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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, March 28, 2003

Letters to the Editor

No-smoking ban being violated at pool hall

One day while playing pool at a local pool hall, I was disappointed to see the indifference and contempt people have for the indoor smoking ban.

There were young kids playing pool and being subjected to secondhand smoke.

When the issue was brought up to management, the reply was: "Our liability is covered because we posted 'no smoking' signs. Individuals have a right to obey or disobey the law. If the cops come in, they will cite the individual and not the business."

Despite all the research and lawsuits, I would think most companies would have learned corporate responsibility and ethics. The irony is that this place bills itself as a place for "family entertainment."

I for one will not go there again.

Raymond Yee

State constitutional amendment required

Regarding Alfredo Cabacungan's March 19 letter, "Cockfighting should be decided by voters": First, cockfighting has been illegal in Hawai'i since 1884. And gambling, other than social gambling, is also illegal in Hawai'i. So what are we deciding?

The Hawai'i Constitution has no provision for an advisory referendum, as you suggest. Should the people think there is to be a constitutional amendment, then I propose along with a referendum we have "petition referenda" (our right to reject laws passed by the Legislature), and while we are at it, let's include recall.

Marsha Joyner
Hawai'i Kai

Lesson from accident: Take the car keys away

I cannot express enough how sad I am about the loss of the young lives in the auto accident last week. Five young lives lost after a birthday party in the early morning.

What I fear for most is that the mother (in the lead car) will forever blame herself for not taking the car keys away from her son, who had been drinking. My heart goes out to her. Yes, she did what she thought was "OK" for the moment — but how sad the outcome. Please release yourself to your Higher Power.

Mothers, fathers and responsible friends: Please, do not allow your loved ones and friends to drive while intoxicated. Take the keys away!

Tim Moline

Former Cannon Club isn't meeting potential

It's sheer lunacy to use the grounds of the former U.S. Army Cannon Club on the slopes of Diamond Head for another campus building for Kapiolani Community College.

Instead of leasing those 7.8 acres worth millions of dollars (lovely view of the Waikiki skyline and proximity to Waikiki) to the UH system for 65 years at $1 per year, why not have the parcel sold or leased and privately developed as a complex of Pacific Rim restaurants that could pay a great deal in percentage lease rent (at least 15 percent of gross revenue is easy)? Or a luxury townhouse subdivision or many other imaginative possibilities that could turn those acres into a cash cow that would lower the tax burden for us taxpayers?

Could you report what the assessed value of that parcel is? Culinary students certainly don't need a classroom building on land worth many millions of bucks. They'd be happy in a warehouse district (or inside Diamond Head crater) as long as they get good training from good instructors.

This applies to the lunacy of putting our to-be-built UH medical school on similarly richly valued land in Kaka'ako. Pre-sales of a nearby luxury condo to be built near the IBM building near Ala Moana Park have been astonishing. Auwe!

Government officials with critical decision-making duties should be required to be bonded or insured against the peril of "lunacy." The problem then would be that the insurance premium would be sky-high because the magnitude of losses resulting from bad decisions by government officials have been and would be staggering.

Again, what is the assessed value of the Cannon Club site?

Alan T. Matsuda

Questions remain on recycling program

With the coming of the mayor's new initiatives on recycling, I feel it is time to challenge the logic of recycling paper products.

I have always felt that the more combustibles we send to H-Power, the better we do in the conservation of nonrenewable fossil fuels like oil and coal. Now we are going to be required to recycle newspapers and other paper products, I assume for the purpose of saving the trees. Trees are a renewable resource. Oil and coal are not.

Of course, this assumes that H-Power is up and running almost continuously. Also, as I recall from an earlier recycling exercise, the City Council was concerned that there would not be sufficient combustible waste for H-Power, and even discussed the feasibility of barging it in from the Neighbor Islands.

I would like to hear from the city on where my logic is off before this program starts.

W.J. Paresa
Kailua

Alaska refuge drilling a good deal all around

I read with interest your editorial about oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Arctic preserve covers 13 million acres and the area specified for drilling is 2,000 acres, which is less than one-thousandth of 1 percent of the ANWR.

Geologists have evaluated the oil reserves and natural gas as abundant. Today's technology permits horizontal drilling, which minimizes the possibility of going outside the 2,000 acres. Strict monitoring would ensure the preservation of the balance of this pristine wilderness. The United States would become less dependent on foreign oil. It would help maintain a competitive price below the current world market for crude.

Many of the Eskimo and Native American populations in the area are in favor of this operation, as they would benefit from jobs.

Kudos to Sens. Dan Inouye and Daniel Akaka, who are aware of the true situation and voted for this resolution.

