Letters to the Editor

State should leave O'ahu transit to city

Regarding the $2.6 billion rail transit system proposal for O'ahu: I fail to see where the state has any business getting involved with intra-city transportation projects, much less authorizing new taxes to fund it.

Traffic problems within the city of Honolulu are clearly the responsibility of the county. It alone should bear the costs through taxes, federal funds or whatever methods that may suit the county electorate. What do the citizens on other islands care of the traffic between Kapolei and Iwilei?

The state needs to focus on the problems of intra-state transportation and leave city affairs to the city. Imagine if all that money could be put to use improving our marginal interisland service, both air- and waterborne.

Subsidized air service as a public utility and a real ferry service among the Islands would be good places to start. Imagine further if all the federal highway funding available for intra-state transportation solutions could be applied. Maybe there would be no need for a tax increase.

Problems won't go away with rail transit

The traffic problems cannot be solved until you eliminate the cause — which is growth. More development, more houses, more crowding, more tourists, more cars. Period. If those who are willing to string up elevated highways and railroads could connect that growth need with the developers' greed, perhaps they would stop giving away all their power to the developers.

Meanwhile, the taxpayer residents get stuck with the ugliness, eco-cide, cost (in higher taxes, not only to build and maintain more highways, but the cost in millions more dollars to operate more schools, etc.). The developers' building schools is not the biggie — It is the cost of hiring teachers, support staff and maintenance.

Why do we continue to beg more and more people to inhabit this eco-sick island when there is nothing to gain and everything to lose (including the once-lovely golden egg)?

I wonder if all those who are so gung-ho about "light" rail intend to ride it daily or if they expect everyone else to.

It's taxes or the highway

For the residents of O'ahu, if you no like tax hike for mass transit, congratulate your Senate Republicans. Enjoy more of your "driving pleasure" on our highways today and fo eva.

Move jobs, services to the 'Second City'

Let's take a step back to look at Honolulu's traffic problem from a different point of view. First, a few points that we already know:

• It's clear that without taking drastic measures, gridlock has been, and will continue to be, a growing problem on O'ahu.
• Kama'aina and tourists alike do not need to be held at the mercy of another bus strike.
• A rail transit system would mean certain tax increases and take years of construction and added gridlock to complete.

Now, let's look at an alternative that makes real sense: Fulfill the original plan to make 'Ewa O'ahu's "Second City." Build city offices and encourage businesses to invest in Central and West O'ahu in order to eliminate the necessity of making long commutes.

Time is of the essence. Jobs and services should be brought to the people, not the other way around. We must also remember to protect the unique beauty and restore the relaxed atmosphere of Hawai'i that so many tourists from around the world have fallen in love with. Without both, we risk losing the only industry that is keeping Honolulu afloat.

Median will prevent crashes, slow speeders

As a resident of Hawai'i Kai for more than a decade, I would like to point out some of the obvious advantages to the construction of a median for trees along the centerline of Lunalilo Home Road.

The six-lane road (two for parking) is an urban canyon that encourages racing in a residential neighborhood. I have witnessed cars traveling at freeway speeds here. The median with trees will naturally reduce the tendency for speeding and prevent head-on collisions by inattentive or inebriated drivers.

The reduction of traffic from four lanes to two lanes will make crossing traffic at intersections less stressful, especially considering that the median affords cars a place out of traffic to pause and wait for a break in oncoming cars.

Arguments that the median will cause traffic delays are fallacious, if you consider that there is only one lane at the end of Lunalilo Home Road in which to turn right toward Honolulu; the flow of traffic through any road can only be as great as the slowest point.

Perhaps the greatest benefit to the addition of a tree-lined median is the environmental improvement. If you compare Kilauea Avenue or Hunakai Street in Kahala to the current state of Lunalilo Home Road, there is no question which residential road is more pleasant to drive, walk, run or bike along.

Acute shortcomings harm DOE system

When things go wrong, the blame can usually be placed on individuals. But in the case of the overall drop in students' test scores ("Scores recede on state assessment," Oct. 3), no one is to blame.

Indeed, there is no doubt about the sincerity of the superintendent, the members of the Board of Education, school principles and teachers. They are among the most dedicated of public servants. However, their ability to improve student learning has been severely compromised by the way in which Hawai'i's public education system is organized.

