This editorial adopts the posture that the city and HART have miscalculated in the past and are now asking for more, so they should be punished. This point of view makes it about personalities and individual behaviors when the discussion should be about the value of the project and the benefits it will deliver, including improved transportation for more than 100,000 riders each day, the ability to avoid traffic congestion, our last, best chance to dramatically increase the island's supply of affordable housing and the creation of thousands of jobs and careers needed in the planning, designing and building of not only the rail, but also homes, businesses and amenities in the TOD zones around each station.

The discussion should also include the consequences to taxpayers and residents: paying back hundreds of millions in federal funds, losing hundreds of millions more, raising property taxes, and losing all of the benefits described above.