Letters to the Editor
Odds stacked against Hawai'i's 'gamblers'
The state of Hawai'i has begun operating its legalized gambling program from the back of minivans stationed at roving positions on state roads. A kind of floating crap game where it doesn't announce where the action will be each day.
The beauty of it for the state is that it's all take with no payout. The best the hapless "players" ever get out of the game is they get away with "speeding" a few miles over the posted signs without getting a big fine in the mail a few days later.
The state needs to do no advertising to draw these high-rollers, needs to hire no singers or strippers or servers in cute miniskirts. Wayne Newton need not apply — the only headliners will be the politicians.
The only folks on the payroll will be the "dealers" sitting in the vans, hired by the Mainland "casino." The state and its vendor will rake in very big bucks over the years without passing any bothersome new laws or legislation.
So forget about the boat idea or the Ko Olina thing — they've legalized it right on the roads and it's coming to a highway near you.
Steven Katz
Kailua
Minimum-speed signs make us lawbreakers
I have been reading with much interest about the great unfolding drama of "Traffic Photo Ticketing vs. Drivers in Hawai'i." There are many nuances to this drama, and I would like to add my two cents.
I drive H-1 daily to work, and I find the 40-mph minimum speed limit sign very offensive. Most times, I am traveling only 5 to 10 mph in traffic. This sign makes everyone in traffic a lawbreaker.
This proves that you cannot legislate everything, that there are circumstances that cause people to go faster or slower, and that it is impossible for every person to obey the law all the time — evident by the recent photo van allegedly speeding or the police chief warning his people by memo not to use license covers or the many times we see police officers speeding ahead of us.
There should be some mercy and compassion in the law. Removing the 10 percent tolerance is not right.
One way to win: Buy shares in Affiliated Computer Service — stock market symbol ACS — the camera people. Now with zero tolerance, they will make a lot of money, and their stock will go up. Guaranteed? Maybe.
Wyman Au
O'ahu speed limits unbelievably slow
It's not the cameras that are so intolerable; it is the incredibly unbelievable speed limits on our island.
Has anyone ever gone 35 mph through the Wilson Tunnel? How about trying the half-mile-long 25-mph onramp from Likelike to H-3 that doesn't even change to 45 mph until after you are supposed to merge with the highway traffic? Talk about unsafe.
Ever gone 25 mph on the half-mile interchange ramps at H-3 and H-1 or the interchange ramps at Likelike and H-3? Maybe the Department of Transportation people should try it every day and see how many rear-end crashes they cause.
Most other states use a single speed limit for a long stretch of road. Where needed, they post yellow advisory speed-limit signs for curves, tunnels, offramps, etc. Here on O'ahu, they seem to like to micromanage the speed limits, often changing them every couple of hundred yards.
Here are some other amazing examples of unsafe, never-observed speed limits:
- Haiku Road, a major local artery in Kane'ohe: 15mph for one block.
- Likelike, a major four-lane highway near H-1: 25 mph, farther up Kalihi Valley with no cross streets: 35 mph.
- Downhill on the Pali Highway toward Kailua: 35 mph.
- H-1 near UH: 45 mph
Please, please, Hawai'i, increase the speed limits and then enforce them.
Tim Flinn
Kane'ohe
Not 1 mph more
If anyone who thinks that driving just 1 mph over the speed limit is no big thing, then ask yourself, would you give one penny over what a cashier tells you is the total? I don't know anyone willing to give that one penny, so do the same with your speed.
Michael Nomura
Kailua
Weather advisories have to be timely
Regarding Christie Wilson's Jan. 28 article about three people who drowned on Maui after their Jeep was swept downstream and that "the weather service said there was no flash-flood warning in effect at the time of the tragedy": Again, I was disheartened at the needless loss of life due to the lack of timely weather advisories.
This continues to be too common in Hawai'i, where our weather is taken for granted.
Most don't think twice about going out in questionable weather. Why? No one is providing us with timely, accurate and advisory information we need to make that decision.
Point of fact: In late December, I awoke shortly after midnight to heavy rain, high winds and thunder. I turned on the radio and TV for the latest weather. Absolutely nothing. In fact, all local TV stations were off the air.
I was able to find current weather on the National Weather Service home page. Knowing the early shift of my organization would be on the road at 4:30 a.m., I called local radio stations to find out the latest road conditions and advisories.
A deejay at a popular station that boasts constantly of its timely news and weather told me I should wait until 5 a.m. when the morning radio show celebrities would be there with timely traffic reports and weather updates. Unfortunately, that was too late for timely decision-making.
Getting the state civil defense and local news media to get together to provide timely, accurate and usable weather information is long overdue. Something needs to be done soon to stop these senseless tragedies.
John Toillion
Mililani
DOE must explain where money goes
My union leaders are dead wrong to advocate granting the state Board of Education taxing power.
They are also woefully inconsistent.
In the Nov. 19, 2001, issue of the union house organ Advocate, a full-page article appeared under the headline "Boiling dysfunction at the DOE" that quoted HSTA President Karen Ginoza as saying, "The fact is that the Department of Education is dysfunctional and teachers are paying the price."
