Wai'anae homeless site is a dream come true

Regarding the Aug. 9 story "Wai'anae selected for homeless site; Complex would provide one-stop support for 150," by James Gonser: Kudos to Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Jeremy Harris, HUD Deputy Secretary Michael Liu, city Department of Community Services Director Michael Amii and the three nonprofits that stepped up to the plate.

I can't wait the 15 months it will take this dream coming true to become a reality! Still, I can understand the alarm that the neighborhood might have for an anticipated infusion of the homeless into the Leeward Coast.

A similar situation happened at 'A'ala Park during the term of Mayor Frank Fasi, but the problem was resolved. I ask the neighborhood chair and her fellow candidates for City Council District 1 to keep a positive outlook for this, as well as the landfill decision before the Land Use Commission, coming up Dec. 1.

This is the type of living monument that politicians like Jeremy Harris should strive for, and I praise him and the governor in particular for taking this initiative.

Who said a lame-duck politician can't walk the talk?

Biopharm industry did itself no favors

U.S. District Judge David Ezra has courageously ruled that biotech companies testing biopharmaceutical crops in Hawai'i's open air must reveal the locations of these experiments.

The industry has shot itself in the foot with its response to the ruling, failing to give the public any assurance whatsoever that these experiments do not endanger Hawai'i's people and environment. Instead, industry spokesperson Lisa Dry stated, "Basically it would be viewed as an unfriendly business environment."

Biopharmaceuticals are plants or animals genetically manipulated to produce potent industrial chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs, essentially turning organisms into outdoor factories. In Hawai'i, corn and sugarcane have been used. Hawai'i also grows seed corn for Mainland farmers, thus jeopardizing the greater food supply along with local farms and gardens. The North American Millers Association, the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the National Food Processors have all strongly objected to the use of food crops to produce biopharmaceuticals.

EarthJustice, on behalf of The Center for Food Safety, filed suit to pave the way for environmental impact statements, which logically should have been conducted before putting such organisms into Hawai'i's environment.

The biotech industry uses jobs as enticement to gain support for these reckless activities.

Fond memories, but pool's time has come

I remember going for my junior lifesaving merit badge as a Boy Scout at St. Augustine's in 1950. Every day we jumped from the towers at the Natatorium and swam laps. (Anyone from Troop 51 out there?) Those days are gone, and so is the Natatorium.

Six million dollars to do a partial restoration, and the whole thing is falling apart. Making the Natatorium what it was is like making us who used it 55 years ago young again.

Clear the area, plant some explosives in it and destroy it. Make it a contiguous part of the shoreline with a small plaque on the shore that acknowledges its existence.

Remember Rewald?

Evan Dobelle is the slickest con artist to hit Hawai'i since Ronald Rewald. Rewald bilked trusting little old ladies out of their savings. Dobelle bilked us all.

The university trustees were a little messy in the way they went about it, but they got the message right: "The emperor has no clothes on."

Hawaiian culture must be preserved

Ken Conklin's Aug. 8 letter is exactly why Native Hawaiian federal recognition is a must — to protect the host culture of Hawai'i from elimination by ignorance.

It is clear that Conklin is absolutely absent of any understanding of any other culture, maybe including his own, even though he is surrounded by multiple cultures here in Hawai'i. Racial division? It would seem that people like Conklin cannot grasp cultural diversity, celebrate it even.

Get with the program, Mr. Conklin. Hawai'i is derived from the word Hawaiian; Hawaiian is a culture our state builds its visitor industry on; Hawaiian is the language our state motto is written in; Hawaiians are the people your ancestors stole land from, barred from speaking their language. The least you can do is put aside your isolated fears and support having our federal government recognize the native people of this great state.

Look out, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, next he'll be telling you that your chambers of commerce, your cultural centers and your language programs are racially divisive.

Nonsense, Mr. Conklin, Hawai'i's diversity is something to celebrate.

As for Native Hawaiian culture, it's so important to all of Hawai'i that it is something worth recognizing and encouraging the host culture's right to self-determination in its own homelands, the right to decide how it will be perpetuated. Hawaiians exercising that responsibility takes nothing away from you, but it gives all of us, blood or no blood, something to celebrate.

