BTW on Amendment 8 the Sierra Club is recommending a No vote because we think this issue needs to be studied better in order to address the very concerns Donna Wong is raising.  But the concern Blake McElheny raises is actually one of the positive aspects of the proposal: the need to find a way to incentivize TOD.  After spending 2 years working on a film about our homeless crisis and interviewing dozens of officials, I know that the top priority amongst all our elected representatives -county, state and federal- is to build tens of thousands of affordable rental units.  If we want to avoid mounting pressure for ugly new suburbs of container homes, trailer parks and the like, we have to build taller and denser along the rail route and one way to ensure that happens is to use city and state lands along the rail route to create TOD.  Someone at Honolulu Hale needs to do that.  Can it be done without creating a new department?  Maybe.  Let's have an informed and open debate to find out.