It seems to me, the rail route went through areas where city, county and state officials (and their friends and relatives) owned property -- which was sold to the city for multiples more than fair market value. 

Did the property get bought by those individuals because they had someone in the planning process tell them where to buy?  Or was the plan designed such that those specific plots of land became instant jackpots?

I personally don’t have any info on that. Might want to ask those who are under investigation. 

But the studies is another aspect, that you mentioned. My former company was involved in at least a couple of them. I personally wasn’t (different departments/disciplines).

Take a look as what was happening back then. Campaign spending investigations and people getting smacked and other “cleaning up”. Well, I’ll just say that’s what the public saw. My boss was actually caught up in that net, but luckily he was part of those who were “rounded up” as part of the investigation, as opposed to actual charges. 

I personally don’t have any info on that. Might want to ask those who are under investigation. 

But the studies is another aspect, that you mentioned. My former company was involved in at least a couple of them. I personally wasn’t (different departments/disciplines).

Take a look as what was happening back then. Campaign spending investigations and people getting smacked and other “cleaning up”. Well, I’ll just say that’s what the public saw. My boss was actually caught up in that net, but luckily he was part of those who were “rounded up” as part of the investigation, as opposed to actual charges.

The corruption never stops, because too many do get away with it.

January 28, 2019

A Honolulu engineer admitted paying $400,000 in bribes, but secrecy still surrounds
the state employees and Micronesian officials who allegedly accepted payoffs.

Last week, a prominent local engineer and member of Honolulu’s Zoning Board of Appeals
delivered a stunning guilty plea in federal court.

Frank James Lyon admitted paying public officials in Hawaii and Micronesia more than $400,000
in bribes that bought his firm more than $10 million in contract work over a decade.

Lyon’s company, Honolulu-based Lyon Associates, has been awarded numerous contracts from
local public agencies over the years. The firm was originally launched by Lyon’s father more than
50 years ago, handling design and construction projects across the globe.

But the plea agreement raises a number of unanswered questions.

So far, federal authorities prosecuting the case have declined to publicly identify which Hawaii
state officials Lyon admitted paying more than $250,000 to in order to secure a $2.5 million contract
for Lyon Associates — or which state agency they worked for.

Nor have they identified Lyon’s co-conspirator in Hawaii who benefitted from the scheme — a
budding public-corruption scandal that a local legal expert at the University of Hawaii’s law school
says is certain to grow.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/01/a-new-public-corruption-scandal-looms-for-hawaii/

Gotta pay for those Vegas trips somehow!

Make the roads less congested for the well off people by getting the poor people off them ?
Or will everyone just ride mopeds and scooters ?
My guess is they’ll subsidize it with a gas tax.

No not at all. Not to keep poor people off - everyone.  We would still have The Bus. Having a vehicle is a luxury. We've become so dependent on cars that we treat them as a necessity. In similar geographical locations i.e. Southeast Asian countries where there are dense populations they do rely on smaller modes of transportation. TukTuks and the like.
The trend here and across America is larger, heavier vehicles. More traffic space taken up. More wear and tear on the road surface. More frequent re-pavement. If we really want to be serious about transportation, yes we should downsize to smaller more efficient vehicles. Have we done it in Hawaii? Nope. Without some study/poll on vehicle ownership and usage; I'd be willing to surmise that few are willing to give up their large SUV or large truck. How many of us take the bus of bike to work? Walk? I get poked fun at from time to time for my smaller hybrid car and bicycling to work 3x a week before the pan Pacific Pandemic. I pay half as much as my friends' with their 4Runner and Tundras not to mention gasoline and other maintenance issues. Tires are often overlooked as pollution. What do you think happens to all that rubber when you need new tires? It ends up as dust - pollution; and we breathe that crap in; especially if you live near the freeway. That black stuff that ends up on your siding.
The most ecologically friendly and maybe for some of us - economical are our feet. I work in town but don't live in it. A 13 mile trip to work takes me about 45 mins on e-power and about 90 mins without. On some days that's the equivalent of driving in traffic. I can trim off perhaps 10-15 mins if I didn't have to wait for traffic lights. A bike lane doesn't take up much space. The lifestyle change wasn't difficult. I had to pack my clothes, a first aid kit, and a maintenance kit. The motivation to do it was the challenge.
Alternative transportation modes such as biking. No expensive taxes. No eyesore. Probably help people lose weight. That option is there. Right now.