To live in such fear of others and to be so devoid of culture must be a painful existence.

Let's show Hollywood we support 'The Ride'

We have a great film industry in Hawai'i. We have movies like "Jurassic Park" and shows like "North Shore" filmed here, but let's not forget about smaller productions like Nathan Kurosawa's "The Ride." Let's show Hollywood that smaller productions like this one are just as valuable and entertaining as the large ones.

We have the creative talent in the areas of production, acting and directing, and with that, Hawai'i can create a totally economically viable production.

I encourage everyone to come out and see the film while it's showing at Wallace Theaters at Restaurant Row to let Hollywood hear your voice via your voting with your attendance.

Schools must have dedicated funding

I strongly support Act 51, the Reinventing Education legislation passed by the 2004 Legislature that restructures the Hawai'i public schools without destroying their unique statewide governance system.

Improving public education overall is tied directly to class size — not to the size or number of school districts — as well as to a strong family/community support system for neighborhood learning centers.

Improvements will also come when there are well-paid and well-trained teachers in every classroom, when there is enough money to repair and maintain existing facilities as well as to build new ones and when there are sufficient support services, textbooks and supplies in every school.

If elected to the Board of Education, I'll be part of a team making sure that the schools do improve and that funding earmarked only for education cannot be decreased by the Legislature or held back by the governor.

It is not enough to decide how to spend the money; the governing body must also control what comes in as well as what goes out. As long as that power lies with the Legislature and the administration — no matter which political party is in control — public education does not have true autonomy.

This is one of my key platform planks: to place a constitutional amendment on the 2006 ballot that would create a dedicated funding source.

Canceling logo search was the right decision

As a UH graduate, Hawai'i resident and taxpayer, I know I speak for many. I applaud President David McClain's decision to cancel the logo search. The existing logo has an elegance and recognition value that only use over time can impart.

Had the administration polled the public before embarking on the quest to redo/revise/refresh the logo, it would be ahead $150,000-plus.

Let this be an expensive lesson to all state government bodies that waste our tax dollars on frivolous ends.

Separate land-use policy, real property tax policy

Let's get all of the facts on the table for discussion of what is being done with the agricultural real property taxes on O'ahu. This was the subject of your Aug. 1 editorial "City's farm taxation: Be patient with reform."

Tax assessments based on "fair market value" should be based on the legal use of the property under its present zoning. The real question in your editorial should be, what farmer could afford to purchase agricultural land for agricultural uses at the current city tax assessed value of $50,000 per acre?

The simple fact is that tax assessed value established by the city is too high to support a true agricultural use.

Furthermore, to presume, as indicated in your editorial, that the only thing vacant agricultural lands are going to be used for is development conveniently avoids the need to deal with the reality that there are not enough farmers in the state of Hawai'i right now to put all of the vacant agricultural land into productive use.

Bill 10 changed the assessment process of agricultural lands from one based on crop type or yield to one based on "fair market value." In theory, one would agree with the intent of Bill 10, which was twofold: 1) update the tax assessed values for the commodity groups; and 2) remove any loophole that allowed "gentlemen estates" to be taxed at the agricultural rate.

I would, however, question how taxing vacant agricultural lands at the "fair market value" of $50,000 per acre helps farmers. The assumption used by the administration and others appears to be that by taxing vacant lands at this higher assessed value, you force the owner to lease the lands for farming. However, this doesn't work when, as the Hawai'i Farm Bureau Federation has indicated, "there are not enough farmers to use all of the agricultural zoned lands on O'ahu." Moreover, the burden of appealing and contesting these high assessed values may ultimately put legitimate farming operations out of business.

Real reform is needed to separate land-use policy and real property tax policy.

Land-use policy regarding agriculture and urban lands should be dealt with in the land-use entitlement process in considering reclassification and zoning. Gentlemen estates and other more urban-type agricultural uses should also be dealt with through a rural land-use designation.

The real property tax policy should be based on the legal use of the property given its existing entitlements, not as a tool to prevent other land uses.