All intersections should have left-turn arrow

Drivers on O'ahu need to be more careful with pedestrians. I encountered two dangerous situations recently.

The first one was when I was walking around my block and someone was reversing out of his driveway. That person probably wasn't looking back because I was walking near his driveway and he kept reversing! If he had hit me, it would have been his fault because he is supposed to check his surroundings before reversing the car.

The second one was in downtown Honolulu at the crosswalk at the left-hand corner of Alakea and Beretania streets. There is no left-turn signal there, so drivers think they have the right of way. I was trying to get into that crosswalk many times when I saw a driver trying to turn left. Actually, drivers turned left many times, so I had to stop walking.

I feel all intersections need to have a left-turn arrow. That way, drivers won't feel they have the right of way and won't turn in front of pedestrians. Especially at this busy downtown intersection; it needs to have a left-turn-arrow sign because it is used frequently during the weekdays, especially during rush hours when people are trying to get to the bus stop on Beretania Street.

Drivers on O'ahu, be more cautious with pedestrians because everyone is a pedestrian at one time or another.

Ticket price increases mean fewer attending

Every story about the University of Hawai'i's sports money woes cites probable huge ticket increases that will not only sock the longtime fans in their already-depleted wallets but turn away even more fans. The stadium will look like a ghost town in 2005.

To try to cover as many bases as possible, they repeatedly talk about upping pay-per-view charges, knowing that a big number will forsake the huge increases and stay at home and drink their own beer and eat their own pupu and avoid long lines to the restrooms. But what happens to the true Rainbow fans who are handicapped and cannot make it to the games but have supported the teams via pay TV? Are they going to be slapped with the big increase, too?

All of this has happened since the wonderful attempt to change the Rainbows' name and colors to create more money on new item sales. The fact that there are dozens of Warrior teams around the country and that in the past five to six years a growing number of schools have adopted black for their colors has not daunted the drive to the so-called "Big Time," which is eluding UH so far.

We still can get basketball, volleyball and baseball games without having to go to pay TV. When you are handicapped (read crippled), the charges for football may be out of reach. Go 'Bows! Hooray for The Advertiser if that's all we can rely on this season.

Arnold Palmer's wife made stay memorable

My husband and I had a wonderful time in Hawai'i with many exciting and happy events.

One event stood out above all others. Recently, we were having lunch at Lei Lei's at Turtle Bay when Arnold Palmer and his wife, Kathleen, drove up in a golf cart. Kathleen had an armful of lei, which she and Arnold had received in honor of their marriage.

She graciously gave one to each of the women in the restaurant. As she put the lei around my neck, she said she wanted to share, and it was a special moment. I will never forget it.

"Lucky you live Hawai'i."

Housing price cap sounds better to me

Scott Bradley's Island Voices column of Feb. 4 regarding the price of housing in Hawai'i was spot-on. We need to pass a law that limits the price of a house in Hawai'i to the average cost of a home on the Mainland.

That would teach Big Real Estate a thing or two. In fact, a new "house price cap law" could be modeled after the infamous gas cap law, which will take effect this September.

After all, using the numbers The Advertiser reported last week, the gasoline price cap law is going to save me a whopping 2 cents per gallon. If I fill up my Honda twice a week, that's a grand savings of $1.60 per month.

Wouldn't lawmakers garner more public support (and votes) if they instead implemented a housing price cap? Isn't saving $1,000 a month on housing costs better than $1.60 on gasoline? Even I can't afford to buy a home — and I'm employed by the big, bad, evil, greedy petroleum industry.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should switch careers and work for Big Real Estate.

Mandatory sprinklers aren't fair to condos

Mandatory sprinkler retrofitting will put every condominium association in debt, as well as most of the owners of the hundreds of units involved.

During the past year, there have been many house fires, with many deaths involved. The Fire Department was not any better at putting those fires out than it was the two high-rise fires in question. Are you going to demand that every single-family dwelling, townhouse and three-story walk-up on the island also be retrofitted with sprinklers?

Most people who buy condominiums are either young people starting out or elderly people on fixed incomes. Asking us to go into debt just to make it easy for firefighters is hardly fair.

I would much rather keep my insurance paid up, keep my smoke alarms in working order and take my chances than go into debt for something that may never happen. And I certainly do not relish having pipes running all over my solid concrete ceilings.

