Posted on: Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Letters to the Editor

Funds for park play equipment in peril

In James Gonser's Monday article, "Plaques ensure mayor's legacy," managing director Ben Lee says "the play equipment (for Smith Beretania Park) will be up to the administration of Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann. I hope the play equipment is funded." The funds were included in the 2003-2004 city budget, which took effect July 1, 2003. Those funds lapse on Dec. 31, 2004.

On Dec. 20, I was told by the city Department of Design and Construction that it awarded a contract for the design and installation of the equipment in September but that the contract had not been signed yet because the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services was still looking at the contractual language. Had the Harris administration not dragged its feet, the play equipment would be a reality today for the many children who play in the park each day.

Now there is a good chance that the funds will lapse and the community will have to ask the council for funding next year.

Moratorium needed on open-field tests

Food crops genetically engineered to produce pharmaceuticals, vaccines or industrial chemicals cannot be grown without contaminating human food or animal feed, according to a recent announcement by a panel of agriculture experts from five American universities convened by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

The editor of the report, Dr. David Andow of the University of Minnesota, stated that "it is sobering that drugs and industrial chemicals could have so many routes to the food supply."

Corn, one crop commonly used in testing, is a staple of the American diet eaten as breakfast cereal, entrees, dessert, fast food, baby food and snacks. It is used in many foods in the form of corn syrup, corn starch, corn flour and corn oil. Although some people do not concern themselves with the issue of genetically engineered food, nobody wants drugs in their cornflakes.

Here in Hawai'i, GMO firms have carte blanche to do open-air field tests in secret locations. The UCS is now recommending that the U.S. Department of Agriculture establish safer alternatives to ensure that drugs, plastics and other chemicals cannot pass into the food system because the current system does not ensure no contamination of the food supply. They have found that pollen drift, insects, animals, farm equipment and other routes of involuntary transport must be blocked. This means developing and establishing new management systems, oversight and new technologies, all envisioned from this new perspective.

The time for a moratorium on open-field tests of genetically engineered crops in Hawai'i is now.

Gensiro Kawamoto tenants: join the club

I truly feel sorry for the tenants being evicted from their rental homes in Hawai'i Kai by Japanese investor Gensiro Kawamoto. However, these tenants need to stop their bellyaching and join the rest of us who are at the total mercy of our landlords in this extremely tight rental market.

These tenants signed a lease, which is legally binding, to receive 45 days notice to vacate the rented property. Why do these folks feel entitled to more than what they signed up for? Whether or not Mr. Kawamoto is right or wrong makes no difference; this is the law, and he owns those homes and has every legal right to sell his own property.

I have been renting in this town for nearly 15 years while trying desperately to save enough money to put a down payment on a home of my own. Until such time that I save enough money, I must accept the fact that I, too, may be (with 45 days notice) forced to move out by any landlord who has other plans for his own property.

So, welcome to the real world, get over it, and get in line.

Driving safely means fewer crash delays

I would like to comment on Mark Terry's Dec. 23 letter. In regard to opening the roads so the traffic can flow, I believe the officers at the scene try their very best to conduct the investigation as accurately and as fast as they can. The officers need to satisfy the burden of proof they will need when the case goes to court.

What the public needs to realize is that the officers would not be out there conducting their investigation and tying up traffic if the public would only cooperate. That means drive safely and with due care. Most of your accidents occur due to people being in a rush, on the telephone, drunk or speeding. If most people would just take a deep breath and relax while they drive, there would be fewer accidents on the road.

Good riddance to failing money trees

I am delighted to see that the old, failing money trees in the Capitol rotunda planters have been replaced with our state tree, the kukui.

I remember Sen. Fred Hemmings making some remarks about the inappropriateness of the money trees, referring to the spending habits of our majority party.

Since the trees were not exactly thriving in the atmosphere of the Capitol, he suggested that our state tree would be a much better choice. I'm pleased his suggestion was taken.

DOT fixed dangerous highway condition

I would like to thank the Department of Transportation for a relatively quick response to a hazardous highway condition near Sea Life Park.

There is a section of highway fronting the Oceanic Institute that was realigned for what appears to have been erosion. Lane division lines had been covered over, and new lines were painted. The new lane division lines, including the solid double yellow center lines are difficult to discern, particularly at certain times of the day if you are driving toward Makapu'u. The "erased" lines look like the ones drivers should navigate by.

My husband and I drive this road several times a day. On Nov. 27, we were driving in this area in the Makapu'u-bound lane when a compact car in front of us, obviously confused by the maze of lane division lines, crossed the center line and was headed straight into oncoming traffic, in this case two semis. The small vehicle veered out of the way just in time to avert what would have surely been a fatal collision. With all due credit to the driver, at this time of day (mid-morning), the road lines that clearly stood out were the wrong ones.

I called the DOT twice, and to my surprise, on the morning of Dec. 16, we noticed that demarcation barriers in the form of vertical poles had been installed to aid drivers. I have seen several near collisions in the area, and this speedy response is deeply appreciated.

