01-25-2024, 11:16 PM
@HOTPE: I don't know the answer to all your questions, but I can answer some, although I'm pretty sure you're smart enough to already know. And since you brought up the railroad, my tirade on that subject and PMAR follows.
1. DHHL as we know it originated with an act of the U.S Congress in the early 1920s, so yes, it was the oppressors who set it all up. The state took over upon admission in 1959. Seems to have been all downhill from there.
2. Yes, the railroad was indeed built long before there was DHHL.
3. As best as I can figure out from contemporary accounts and what county officials described at PMAR meetings held by HPP around 2012, the railroad right of way was perceived as a liability for the remnant holding company and abandoned by quitclaim to the surrounding and adjacent land owners. In some cases, such as the gulch trestles north of Hilo and where the right of way was needed for road improvements, it was given to the county and/or state for nothing.
Now before everyone jumps up and yells "Aha!," this is not necessarily precedent for using the old railroad for PMAR. After sitting through hours of meetings between HPP, County Planning, and one brief visit by a state DOT guy, the only thing that everyone agreed on was that Railroad Ave is the great red herring of PMAR options, i.e. far from the best one. Railroad meanders across HPP intersecting the subdivision trunk roads and numbered roads eight times, versus three times for a transit anywhere below 22nd. More intersections equals more collisions. Also, Railroad is much longer and thus more costly to build, plus it has many more built on properties to be bought out.
Twelve years later, igorant politicians still look at a map and say, "Just run it down Railroad." Why am I not surprised?
My own opinion is that we need an Alternate Route and that it should pass somewhere makai of Railroad, but above the tsunami line. Even Shipman has shown some inclination toward this as a way of not disrupting the agricultural leases along their stretch of Railroad.
But as kalakoa so succinctly put it, "It's not as if the PMAR was ever going to be built."
1. DHHL as we know it originated with an act of the U.S Congress in the early 1920s, so yes, it was the oppressors who set it all up. The state took over upon admission in 1959. Seems to have been all downhill from there.
2. Yes, the railroad was indeed built long before there was DHHL.
3. As best as I can figure out from contemporary accounts and what county officials described at PMAR meetings held by HPP around 2012, the railroad right of way was perceived as a liability for the remnant holding company and abandoned by quitclaim to the surrounding and adjacent land owners. In some cases, such as the gulch trestles north of Hilo and where the right of way was needed for road improvements, it was given to the county and/or state for nothing.
Now before everyone jumps up and yells "Aha!," this is not necessarily precedent for using the old railroad for PMAR. After sitting through hours of meetings between HPP, County Planning, and one brief visit by a state DOT guy, the only thing that everyone agreed on was that Railroad Ave is the great red herring of PMAR options, i.e. far from the best one. Railroad meanders across HPP intersecting the subdivision trunk roads and numbered roads eight times, versus three times for a transit anywhere below 22nd. More intersections equals more collisions. Also, Railroad is much longer and thus more costly to build, plus it has many more built on properties to be bought out.
Twelve years later, igorant politicians still look at a map and say, "Just run it down Railroad." Why am I not surprised?
My own opinion is that we need an Alternate Route and that it should pass somewhere makai of Railroad, but above the tsunami line. Even Shipman has shown some inclination toward this as a way of not disrupting the agricultural leases along their stretch of Railroad.
But as kalakoa so succinctly put it, "It's not as if the PMAR was ever going to be built."