No not at all. Not to keep poor people off - everyone.  We would still have The Bus. Having a vehicle is a luxury. We've become so dependent on cars that we treat them as a necessity. In similar geographical locations i.e. Southeast Asian countries where there are dense populations they do rely on smaller modes of transportation. TukTuks and the like.
The trend here and across America is larger, heavier vehicles. More traffic space taken up. More wear and tear on the road surface. More frequent re-pavement. If we really want to be serious about transportation, yes we should downsize to smaller more efficient vehicles. Have we done it in Hawaii? Nope. Without some study/poll on vehicle ownership and usage; I'd be willing to surmise that few are willing to give up their large SUV or large truck. How many of us take the bus of bike to work? Walk? I get poked fun at from time to time for my smaller hybrid car and bicycling to work 3x a week before the pan Pacific Pandemic. I pay half as much as my friends' with their 4Runner and Tundras not to mention gasoline and other maintenance issues. Tires are often overlooked as pollution. What do you think happens to all that rubber when you need new tires? It ends up as dust - pollution; and we breathe that crap in; especially if you live near the freeway. That black stuff that ends up on your siding.
The most ecologically friendly and maybe for some of us - economical are our feet. I work in town but don't live in it. A 13 mile trip to work takes me about 45 mins on e-power and about 90 mins without. I can trim off perhaps 10-15 mins if I didn't have to wait for traffic lights. A bike lane doesn't take up much space.

With working at home becoming normal now, getting most of what we need delivered to the house/apartment, and even schools, healthcare and other necessities converting to online services, we really don't need to get outside much anyway.  Just combine your exercise with walking to the few places you still need to visit.

We live on an island.  No need to get out and just drive when all you get to do here is drive in circles at, or below, the speed limits., Take the bus.  Read an eBook.  Watch a video on Climate Change.   

Its a Christmas miracle, something I agree with ren and flapp. 

Its a Christmas miracle, something I agree with ren and flapp.

If you liked these posts, you should consider browsing The Babylon Bee, too.  Lots of excellent ideas there I'm sure you'll enthusiastically adopt!   

You'll find a goldmine of nuggets like this:

SEATTLE, WA—The Babylon Bee had the honor of sitting down with a local brave #resistance fighter to learn
more about the fearless counterculture fighting against hate and other bad stuff like that. According to Doy Keeblesmush,
a leader of the local resistance movement in Seattle, the ideology consists of whatever the media, universities,
corporations, and Hollywood tell them they should think.

"Yeah, I'm pretty much a free thinker," said Keeblesmush when interviewed at a protest rally sponsored by Kinko's.
"I would say my ideology is an eclectic mix of Vox, Marvel comics, Starbucks' Twitter feed, and whatever my
Sociology 101 professor says. There's a lot of hate and misinformation out there, so it's important that I get my
life's moral compass entirely from multi-billion dollar corporations and celebrities. The only exception is dead German
philosophers like Marx. They're cool too."

According to Keeblesmush, blindly following the prevailing winds of culture as dictated by trends and hype is the
best way of making sure one is on the "right side of history."

https://babylonbee.com/news/counter-cultural-rebel-believes-everything-athletes-reporters-actors-ceos-believe

They should use the rail for this.
Dedicated lane.



Or maybe if they if let us roll like this.

If you liked these posts, you should consider browsing The Babylon Bee, too.  Lots of excellent ideas there I'm sure you'll enthusiastically adopt!   

You'll find a goldmine of nuggets like this:

https://babylonbee.com/news/counter-cultural-rebel-believes-everything-athletes-reporters-actors-ceos-believe

I don't think we are responsible for climate change but we do live on a rock. If everyone drove an 18 wheeler we'd need more land. I understand we all love our trucks. You can keep your truck, it's just going to cost more. If this is the mainland then no taxes or fees for your land battleship. Keep on truckin'. Fact of the matter is we live on a rock. If we want more people to take public trans then give them an incentive.

And just like that it was gone.  Shortest Christmas season ever

With working at home becoming normal now, getting most of what we need delivered to the house/apartment, and even schools, healthcare and other necessities converting to online services, we really don't need to get outside much anyway.  Just combine your exercise with walking to the few places you still need to visit.

We live on an island.  No need to get out and just drive when all you get to do here is drive in circles at, or below, the speed limits., Take the bus.  Read an eBook.  Watch a video on Climate Change.   

I don't think we are responsible for climate change but we do live on a rock. If everyone drove an 18 wheeler we'd need more land. I understand we all love our trucks. You can keep your truck, it's just going to cost more. If this is the mainland then no taxes or fees for your land battleship. Keep on truckin'. Fact of the matter is we live on a rock. If we want more people to take public trans then give them an incentive.

And just like that it was gone.  Shortest Christmas season ever

Like I said it ain't easy. I'd love to drive a truck or 4Runner. I just don't want to pay for the gas, registration fees, and maintenance. With that said, American vehicles are getting bigger. Tacomas are much larger than their ancestors. So are RAVs, and other SUVs that started as small. And that is the irony of it. Some of the same people who are crying about human caused climate change are driving pretty large vehicles. But it's good because those same people who can afford to drive those large vehicles can surely donate some money to an org or person to combat climate change. 

