Posted on: Thursday, February 17, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Make your commute easier with these tips

As a commuter, I drive at least 30 miles a day. I feel many drivers don't realize that we rely on one another to make our roads safer. Let's drive with good judgment, patience and aloha.

We cannot help with decreasing the numbers of cars on the road at a given time, but here are simple reminders; some are already traffic laws that can help with easing morning and afternoon jams:

1. Be sure to have current registration, safety check and insurance.

2. Keep up with regular maintenance. Check oil levels and tire pressure with each gas fill-up.

3. Plan your drive route ahead of time to avoid rushing to your destination.

4. Always use your seatbelt.

5. Respect all pedestrians in crosswalks.

6. Use express, carpool, shoulder and zipper lanes only if you meet the requirements.

7. Obey all speed limits and traffic signs.

8. Remember: green means go, yellow means slow down and red means stop.

9. Use your signal at all times, especially in merging and lane changing.

10. If cell phone use is absolutely necessary, pull to the side of the road.

Fantastic news! Local boy Norm Chow, after spending 32 years as an assistant coach in the college ranks, is exiting USC as the offensive coordinator and taking his talent to the NFL's Tennessee Titans as their offensive coordinator.

Here is a guy who has accomplished all there is in this game of football, had a hand in the grooming of All Pros Jim McMahon and Steve Young (who was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame this year), Ty Detmer (a Heisman Trophy winner), and Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart (Heisman winners also from USC).

Some sportswriters wondered out loud the wisdom of Chow making the move to the NFL, suggesting that it's a tougher job than the college scene and he could expect to work harder. Maybe so, but Chow will make twice the money he makes at USC; besides, Norm Chow knows no other way than to work hard.

I'm amazed that after 32 years as an assistant coach in the college ranks that here is a man with one of the finest football minds in the country, possessing an impeccable record of accomplishments in this game he loves with a passion, and that people find it mysterious that he would opt for the NFL.

The answer is very simple. How about "tired of being passed over." With his credentials, you'd think "they" would come knocking on his door. But for 32 years no one came, and that's the colleges' loss and the NFL's gain.

There's a lot more to Nanakuli than fights

Nanakuli High & Intermediate School has had a lot of fights these past few weeks. The negative publicity in the newspaper and on TV is only looking at the bad parts of our school.

Besides the students who fight and the ones who watch, there are still a lot more students who go to class and mind their own business. These students include those on the honor roll and principal's list and many in the band, all of whom get a bad reputation from the few who spoil it for our school.

Unqualified substitute teachers hurt pupils

Regarding the Feb. 7 story "Test-score gap remains for low-income pupils: Despite progress, performance still well below average": One explanation behind this concern could be the lack of certified teachers and unqualified substitute teachers in public school classrooms.

I feel that lower income and race have nothing to do with lower Hawai'i public school test scores and more to do with the Department of Education lacking in support and attention for the schoolteachers.

I graduated from Kaimuki High School, class of 2001. Even then I felt that there were many unqualified substitute teachers in the classrooms. Once I had a police officer as a substitute teacher for my economics class. Basically, we just sat quietly in class, which felt more like being baby-sat than being taught about economics.

Large-scale people mover is essential

After reading the article regarding the rail tax, I was extremely embarrassed at the reasons for not supporting this idea. The general consensus of "How does this apply to me? I don't live out there" was an appalling sign of selfishness.

How does this apply to everyone? Maybe the doctors, lawyers, teachers and business owners who make the commute each day, to teach your children or serve you lunch, can give an answer. Sacrifice is part of living on an island; you give up things to get things. A four-hour daily commute, sandwiched around an eight-hour shift, is a huge sacrifice for the thousands who make it every single day.

We are not immune to the ills of overpopulation and poor city planning. The socioeconomic impact of having an efficient mode of transportation across the island is obvious. A large-scale people mover is one of the best answers for achieving a better quality of life for the citizens of O'ahu.

The rest of the world understands mass transit; why doesn't Hawai'i?

Returning veterans know price being paid

Ms. Shayla Nakashima, you do not speak for me when you suggest that "we are not fighting for freedom" in Iraq (Letters, Feb. 8). If the price of freedom is not paid now, then we will forfeit the sacred trust paid for by our brothers- and sisters-in-arms since our nation was forged. How do we face our children's generation and tell them that there was just "no real purpose" to fighting the (very real) war on terror?

I know the price of freedom is terribly high. It always has been. Ms. Nakashima, I take umbrage at your remarks and suggest that you take the time to talk to some of the young women and men returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a member of a veteran's group that holds welcome-home breakfasts for some of our returning heroes, I hear a very different version of our future than the one painted by your letter. These young men and women know the price they are being asked to pay, and hopefully some day they will be writing a letter like this to someone like you.

Underage drinking must be targeted

I applaud The Honolulu Advertiser for putting the spotlight on underage drinking at UH-Manoa (Feb. 1, Feb. 7). This has been an ongoing problem for many years and is finally getting the attention it deserves.

As one of the many parents who did the recent midnight walk-abouts at the dormitories, I was appalled at the numerous, blatant underage drinking violations I witnessed.

