Posted on: Monday, April 11, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Mayor's revamping of Kuhio appreciated

I am glad Mayor Hannemann is taking a second look at the Kuhio Avenue median strip. The narrow lanes are hazardous for buses and large trucks alike.

Vehicle near-misses are commonplace. Buses, emergency equipment and large trucks can potentially clip each other when side by side in transit. Heavy traffic creates a congestion whereby fire equipment and ambulances are unable to pass.

At some intersections, tree branches block traffic signals; at other locations, newly planted trees hide pedestrians altogether.

As a city bus driver for more than 31 years and a member of the O'ahu Transit Services Safety Committee, I believe this beautification project could be improved with safety concerns addressed immediately. Some Waikiki folks are disenchanted with Mayor Hannemann's second look at Kuhio Avenue and all other city projects that don't make sense. It is by far in everyone's best interest to keep safety first for a win-win for all — regardless.

Don't blame the city permitting department

This is in response to recent negative press on the city's Department of Planning and Permitting. I have to agree with Deputy Director David Tanoue's comments that there is not appropriate recognition of the effort put forth by his dedicated employees. Working in the building industry, I have had many occasions to witness their diligent hard work.

Working as a plans examiner or an inspector is not easy. They have to enforce rules that make some people unhappy but in the end are intended to protect the overall community. They have to keep up with a complicated national building code that changes every three years. The 1991 building code was contained in one small book; the current building code is a large, three-volume set. If you thought the phone book has gotten big, you should see the building code.

The building department has been understaffed, resulting in a slowing down of the process. This, however, is not the fault of the department's staff and should not count against the good work they do.

One thing the public can do to help improve the system is to have adequately and professionally prepared building permit submittals. Shoddy submittals slow the process for everyone. Any complaints about the length of time to get a submittal processed should be made to the city administration, not the building department staff; they would like to see additional help as well.

State should pay what it owes recycling firm

The bottle law fiasco is threatening small businesses on O'ahu. The state's largest recycler, Island Recycling, has shelled out a quarter of a million dollars for bottles and cans so far, and the state has yet to reimburse it. How long before it becomes so cash poor it has to lay off employees and stop paying vendors?

My company has enjoyed a wonderful business relationship with Island Recycling for nearly a decade. I will support it through these rough times as best I can because it is the honorable thing to do.

Where is the state's honor? Is it tied up in senseless red tape and fine print? Or is it the new order of business to avoid responsibility by hiding behind the implementation of poorly constructed, unthought-out legislation?

Affordable housing? Legislature could do it

The Legislature can increase the supply of affordable housing by:

• Getting the state out of the housing business. The state owns hundreds of housing units, many of which are not rented because they are in such poor condition — and have been for years. Sell these to private investors under terms that they must be rehabbed and on the rental market (or owner-occupied) within one year.

• Eliminating the taxes on rental housing. Rents now must be set to include 4 percent GET (soon to be 5 percent?) plus property taxes that may be twice that of owner-occupied homes. These often add up to 10 percent or more of the rent.

• Enforcing developer requirements to build low-cost housing. Too many of these are waived by county councils.

• Reducing unnecessarily long and complex permitting requirements. There is no reason why a new conforming home cannot be permitted within a week.

• Expediting the approval of alternative building materials, such as bamboo.

The Legislature could do these things — but we fear they will opt for even more government interference in the housing market and even more government-owned and -mismanaged low-income housing.

Folks with lives won't put up with hassle

We have tried our best to redeem a large yard bag of plastic bottles for which we paid a redemption fee. We finally had to dump the bottles somewhere else.

We went several times to the redemption center, but it was closed early a couple of times. Another time the truck was full and could not take any more; another time they were out of cash and could not take any more. The last time we went, there was only one person on duty and more than 12 people in line. The worker suddenly announced that he had been called and that he had to stop taking any material and do his paperwork.

There are people who probably don't mind standing in line an hour or so to get $5, but there are others of us who have a little more meaning to our life, and we certainly won't be back. There are many good redemption center programs in the country; it is too bad we apparently did not investigate some of them before starting our own.

Let's get rid of all the trees and boulders

With unfortunate incidents with trees and boulders, we have to do something. Since we need more space on O'ahu, let's create a public works project.

Trees and boulders are a hazard; let's do away with all of them. Cut down the trees close to houses, traffic, pedestrians, etc. Heck, let's be proactive and cut all of them down. That way, we could save ourselves the trouble.

Let's slope every hill and rock face in sight. Better yet, let's flatten all the mountains on this island. Pau! No more boulders! Hey, no more landslides, too. Even better: With our growing population, we'll need the space anyway.

This will keep us busy for years with the changes. We can then build houses and roads and businesses. Think about it. The island would be a metropolitan sprawl. Desalinized water would prevent any water shortage.

What about the politicians, you ask? Since they seem to love research and not actually do anything, let them do a study. It'll keep them busy, too. A win-win situation.

It's time to get rid of the tax increasers

Hawai'i legislators seem hell-bent on raising taxes and fees (in any way possible) even though Hawai'i is one of the most highly taxed states in the nation. This is an annual exercise due to the Democratic control of both houses. Hmmmmmm.

This ongoing assault against Hawai'i's overtaxed people is proof enough that most Democrats love higher taxes, more regulation and bigger, more intrusive government. Let's go all out to elect more Republicans and true Independents. Perhaps a balanced Legislature would go a long way toward stopping the yearly continuing Democratic power play to separate us from our hard-earned money.

Culture no excuse for crude practices

Cockfighting is gambling and cruelty to animals. No ifs or buts; hiding behind "culture" does not cut it!

Does it mean that dogfighting is acceptable as well? England has banned fox hunting, a so-called culture that has been sustained for hundreds of years. Many countries in the world banned a thriving tradition and culture called headhunting.

As we progress toward civilized society, we should look at these matters with conscience and truth. Or, are we are reverting to a chaos society by hiding behind "culture"?

UH tuition assistance clarified

Vincent K. Pollard's April 1 letter sought clarification of an article about UH tuition and financial aid ("Tuition increases scary for some," Beverly Creamer, March 22). The article included a pie chart depicting recipients of UH tuition assistance (in the form of full or partial tuition waivers), and below that were listed the categories of nonresidents for whom a differential rate is charged (i.e., they are, by Board of Regents policy, exempt from the nonresident rate).

Those in the group called "Pacific and Asian students" included in the pie chart receive tuition assistance because they are students specializing in Pacific or Asian studies (they may be undergraduates or graduates, residents or nonresidents). The nonresident category called "Outstanding" Pacific and Asian students are students from the Pacific or Asia region who receive the privilege of paying the UH resident rate based on merit.

As part of the university's proposal for a new tuition schedule, 2006-07 to 2010-11, the amount of financial assistance based on need will be increased from $4.8 million to $20.7 million. This aid will come from the tuition revenues collected by each campus.

The UH Foundation also awards approximately $5 million in scholarships each year. There is currently a resolution in the Legislature to establish a Hawai'i state scholarship that, if funded, would provide direct state support to residents of the state enrolled in public higher education.

As Mr. Pollard suggests, such efforts to provide financial assistance are needed to ensure access for all qualified residents of the state of Hawai'i to quality public higher education.

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