Salary comparison gives better picture

Hawai'i is in the top eight states for unaffordable housing (Advertiser, Dec. 21). That it didn't rank first was the surprise.

However, the article failed to take the next step. A comparison of salaries offered in the high-cost areas of states ahead of us can be 50 to 300 percent higher for the same positions (i.e., New York City as opposed to rural areas, a nonexistent distinction in Hawai'i).

Perhaps a follow-up of "real" wages and housing costs would produce a more accurate analysis.

Fresh ideas welcome

Thanks to your paper, we who write occasional letters to the editor had another year of opportunity to express our opinions and beliefs. We look forward to the next year and hope to see more first-time writers bring out fresh ideas on how to improve our lives to make this a better city.

Administration's position on special ed disingenuous

Lenny Klompus, communications director, and Linda Smith, senior policy adviser, on Dec. 15 "strongly objected" to Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto's criticism of Gov. Lingle's cut in the special-education budget as reported to the Board of Education on Dec. 9. They further stated that "The public deserves to know the facts."

Well, Mr. Klompus and Ms. Smith, the facts were clearly stated in state Budget Director Georgina Kawamura's letter of Dec. 1 to the superintendent, the subject of which was: "Transmittal of the Governor's decisions on FB 2005-07 Executive Budget Requests." The letter further stated that "Attached are the governor's decisions on your department's requests."

Once again, their usual rhetorical criticisms of the superintendent and public schools in general were unfounded. How can anyone attach any credence or facts to their continuing press releases that the governor has not released her budget because discussions are still under way, when in fact their finance director's letter stated that decisions have been made?

I have known Superintendent Hamamoto for quite a long time, and her love for the youth of Hawai'i is unquestionable. It therefore behooves all of us in government to better understand our roles and go forward with a positive outlook by supporting the teachers, administrators, students and parents down in the trenches.

Reinventing education, which was passed by the Legislature, has become a reality, but much more work needs to be done to implement school readiness for our kindergarten and pre-kindergarten children, purchasing of much-needed textbooks, weighted student formula, principal accountability, lowering class size in grades K-2, facilitating community involvement, reducing bureaucracy, providing student activity coordinators, early childhood care, charter schools improvements and many more educational initiatives.

Gentlemen farms unwanted

Here we go again! Through the smokescreen, Moloka'i Ranch officials emerge with a new spin. The spin is if you want us to reopen the Kaluakoi Hotel, you have to allow us to build 200 ultra-high-end, luxury gentlemen's estates to raise money. Do we have to swallow this?

Everything they've created to date has bled red ink, including two abandoned campsites, a steak house, a KFC outlet and a dying hotel. They even bulldozed 90 percent of the old plantation community of Maunaloa.

The latest management, in what some in the Hawai'i business community have characterized as a revolving door, is one of several since this foreign-owned company landed on Moloka'i 15 years ago. They haven't been a good neighbor, and have instigated so much infighting on the island, family against family, to get what they want that many of these divisions have yet to be reconciled. And they're not concocting the newest plans because they love us; they want to take the money and run.

What Moloka'i Ranch officials failed to mention is they hope to make back all the money they lost since day one, and then some.

What the ranch also failed to mention is, in order for them to build their 200 gentlemen's farm lots on the west end, they have to take water reserved for Hawaiian homesteaders. Their water allocation is presently being appealed by Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and Hawaiians before the state Supreme Court. They withdraw one million gallons each day from the Kualapu'u aquifer; of this, 300,000 to 400,000 gallons are leaking out of their pipes on the west end each day. Poho!

Over six years ago, Hawaiian Homes requested water for 220 additional homestead lots and has yet to receive a response from the water commission. Hawaiian Homes has over 25,000 acres of land, and the 2.9 million gallons per day reserved for its use is hardly enough to cover 20 percent of these lands. Because our precious water resource is limited, the EPA has designated the island a single-source aquifer, and the state water commission has designated the Kualapu'u aquifer a special management area. Last year, farmers were forced to cut back on water use by 40 percent, and this adversely affected both crop quality and yield.

The creation of gentlemen's estates or luxury farm lots in Hawai'i has not resulted in more agriculture; it's just a vehicle to circumvent the community input process in order to build luxury houses on land reserved for agriculture. We have over 520 gentlemen's estates on the island, and the ranch still has not sold 60 of these. Per capita, we already have more gentlemen's farm lots than any other island, and we don't need any more.

This loophole in the law has made the cost of housing out of reach for our local people, in addition to higher land taxes on adjacent lands. The state Constitution mentions protecting agricultural lands as a resource, not as a commodity, but who's protecting our agricultural lands for agriculture?

The Moloka'i Enterprise Community Plan calls for preserving our rural lifestyle so we don't become strangers in our own land. It also comes down to what we as a community want for this island, and 200 mansions with 200 millionaires fit our economic engine like a flat tire.