Why not provide condominiums with trash service, which we pay for in our taxes as well as in our maintenance fees, and let the firefighters do what they get paid for — putting out fires.

State film industry needs tax incentives

Regarding Lee Cataluna's sarcastic comments about the possibility of "Lost" returning to L.A.: She needs to do her homework.

As a local actor who has worked on "Lost" and "North Shore," I see what comes out of my paycheck: taxes for the state of Hawai'i.

More than 60 percent of the jobs created by "Lost" have gone to local people. Jobs! Well-paying jobs! More tax dollars for the state of Hawai'i. Plus, the millions of dollars pumped into the local economy by way of hotels, food, transportation, etc. The state gets a cut of that, too.

We need to do more to encourage filming in Hawai'i in the way of tax incentives. While working as an actor in L.A. for 12 years, I lost many opportunities to productions that went to Canada because of its generous tax incentives. The loss of productions to Canada is a real problem in Hollywood.

Don't offer criticism of a new production and jeopardize the jobs and opportunities afforded to local actors like me, as well as to lots of other local workers. Before you stick your slippah in your mouth again, get informed and get "real" yourself, Ms. Cataluna.

So many offered help when car was stuck

On Jan. 30, at around 11:30 a.m., I began experiencing car trouble near the Forty Niner's diner in 'Aiea. I tried to pull over to the curb but was unsuccessful. My car died in the right-turn lane just off the highway. I was blocking more than half of that lane. My car would not start, and the shift gear was locked in the park position. I could not move my car.

While stuck there, quite a few people stopped to offer help. This nice couple even tried to jump my car, but to no avail. Several more people offered to assist me in pushing my vehicle off to the side. Since I could not get the car out of gear, I could not move my car, and worse yet, the towing company was a half-hour away.

Finally, after about 20 minutes and more offers of assistance, a young gentleman asked me what the problem was. He immediately pulled into a parking stall at the diner and ran over to me. He said there was this "shift lock" that I had to engage before I could get the car out of gear. He opened the door and got the car out of gear. He than assisted me along with this other gentleman and got my car off the lane and onto the curb.

In these hectic times, I am proud to say that "only in Hawai'i" would you see so much aloha. Thank you to all who offered help and assisted me that day. May your travels be always safe.

We need rail transit, and tax is appropriate

I have lived in the Islands for 12 years. During that time, I have watched the traffic get worse and worse. Everyone's schedule is affected by traffic. Everyone complains about the traffic.

Everyone wants "something" to be done. But now that the Legislature — and our representatives in Washington — are actually trying to "do something," some object that our taxes will be raised.

Of course we have to raise money to pay for solving the traffic problem. The money is not otherwise available. Rail is an obvious solution to O'ahu's traffic problem; we have narrow transportation corridors, with a few clear destinations for rail stops.

Let's stop whining about taxes and support our legislators' attempt to "do something" about the traffic problems. Everyone should help pay for it because everyone will benefit.

Rail transit project must have total accountability

It always worries me when the government wants to do something really big. I, and many people I have spoken with, simply do not trust our public officials to properly manage big projects.

State and city officials now want to build a multibillion-dollar rail system for O'ahu and increase our taxes to do so (hundreds per family per year, by the way; think of it as working about one more week a year just to pay for this).

Even if you think that rail is the right answer, the key question is, do you trust our government to do the project right? However many billions it tells us it will cost, triple it (at best); if it says it will take five years, it will probably take 20 (think H-3). The state cannot manage simple repairs at the airport. The city cannot maintain our roads. Yet they want us to trust them with billions of dollars to build a railroad.

So here is what I propose. We, the people, agree to support this project, but only if the politicians who support it — the governor, legislators, mayor, members of the City Council, senators, congressmen and the relevant department heads — all sign personal guarantees that this project will be done on time and on budget. If it isn't, they empty their pockets to help pay for it.

You want to spend our money? You want us to trust you? Then put your money where your mouth is. If you refuse, it just proves that you have no faith in the project being on time or on budget. And if you don't believe it, why should we?

Don't you think that those responsible would do a better job of overseeing the project if they knew that their personal fortunes were at stake?

Unfortunately, this idea of true accountability probably sounds preposterous to our leaders. So, I put the question to you, sirs and madams: What will you do to ensure that accountability does exist?