I strongly urge fellow parents, UH students and the community in general to support the UH administration in its efforts to crack down on this problem.

The safety and lives of our children are at stake. By addressing this problem, we make our city and streets a safe place as well. This is no time for apathy. We must act now.

College athletics are different from the pros

Kudos to Lee Cataluna ("UH coach no hero in Kahuku," Feb. 8) for having the courage to bring into focus a picture that has increasingly troubled many of our Islands' people, whether they are football fans or not.

College sports exist for different reasons than professional sports. Their core values are as different from each other as day and night. For every exceptionally gifted college athlete who graduates to the pros, the rest of his or her teammates, who will not, are left behind.

For those who become professionals, what values will equip them to deal with the rewards and punishments of such extreme limelight? For those whose athletic careers end on their last college playing field, what values will they have learned to help them become the best marriage partners, the best parents and the best citizens of their communities that they can be?

Will they have learned to win the game at all costs, or will they have learned what it takes to become true lifelong winners?

Condo land lease disputes settled under arbitration

In response to Mr. Heinz-Guenther Pink's Feb. 10 letter: The first rent renegotiation of land under a condominium is typically completed 30 years after the rent is initially set. If land lease rents go up 1,000 percent over 30 years, that is a compound annual rate of increase of 7.9 percent over 30 years. A 7.9 percent annual rate of increase for apartment-zoned land in urban Honolulu over the last 30 years is not unreasonable.

Condominium land rent disputes are settled by state law through arbitration. All condominium land leases include a clause describing the arbitration process and the use of this process to settle a land lease rent dispute. The lessee, by signing his lease or the subsequent assignment of lease, agrees to abide by the arbitration process.

In the arbitration process, the landowner appoints an arbitrator, the lessee appoints an arbitrator. Both arbitrators appoint a third arbitrator. A two-out-of-three decision by the arbitrators is final.

The arbitration process avoids an expensive and time-consuming decision by the courts that can be appealed. The arbitration process cannot be appealed. Both landowner and lessee can be assured of a certainty in the setting of the new lease rent and can go on with their lives.

Unless stated in the lease, the arbitrators decide the rate of return on the land value. The rate of return at this time is typically 6 percent, 7 percent or 8 percent.

The arbitrators' decision of rate of return is based on a review of other land leases, interviews with lessors and lessees, and from their own experience in other arbitrations. Again, a two-out-of-three decision is final.

The cost of the lessor-appointed arbitrator is paid for by the lessor, the cost of the lessee-appointed arbitrator is paid for by the lessee. Both the lessor and lessee pay 50 percent of the cost of the third arbitrator.

The lessee's interest is represented in the arbitration panel by the appointment of one of the three arbitrators. The lessee-selected arbitrator also has a say in the appointment of the third arbitrator.

This is a very fair method to establish land value and rates of return.

My background: I am a small landowner and have owned leasehold condominium units in the past. I am a professional real estate appraiser, consultant and arbitrator with over 30 years of experience. I was appointed to the leasehold conversion task group by the City Council in 2003.

School fighting must be addressed

In a little over a week, four of Hawai'i's public high schools — Waipahu, Nanakuli, Wai'anae and Radford — dealt with violence that led to police lockdowns, emergency room visits, injured officers, student arrests and expulsion. Principals and their teachers need the authority to remove troubled students and place them in alternative settings.

Such violence in our schools is inexcusable. Sadly, these incidents are not unusual, but simply a recent and severe symptom of an ongoing problem — an erosion of civility and safety in our public schools.

This confirms one finding in the annual report card of the National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP), which found Hawai'i's public schools are the most violent of any state in the nation. Altercations like the one that involved over 25 officers at Waipahu High School are the most visible of violent incidents that occur on a less-visible scale more regularly in our public education system.

The NAEP found that Hawai'i's eighth-grade students face more physical conflicts than eighth-graders in all of the other 49 states. Likewise, 44 percent of Hawai'i's middle schools state that classroom misbehavior is a significant problem, which interferes with the ability of teachers to maintain an orderly learning environment.

When it comes to classroom insubordination, the NAEP ranks Hawai'i the worst state in the country.

Hawai'i's schools also face a high delinquency rate, which has much to do with the fact that classes and schools are too large. The average size of Hawai'i's high schools — at 1,212 pupils per school — is 61 percent greater than the national average. Naturally, the large number of students per school makes it difficult for administrators and teachers to keep track of everyone, much less get to know them — a detachment that leads to general misbehavior and violence.

The consequence of all of this violence is that Hawai'i's eighth-graders overall have the nation's second-worst ranking for reading, math and writing scores combined.

In order to improve the working climate for our public school administrators, the Legislature must provide principals with enough power to manage their schools and resources. Principals need the authority to finance the changes they see as most vital to creating "schools within schools" and fixing the classroom atmosphere. Every school has its own needs and priorities, and its principal knows how to meet those needs better than any centralized bureaucracy.

To remedy the ills currently plaguing our institutions of learning, we, House Republicans, have introduced legislation that would provide administrators ways to deal with violence (HB 199) and gain more control over their schools' resources (HB 195). We are committed to working with administrators, teachers, parents, students and other lawmakers in this undertaking so that our keiki receive the top-notch education they deserve.