every daily errand you can think of. There will be NO BUSSES running straight into downtown Honolulu. People MUST go from shopping center to shopping center twice a day, every day. It will be paradise...(for those who make the big profits from this land and shopping center scheme.)
Will there ever come a time when absolute greed and profit
Soaring water and sewer bills for resident
The loss of top grade LOCAL agricultural lands is really a massive cultural impact that can NEVER be replaced.
The massive historic and cultural damage inflicted upon the Ewa Plain by FTA-HART Rail requires much more mitigation than just decorated concrete tomb stones and local valuable 1000 year old agricultural lands being substituted at some distant location on Oahu.
Elected officials and government appointees working for the big developers are now promising "replacement ag lands" that are really second rate lands, not the "Golden Triangle" konohiki Honouliuli ahupua'a farm lands which are the Traditional Cultural Properties in the Moku of Ewa. Next we will hear that downtown bike lanes are an adequate "replacement" for ancient TCP trails on the Ewa Plain. These "replacements" and "tomb stone" rail pylons are all decisions made to benefit big money land developers who don't care at all about the culture and history of the Ewa Plain. The "replacement" is really a culture of political corruption and very short sighted and unsustainable THIRD HONOULIULI APOCALYPSE.
Federal Judge Tashima stated that he did NOT understand or know much about Federal Section 4f law but that not all Traditional Cultural Property - Places (TCP) had been identified.
Kanehili Cultural Hui had been bringing this all up to FTA and HART for several years in meetings and with voluminous comments and written testimony with maps, diagrams and well researched cultural histories which even FTA-HART had commissioned, and then completely IGNORED!
FTA improperly determined due to intense political pressure several elements of the HART Rail project as basically categorical exclusions, such as the very well identified and documented Honouliuli TCP's of ancient Hawaiian trails and agricultural farmlands as well as the impact on Honouliuli Village where the elevated HART rail will be clearly seen and heard.
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Ewa Plantation Prime Ag Land Still Retains Centuries Old Traditional Agricultural Features
West Oahu Residents Speak Out At Important Ag Lands And Hoopili Station Meetings
FTA and HART Rail Misrepresent The True Ewa Honouliuli Native Hawaiian Spirit Pathway
Honouliuli Ewa TCP's Are Important Wahi Pana (Sacred Places) On Multi-Dimensional Levels
Honouliuli Ewa's Makakilo Kalo'i Gulch - A Rare In Depth Survey Of This Important Cultural Property
Tomb Stone For A 1000 Year Old Native Hawaiian Traditional Cultural Place