Like I said it ain't easy. I'd love to drive a truck or 4Runner. I just don't want to pay for the gas, registration fees, and maintenance. With that said, American vehicles are getting bigger. Tacomas are much larger than their ancestors. So are RAVs, and other SUVs that started as small. And that is the irony of it. Some of the same people who are crying about human caused climate change are driving pretty large vehicles. But it's good because those same people who can afford to drive those large vehicles can surely donate some money to an org or person to combat climate change. 

I fully support "those people" donating THEIR money to climate change.

It's when they start trying to force all of us to "donate," they need to shut the hell up.

When you give your own money to help others, that's called charity.

When you take someone else's money to help others, that's called theft.

I don't think we are responsible for climate change but we do live on a rock. If everyone drove an 18 wheeler we'd need more land. I understand we all love our trucks. You can keep your truck, it's just going to cost more. If this is the mainland then no taxes or fees for your land battleship. Keep on truckin'. Fact of the matter is we live on a rock. If we want more people to take public trans then give them an incentive.

I'm on the big island.
You can't go much of anywhere without a
4WD.  We don't have the road system.
I own a Donkey and a Mule as a backup
as do most my neighbors.
Oahu solutions forced on the outer islands
just are wrong!

I fully support "those people" donating THEIR money to climate change.

It's when they start trying to force all of us to "donate," they need to shut the hell up.

When you give your own money to help others, that's called charity.

When you take someone else's money to help others, that's called theft.

I look forward to when you leave this world so your actions doesn't affect my health and children's future. 

I look forward to when you leave this world so your actions doesn't affect my health and children's future.

Uh whut? You might want to rethink...

Uh whut? You might want to rethink...

I was going on the line of physically leaving this world.  So his actions don't affect earth like his freedom says. Bad wording.  I hear mars is looking for some extra co2

The corruption never stops, because too many do get away with it.

SNIP

Gotta pay for those Vegas trips somehow!

Forgot to come back to this one. 

My old company did work with Lyon.  They were an good company to work with.  I did know more than a few others that were in that range of "involvement" and penalties.  The "game" was setup and had to play by the rules, or not get work.  So many stories of recommendations for awards to go to X from staff level, then making it to management and then being returned as "correct justification for Y and award".  What the hell? 

IMO, the "game" was such that those who paid generally got smacked, but those who setup the "game" generally got off scott free. 

My limited exposure to Hawaii city/county/state government offices I saw a tremendous amount of corruption. I saw racism on the Big Island against whites by government workers. I saw preferential treatment of certain service providers and contractors by people who make barely $50k to $60k a year and lived in expensive neighborhoods and drove expensive cars that a position paying that much could obviously not afford. I saw government workers who were in charge of the government purse strings give unnecessary work to contractors because there was still money in their budget. Instead of trying to save the taxpayer money.

And don’t get me started with what I saw on the rail....

I saw government workers who were in charge of the government purse strings give unnecessary work to contractors because there was still money in their budget. Instead of trying to save the taxpayer money.

I never saw it but would hear all the time about my SIL (who is since retired)  talk about how her job is to access contractor work and report to her bosses about the money situation in the current budget.

Everytime there was excess money in the budget the boss would tell her to allot the money for frivolous contracts because if they reported excess their next fiscal allotment will be cut.

It never went well with her when he directed her to do this and I've always told her it never sat well with me also.  She was very happy when she could retire.  It came to the point where she felt her very existence in her job was to spend the whole budget no matter how stupid the reason was.

I never saw it but would hear all the time about my SIL (who is since retired)  talk about how her job is to access contractor work and report to her bosses about the money situation in the current budget.

Everytime there was excess money in the budget the boss would tell her to allot the money for frivolous contracts because if they reported excess their next fiscal allotment will be cut.

It never went well with her when he directed her to do this and I've always told her it never sat well with me also.  She was very happy when she could retire.  It came to the point where she felt her very existence in her job was to spend the whole budget no matter how stupid the reason was.

It's not the agencies fault on this.   If the government didn't threatened to cut funding people wouldn't have to do this.   

I never saw it but would hear all the time about my SIL (who is since retired)  talk about how her job is to access contractor work and report to her bosses about the money situation in the current budget.

Everytime there was excess money in the budget the boss would tell her to allot the money for frivolous contracts because if they reported excess their next fiscal allotment will be cut.

It never went well with her when he directed her to do this and I've always told her it never sat well with me also.  She was very happy when she could retire.  It came to the point where she felt her very existence in her job was to spend the whole budget no matter how stupid the reason was.

That's the problem, there are tons of government dept and private sectors who follow this philosophy.  I have a friend whos an electrical engineer and ordered a bunch of bolts that cost $40,000 each to fill the spending to the brim.  This is my tax dollars.  I asked how often are these bolts used and he said every now and then.  But now they're stocked up for at least 5 years.