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the Downtown area and allow the people that are going to live there in these multi-story
<br />buildings, and, you know, high density residential areas access to the other parts of the island.
<br />So I really think that in the long run we really need to be looking in the real big picture, right? I,
<br />in the break I talked to Mr. Koehnen. You know, he remembers the trains, right, before “46
<br />when they were shut down after the tsunami, right, because the businessmen decided cost too
<br />much to rebuild the trellis that were damaged, you know, to support the train. But my mother,
<br />right, Mr. Domingo, after the, well, I guess my grandfather wasn’t really on the plantation but he
<br />could afford to put my mother on the train from Paauilo to come into the Hilo, right, to go Kress
<br />Store or whatever, shop, and do those things. But the train, you know, before ’46 was really an
<br />economic engine, if not one of the bigger economic engines, that drove the economics of
<br />Downtown. Right? It brought the people with the money in the pockets to spend. So I think
<br />looking forward, to me, that has to be a main component. Otherwise you’re talking about
<br />building freeways or bigger roads and more garages; and the model that one of the testifier talked
<br />about doesn’t really work. So I thank you for your testimony, giving me the opportunity to put
<br />my 1 ½ cents in.
<br />PRICKETT: Well, your idea of mass transit, I think it wouldn’t necessarily have to be a train, it
<br />could even be free shuttle buses throughout the Downtown.
<br />IWASHITA: It has to be a train.
<br />PRICKETT: You’re into trains. I got ya.
<br />WOODWARD: All right -.
<br />PRICKET: Thanks.
<br />WOODWARD: Any further questions? Commissioner Domingo.
<br />DOMINGO: Thank you.
<br />IWASHITA: Sorry, Mr. Chair, just -?
<br />WOODWARD: Yes.
<br />IWASHITA: Seriously, in Portland, in the metropolitan area of Portland, there’s half a million
<br />people, half a million people. Half of the population of Oahu, right? And for the last almost 40
<br />years now, right, they’ve been implemented and put in their light rail transit system, and all of
<br />that. The fact of the matter is that where those trains stop, and they don’t stop at stations, right?
<br />They stop, I mean they stop on the street -.
<br />PRICKETT: On the corner.
<br />IWASHITA: On the corner, right? The property values in those areas have tripled or
<br />quadrupled right from before they put the train in. So, you know, in terms of revenue for the
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