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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Letters to the Editor

Memorial plaques for potholes, fraud needed

I hope that our new mayor or the City Council will investigate the legality of Mayor Harris using taxpayer money to fund his personal propaganda, including his book and the televised speech. If they are not illegal, they should be.

But the plaques Mayor Harris is placing around town to perpetuate himself should be allowed. In fact, the taxpayers should allow Harris to put up more plaques giving credit to him. There should be one at just about every street crediting Harris with the potholes we fall into, as well as a plaque by the sewage spill sites and illegal dumps. Oh, and let's not forget to put one by 'Ewa Villages to credit Harris with that scandal and one by the Department of Finance so we can remember who is responsible for the property tax rate increases ("revenue neutral"), raided special funds and the exploding city debt service.

As our new mayor has to deal with the problems left by the Harris legacy, I hope our citizens remember who caused it (ourselves, because we elected Harris) and remember that we'll all need to work together to solve these problems.

Craig Y. Watase
Honolulu


Shut only those lanes that are essential

Another tragic fatal accident on H-1, another extended traffic jam. More letters from readers suggesting (demanding?) that the Honolulu Police Department speed up the investigation process in order to get traffic back to normal quicker. An editorial by The Honolulu Advertiser on Dec. 23 had the same thought. Articles reported that police say they are doing their best.

But neither the letters nor your editorial suggests any concrete steps the HPD might take to make it happen.

On the day following the latest such accident, you published a picture on Page One. Examination of that picture, although taken from quite far away, shows two lanes, and only two lanes, blocked by those vehicles involved in the accident. It also shows two more lanes blocked by several police patrol cars, a fire engine and who knows what other emergency vehicles. Only one lane remains open for the mass of vehicles stalled behind the mess.

My simple question is, why can't the assorted emergency vehicles park in the same two lanes blocked anyway by the smashed vehicles? That would then leave three lanes open to backed-up traffic. This would have been a vast improvement over what was done.

I know HPD has to investigate the entire scene, and reports say the accident started in the far right lane. So maybe it was necessary to close these lanes briefly to do that part of the investigation. My guess is that such an investigation would not turn up much. I assume several hundred vehicles would have squeezed by the crashed vehicles in these two lanes long before police arrived on the scene. This would undoubtedly have destroyed most if not all of any evidence in these two lanes.

James V. Pollock
Kane'ohe


Kawamoto tenants being treated fairly

Mr. Gensiro Kawamoto is doing his tenants in Hawai'i Kai a favor. He is asking them to vacate his properties by Jan. 31. Very few people move in a rental during the Christmas and New Year's holidays — but some people do move out. That means O'ahu units for rent are more available now than at any other time of year.

Those tenants who want extensions on their vacate notices will find the rental market worse, not better, in March. Mr. Kawamoto has given vacate notices to his tenants. He is not a judge and therefore cannot evict anyone before Jan. 31.

Some of Mr. Kawamoto's tenants are unhappy that he did not raise the rents faster and often enough to keep up with the current rental market. A rule-of-thumb measurement is that monthly rents should equal 1 percent of the market value of the rental house — which means a $400,000 house should get $4,000 a month rent. Most tenants pay way less than that.

So get off Mr. Kawamoto's back!

Jack Martinez
Kapolei


Tokyo's Narita Airport doesn't allow smoking

The state's policy of allowing smoking in airports "because Japanese and other foreign travelers like to smoke" is pretty lame.

In fact, Narita Airport in Tokyo (and other international airports) does not allow smoking in public areas. Arriving passengers must clear customs and immigration and exit the terminal before they can smoke.

Requiring the same here is not unreasonable and would allow the rest of us to breathe fresh air and not be subjected to the danger of secondhand smoke.

R. Boulette
Honolulu


Caught in the act

My wife and I received an early Christmas present this year from the Honolulu Police Department. While wending our way through the heavy Christmas traffic on Kalakaua, we passed by three wild Kawasaki motorcycle riders. Anyone who lives near or in Waikiki knows what a wonderful sound this entails! This trio were having a terrific time preforming wonderful "wheelies" and bursts of speed to the next stop light, when to our delight they were motioned over to the HPD substation by one of Honolulu's finest. There is a Santa!

Tom Nilsson
Waikiki


Hannemann correct to halt pool repairs

Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann will be doing the right thing by putting a stop to the repairs to the pool area of the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium. It is a waste of taxpayer dollars. By keeping the front facade portion intact, the recognition of our World War I heroes will still be forever memorialized.

Many of us learned to swim and perfected our water safety capabilities at this now obsolete and outmoded facility. The pool area should be demolished, cleaned out and returned to a pristine sandy beach for the public to enjoy.

