Hawaii Reporter
Bette Midler: Honolulu Rail a Bad Idea
Monday, January 9th, 2012
HONOLULUTRAFFIC.COM – Local girl and show business phenomenon, Bette Midler, titled her letter in today’s Star Advertiser, “Rail would be blight on Hawaii’s beauty” and follows it with:
“I read with alarm the news that the state of Hawaii may go forward with a 20-mile elevated train. I have lived in New York City for many years, and can testify to the noise and ugliness these elevated trains bring to every community through which they pass.
“This project is 40 years too old. In the last 40 years, there have been many advances in public transportation and many new ideas about how to integrate need with environment. That this project is going to be so small, cost so much, and have such a terrible impact on the environment is dreadful.
“Why does it have to be 20 feet in the air? There were trains in Hawaii in years past, and there were electric buses, too.
“The very idea that the state would sacrifice the most important amenity it has to offer the world, the beauty of its environment, is beyond belief.
“Bette Midler New York, N.Y.”
It would be great if more of Hawaii’s show business people would also stand up against the rail and join people like the Bette and Keith and Carmen Haugen.
thanks bette, I often wonder if we are leading ourselves off to the end of the cliff except for the concerned reasoning of certain minds. (yours and mine included! this is from a mainlander who was fortunate to be in all the Hawaiian islands at three different times the year 2011, so, I just wonder what our founding fathers of the mainland would think, lest the polynesians or the tahitians that “discovered” Hawaii….eeeons ago. BTW thanks for the great work, keep it up, kiddo, you are DIVINE! Miles of Smiles and Aloha/Maholo!! ; -)