The oversized, overly centralized and overly bureaucratic Department of Education is not able to realize and utilize the unlimited creative potential of those within the organization. As an example, Hawai'i has had a series of superintendents in the past 20 to 30 years, all of whom were highly regarded and highly successful as administrators and educators in smaller organizational units. However, when they became superintendent, they were not able to replicate their past accomplishments. They were passionate about making improvements, but the system did not allow them to do so.

There is no deficit in the staffing of the public school system. However, there are acute shortcomings in the way that the system is organized. There is widespread agreement that the Department of Education should be decentralized to give school principals and teachers more authority to decide what happens in their schools. However, there is disagreement as to the specifics of just how decentralization should occur.

The governor has appointed a task force to come up with a plan to reform public education. But some people are complaining that they have not been invited to participate. They and others who are interested in public education should create their own reform plans so that various alternatives can be discussed when the Legislature convenes in January.

Smokers, please keep your trash to yourselves

Cigarette butts are dirty, messy and stink. That's why smokers flip them out the windows of their cars. That sounds logical, but we all share the road, and those butts take years to disintegrate. If we are truly an island community that cares about our environment, why do we trash it?

Every time I see a butt fly out a window, I hear "I don't care about me, and I don't care about you." Smokers, feel free to destroy your health, but please keep your trash to yourselves.

Red-light runners are going to kill someone

Although I have long had my suspicions, I now know how I am going to die. It will be at the hands of one of the many island motorists who, encouraged by the inactivity of the police, have come to believe that red lights are merely a decoration and have no real meaning.

In the year that I have been specifically tracking this, I have not gone one single day without seeing at least one car run a red light; usually there are several a day. On four occasions, I observed a police car continue to sit at the intersection while the officer inside ignored the life-threatening violation.

But the danger to my own life expectancy was brought sharply into focus recently when the driver of a sea-green Grand Prix SE decided that red lights didn't apply to him and zipped between my motorcycle and the car stopped in the next lane, running the light in front of CompUSA. Had I not been in the left part of the lane, I would have ended up splattered across Ala Moana Boulevard, just another dead motorcyclist stupid enough to obey the law.

It would be nice if the police were to abandon the dangerous duty of ticketing nude sunbathers at Diamond Head Beach long enough to arrest some of these arrogant drivers, but I fear that before that happens, my ashes will have long been sprinkled on the waters of the Pacific, while a driver sits in a bar somewhere drinking beer with his friends and laughing about the motorcycle that got in his way at a stoplight.

Where are all the credit-takers now?

A few years ago, the city prosecutor and others all jumped at the news that crime rates had decreased. Everyone wanted to take the credit. Where are all these people now that the news is crime rates increased during 2002? Who wants to take the credit now?

The rates are mainly cyclical. Don't take the credit if you don't want the blame.

Free-speech rights have a limit at Army hearings

I was disappointed in The Advertiser's position in support of protester "rights" to carry their signs inside Army public hearings on the fielding of a Stryker brigade in the Islands.

You missed the point in posing a free-speech argument. Everyone knows that First Amendment rights are not limitless. The obvious example of one's restriction against yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater is pretty close to being the case here. I attended the first meeting at the Honolulu Country Club, and it was obvious to me that these protesters were not there to talk about the EIS and the fielding of Strykers.

I know I shared the opinion of many others there who were happy that security kept these people and their signs outside, where they belonged. Those who did come in long enough to "testify" tipped their hand with the hooting and hollering that accompanied many of their non sequiturs, hate-the-military remarks and false premises. Most of them were there to talk about the overthrow of the monarchy, the need for peace on Earth and the desire to push the military out of Hawai'i.

In short, they were at the wrong meeting, because that was not the Army's purpose in holding the meetings. Last time I checked, the one who calls the meeting still has the right to set the agenda, and those who attend are obliged to respect that. Whatever sympathy might have remained for their causes quickly evaporated with their vitriolic stream of nonsense that bordered at times on hate speech.

It would have been much better for them to meet once again with themselves and not waste an entire evening for those who actually had some meaningful testimony to deliver. Sorry, but I know I reflect a growing opinion in the community that these radical obstructionists deserved what they got — actually a legal slap on the hands — when they decided to break the rules and take the law into their own hands.

I hope the Army does not cave in and continues to insist that if it is going to spend taxpayers' money to hold these public hearings, it will do what it can to ensure that those who have something serious to say — on the topic — have the chance to do so and are not hooted and shouted down by a bunch of protesters whose open agenda is to disrupt the meeting and drive the military out of Hawai'i.