Later in this article it was noted, "Teachers have operated under the burden of DOE's dysfunction for far too long." Why on Earth would the taxpayers of this state wish to dump even more money into a dysfunctional bureaucratic snakepit that cannot seem to manage the assets already allocated to it effectively?
DOE officials must explain in detail exactly where they have spent — not budgeted, but actually spent — more than a billion hard-earned tax dollars each year that were entrusted to them. While they're at it, our legislators ought to ask DOE officials why they can't seem to manage to come up with a standard grading scale, a curriculum and measurable performance standards with which to assess both student and teacher effectiveness.
For an annual investment of $1.2 billion, Hawai'i should have well-maintained schools and well-paid, well-qualified teachers in every classroom. The Legislature's willingness to tolerate the ongoing lack of fiscal accountability on the part of the DOE is astonishing. Sen. Colleen Hanabusa and her committee seem to be the only ones interested in following the money.
Before the Legislature agrees to add so much as another penny to the education budget, evasions and stonewalling must stop.
To grant direct taxing authority to the BOE would be like inviting a second wing-flapping, shape-changing Count Dracula to sup at the neck of the swooning maiden.
Thomas E. Stuart
Kailua, Kona, Big Island
Another state agency for Waikiki unneeded
After all of these years, and long after Mayor Harris' leadership provided such dramatic improvements to the physical plant of Waikiki, House Speaker Calvin Say suddenly declares himself on the scene and wants to create another state agency so the gang of thieves hiding out at the state Capitol building can bilk the hard-working, over-taxed citizens of Hawai'i out of more of their hard-earned income. How wonderful!
With the HVCB, HTA and OVB already in place and dedicated to the promotion of tourism, how can Mr. Say propose to spend even more money for the creation of yet another taxpayer-funded state agency, especially when the Ala Wai clean-up project is so far from completion?
Hawai'i taxpayers' financial resources are stretched to their limits. Many can barely afford to pay their rents or mortgages and put food on their tables. Mr. Say, wake up! The bank has gone broke.
If more needs to be done in Waikiki, current leaders within the Waikiki business community should follow the path, insight and entrepreneurial spirit of those who preceded them and who created this revenue-generating machine in the first place so they, too, could prosper. Waikiki is no place for "Big Brother."
Arnold Bitner
State should assist Kanahele with taxes
I am compelled to write this open letter to the governor, pointing out the disparity in benefits for the have's and have-nots:
The state under your guidance on one hand is forgiving $18 million in taxes to vendors at the airport. At the same time, the state is pressuring "Bumpy" Kanahele to pay back taxes in the sum of $6,000. How can you justify this?
I propose that you have the vendors pay 1 percent of the taxes, which is $180,000. Take 10 percent of this sum, $18,000, and give it to Mr. Kanahele so he can pay his taxes. I am sure there are other deserving seniors out there who would want some tax relief, also.
Ben K. Lum
Kapolei
Moral deliberations won't improve economy
What does Hawai'i face during our current recession?
Are we not faced with getting our residents back to work so that we can generate more tax dollars for state operating costs? Are we not concerned with keeping our industry competitive with other tourist destinations? How are we going to sell our product without adversely impacting our environment?
No matter how many economic experts analyze our resources, we still have to rely on the spending of visitors to move the economy forward. So the objective economically is to create the atmosphere and vehicle to extract a lot of money from a controlled amount of visitors but not to ruin our resources.
All economic enterprises have negative aspects, and the largest enterprises are great examples: tobacco, alcohol, petroleum, gambling, to name a few. They generate money and fuel the economy, create jobs and put money in our pockets.
The unemployed need their jobs back, and the economy needs a jump-start. We have to be ready to be competitive with a changing world. We have to make changes to make more money without negatively impacting our environment and resources. We have to make and adjust to decisions for economic health.
Hawai'i needs economic decisions, not moral deliberations.
Craig Furubayashi
Punishment is due for abduction story
The Jan. 16 and 17 stories concerning the girl who falsely reported being abducted in Kapolei deeply concerned and angered me.
While our school officials handled the incident professionally, the girl's claim caused unnecessary worry to our close-knit community. Because of her irresponsible and thoughtless actions, the young girl violated a criminal statute of false complaint and should therefore be held accountable for her actions.
We need to teach our children the importance of being responsible citizens and that there are consequences for the choices they make.
L. Liu
Kapolei
Punahou Vista needed for children's sake
Despite what fewer than 10 people are saying at the Makiki Neighborhood Board meetings to stop Punahou Vista, we do need more affordable housing.
Punahou Vista would be for people like those with small children who have to resort to living at IHS, which is detrimental for the children.
The traffic problem in the Manoa/University/Makiki district would affect adjacent areas while the project is under construction, but it would be temporary.
The majority of the people in Makiki have not voiced their opinion at the Makiki Neighborhood Board meetings. A handful of people, usually the same people who want to stop Punahou Vista, voice their opinions repeatedly at the board meetings monthly.
Gabrielle L. Makuakane
