Rail Debate is On — Now it’s Your Turn
On Monday, I shared my experience spending a couple of hours with leading rail opponent Cliff Slater. This after an earlier article doing the same with devotees of the project.
A lively discussion ensued, and a great suggestion from member Dave Kozuki: “Please help us really understand each of the contention points, who’s behind the arguments and why they put those arguments forward.” This is exactly what we’re trying to do at Civil Beat: do the research & heavy lifting that enables you to make sense of issues like this.
In order to serve you, it is critical that we know what is important to you. So what, in your mind, are the key points of contention? What are the five or 10 most important questions you want answered in order to come to an informed decision about whether the proposed rail project makes sense for Honolulu?
Two of the more outspoken Civil Beat members have been Slater and Doug Carlson, a communications consultant who represents Honolulu rail. We appreciate that both have graciously agreed to participate and address the points of contention. But perhaps there are others you would want to hear from in addition to (or perhaps instead of) Slater and Carlson. If so, please let us know and I’ll see what I can do. Or if you’re cool with those guys, we’ll go with them.
I’d also appreciate your feedback on how I’m thinking of approaching this. Our initial thought is to:
- Decide on the list of questions based on member feedback
- Have the selected participants answer the questions
- Publish the answers. The important thing to note here is that Civil Beat will fact check all the answers and when we publish them, we’ll tell you whether what they’re saying can be supported, is the whole truth, a half truth, or something else.
- Discuss. We’ll be in the rail discussion with you all along the way listening, sharing, learning, and being civil, of course.
How does that sound?