Fred Rubin
Hawai'i Kai

U.S. hypocritical on Geneva Convention

Our readiness to cite the Geneva Convention concerning Iraqi-held prisoners of war is hypocritical. Are we following the Geneva Convention in the treatment of the nearly 100 "detainees" left over in Guantanamo Bay from the Afghan campaign?

The answer is "No, and we never needed to because they're not really prisoners of war."

I see. But if a country violates the international laws it helped create and invades a country "pre-emptively" without even a declaration of war, it's still reasonable to expect the invaded country to play by the rules?

Our war policies show little concern except for the conventions that suit us best.

Bryan Langley
Mo'ili'ili

Potential solutions at hand for transportation

Potentially one of the most significant developments in O'ahu transportation took place last week without much fanfare or publicity: the inaugural meeting called by Gov. Lingle to discuss the process by which O'ahu will approach its traffic and road problems.

This is monumentally important because the inability to reach consensus among the Department of Transportation, Legislature, Department of Transportation Services and City Council has arguably been the biggest hurdle to finding solutions to our ground transportation woes the past few decades. This is not to diminish the many accomplishments that have occurred, but only to say that there can be even more.

As members of the City and County of Honolulu Transportation Commission, we are hopeful that the meeting is the start of meaningful discussions that will carry over to the O'ahu Metropolitan Planning Organization decision-making body. If that happens, we can expect to see much quicker results in the federal funding that OMPO can secure for O'ahu.

As citizens and taxpayers of this city and state, we should support these people as they continue to meet and urge them to move beyond the lines of Democrat vs. Republican, city vs. state, mayor vs. council, and governor vs. Legislature. We are living with the results of that history, and it's about time we moved our transportation forward to the 21st century.

Donn Takaki
Claire Tamamoto
Jon Dell
David Matthews
Brian Uy
Transportation Commission
City and County of Honolulu

To war protesters: Freedom is not free

I was watching the news the other day and saw all the war protesters on Ala Moana Boulevard. It really upset me.

Just think, after our troops liberate the Iraqi people and a democracy is put in, the people will then have the right to protest their government, like you guys on Ala Moana Boulevard. How ironic.

Freedom is not free; somebody paid for your freedom to protest with his or her life. Think about that the next time you bash this country.

Ty K. Nojima
Kapolei

More litters

Pet sterilization fee hike would boomerang

The city administration's budget submitted to the City Council would increase the fee for spay/neuter surgeries under the Neuter Now program — a program that has successfully encouraged 151,852 sterilizations since 1986.

While we understand the city's need to increase revenues and reduce expenditures, making people pay more for pet sterilizations would likely decrease usage in the program and therefore increase pet overpopulation. All the city's excellent efforts with this preventive program would be offset by having to find additional resources for animal control to cope with more unplanned litters of kittens and puppies.

There is another important point that should be considered: Neuter Now fees are different from other user fees. When people pay a user fee for Hanauma Bay, the money collected is used to maintain the park, and the beneficiary is the park user. When pet owners use Neuter Now, all taxpayers benefit through a decrease in pet overpopulation and lower or stable animal control costs.

Let's invest in our community to prevent future cost.

Pamela Burns
President and CEO
Hawaiian Humane Society

Pacific Health Center is against concessions

The Pacific Health Center should strive for its goals, but we are adamantly opposed to concessions made to remove the approval process for a single entity.

If the approval process is fast-tracked for one entity, it should apply to all healthcare entities. It is not fair to other developers who have spent millions of dollars to achieve their goals. It is the best way for the state to end up with a defunct project in the long term.

We question the medical model on which the Pacific Health Center is based. What connection does sports medicine have with a quality senior living project or a medical mall? It appears that this is quite a menagerie of dreams. Is it based on a proven model?

We hope the legislators look at HB 550 HD1 with an educated eye and not just feel sorry for Wahiawa General Hospital. More careful scrutiny needs to be put into the entire project and process.

For over 20 years, we have been striving to bring the right senior care continuum of care/lifecare community to Hawai'i. It has been a long and arduous road.

First, we spent many years of research looking across the nation for the best development model we could bring to Hawai'i. The most outstanding model we found was on the East Coast, and it was a campus model. Today it is considered state-of-the-art and the most highly successful model in the country.

The second task was that of finding a suitable site for our project. This was not an easy task in Hawai'i. After looking at literally every square inch of O'ahu, we now have a wonderful 40-acre campus site in the urban core of Kapolei that is not too far from the highest demographics and is near conveniences, such as a new library, theaters, restaurants, public transportation, beaches and parks, golf courses, a new marina, a hospital and healthcare, etc.

Other considerations had to be addressed, such as zoning, neighborhood acceptance and much more. We are achieving our goal, and it is being done without streamlining the approval process or asking special deferments or favors from the county or state.

We also will serve compelling state interests as an economic catalyst, and we will provide a necessary healthcare enterprise.

Nancy Schoocraft
President, Hawaii Village Associates