Posted on: Wednesday, August 25, 2004

EDITORIAL
... while big issues are all but ignored

O'ahu residents are only hurting themselves if they don't insist that candidates for mayor address what truly are burning issues on this island.

Folks who have decided that infrastructure matters are boring are in effect turning a big chunk of their future — and their financial well-being — to the care of candidates who have not explained exactly how they will handle them if elected.

Both Mufi Hannemann and Duke Bainum have said they're not enthusiastic about the Bus Rapid Transit system and they both pledge to get on with needed sewer work and road repaving.

That's good as far as it goes. But it's abundantly clear that O'ahu traffic is approaching real gridlock, and that some alternative is needed — not in a matter of decades as projected, but urgently.

The major sewer work required on O'ahu by federal regulations will cost billions — with a B — of dollars and is far, far behind schedule.

Deferment of maintenance on O'ahu's roads has led to deep, bone-jarring potholes that sometimes show the remains of multiple temporary patches.

When Hannemann and Bainum get done tarring each other, how about if they explain how they'd handle — and pay for — these problems?