Steven T.K. Burke
Pearl City


It's politics as usual with Djou changes

Charles Djou is the best thing that ever happened to the City Council in the 30-plus years that I have been voting. He is intelligent and articulate, has common sense and is not afraid to speak his mind.

It irritates me to hear others on the council claim that these committee changes were "not political." Give the voters credit for enough intelligence to know that appointments on committees have always been about "playing politics."

Jeanne Hamasaki
Honolulu


Anti-global warming claim by Crichton doesn't hold up

Novelist Michael Crichton's fictional attempt (Sunday's Focus section) to cast doubt on mankind-induced global warming can certainly be viewed as support for the Bush administration and those companies reaping huge profits from fossil fuels and which donated generously to Bush's re-election bid.

Unfortunately, the United States' position as the largest single source of man-made greenhouse gasses and pollutants that affect the whole planet is beyond doubt in the nonfiction world. Indeed, notwithstanding his election 2000 campaign promises to cut greenhouse gases, Bush is unconvinced that there's even a connection between the pollutants we spew into the atmosphere and melting polar caps and rising temperatures worldwide. He says he wants more solid scientific data — a "smoking gun," perhaps — before he acts to clean the air and decrease greenhouse gasses.

Yet, about two years ago, President Bush rushed us into a costly pre-emptive war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence and fear-mongering because he just couldn't wait for the "smoking gun" WMDs originating in Iraq to show up on our shores.

And now Bush is using manipulative scare tactics about the distantly real but fixable problems with Social Security to justify adding trillions of dollars to the national debt so he can hastily privatize that retirement safety net — a scheme that will most certainly enrich his campaign donors on Wall Street.

Sadly, when it comes to dealing with the very real rapid climate changes that most experts attribute in part to greenhouse gases and the indisputable health problems associated with man-made pollutants worldwide, we Americans are seen as the biggest impediment to a global solution.

Why was Bush such an aggressive alarmist about a mostly illusory and controllable threat in Iraq, pushing us into a deadly and costly occupation of that oil-rich country? Why is Bush now trumpeting Social Security as one of the most dire problems we face along with, laughably, same-sex marriage? Why is Bush so unmoved by the suicidal destruction we are wreaking on this planet?

It's simple: Look to the money and questionable "moral values."

Ken Pilkenton
Kailua


Lingle is making a difference

After reading news accounts that downplayed the importance of Gov. Lingle's successes over the past two years, I began to wonder what, from the media's perspective, constitutes an accomplishment?

Let me understand — she took on the tough job of restoring trust in government and broke the link between campaign donations and the awarding of state contracts. Doesn't that count?

She made education reform the hottest public policy issue of 2004, prompting the majority party to follow her lead and at least take some initial steps to improve our schools. Doesn't that count?

She worked hard to turn around Hawai'i's anti-business reputation by cutting fees and assessments, expanding services and doing all she could to make state government and the private sector true partners in economic growth. Doesn't that count?

She mixed a pro-business philosophy with a commitment to fiscal responsibility and saw 28,500 jobs added since she took office, a jump in average personal income, a sharp drop in bankruptcy filings and the lowest unemployment rate in the nation for much of 2004. Doesn't that count?

She has been an ardent supporter of Hawai'i's active-duty, National Guard and Reserve troops as they fight for freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan and help protect our shores from terrorist attacks. Doesn't that count?

She elevated Hawai'i's stature through her close working relationships with the White House and many federal agencies, her presence on the world stage promoting our state, her visit to our troops in Iraq, her appearances at the Republican National Convention and on Air Force One, and her outreach to our "neighbors" through two Asia-Pacific Homeland Security summits. What about that?

And in terms of other important issues that Democrats merely talked about for decades, she proactively fought crime and drugs, protected the environment, designated the largest amount of money ever to battle invasive species, promoted ethanol and other forms of renewable energy, improved public health and human services, updated the animal quarantine laws, confronted transportation problems and fulfilled commitments to Native Hawaiians by making long-overdue payments to them during her first month in office.

Don't any of these score in the accomplishments column? I think they do!

The above-mentioned successes are accomplishments in every sense of the word. Moreover, they were achieved despite the majority party's attempts to block the administration's initiatives at every turn.

From my perspective, and judging by the public opinion polls, our governor has definitely brought about a new beginning for Hawai'i, and she is just getting warmed up.

Yes, the next two years or six years will prove how accomplished this administration ultimately was in making our working environment and quality of life better. But for now, I am convinced that Gov. Lingle is truly making a difference, just as she said she would.

Eric Hamaguchi
Honolulu