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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Letters to the Editor

TRANSIT

THERE ARE MUCH BETTER SOLUTIONS THAN RAIL

There are better and more cost-effective solutions to the congestion problem in the Islands.

Idea 1: Implement a public school bus system. This will reduce the number of parents who drive only to drop off their keiki. Give parents options.

Idea 2: Improve the current bus system. Add more buses. Add more stops. Make the roads more bus-friendly to accommodate their size and maneuverability. Enforce regular cleaning and maintenance.

Idea 3: Be like Europe. The cost to drive is beyond what most people can afford. As a result, people use public transportation more regularly. Borderline drivers will be forced to convert.

In the first two cases, there will be an increase in jobs (bus drivers, construction, etc.), and in all cases there will be a decrease in the number of cars.

Isn't that what we're shooting for? Let's not throw $4.6 billion down the drain.

Landon Castellano
Wahiawa

MOVE GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS, CUT COMMUTE

This transit alternative will eliminate the need for rail transit:

  • Relocate commuter destination from Honolulu to Central O'ahu to reduce commute distance.

  • Develop new business, commercial and government buildings in Central O'ahu where existing freeways intersect.

  • Relocate many of the business, government and commercial functions now located in downtown Honolulu to the new centrally located development.

  • Build the new Central Business District using private/public venture. (Use revenue from excise tax increase if required).

  • Build the CBD on land on and adjacent to the Leeward Community College. (Adjacent private lands could be condemned for this public purpose).

    The benefits:

  • Cost would be minimal if private developers, with tax incentives, participate.

  • Development can be completed in two to three years.

  • Drive distance for West O'ahu commuters would be substantially reduced.

  • The need for rail would be eliminated.

  • Traffic congestion between Central O'ahu and Downtown Honolulu would be eliminated.

    Ben Ramelb
    Salt Lake

    RAIL GIVES COMMUTERS CHOICE IN HOW TO TRAVEL

    We continue to think that traffic congestion will be reduced by a rail system.

    I support a rail system, but it has nothing to do with relieving traffic congestion. Rail is a separate system that gives commuters a choice of how to get where they need to go. I lived in the Tokyo and the Washington, D.C., areas and can assure you the rail systems there did nothing to relieve traffic congestion. They both, however, gave me options regarding how I got around.

    One example that I love were my options for getting into the heart of downtown Tokyo. I could drive over an assortment of local, expressway and toll roads requiring about three hours, or I could take the train and arrive in just about an hour. If I drove, I still had the problem of parking in Tokyo. This was a no-brainer.

    Without a decent mass-transit system, we take away choice. Most of us love our cars, but democracy is about choice.

    Robert Edmond
    Honolulu

    RAIL WILL ONLY BANKRUPT TAXPAYERS OF O'AHU

    In the spirit of the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, the mayor has presented the City Council and the people of this island with the biggest turkey ever — his proposal for a railroad!

    And to go with this bloated bird are his pie-in-the-sky financial estimates of the cost to be paid by the taxpayers. He and the City Council seem to think that whatever federal money is allocated to this project is a handout. The people of this island pay federal taxes, also.

    There are so many fallacies, omissions and glossed-over aspects of the mayor's proposal, one is hard put to know just where to begin. He and the City Council members seem to have lost sight of the charge Parsons, Brinkckerhoff was given when it was awarded a contract to develop solutions to traffic congestion in the east-west corridor. By its own admission, a railroad will do nothing to relieve traffic congestion. If anything, it will exacerbate the condition.

    If the mayor is hoping a railroad will be his legacy, he may wish to consider bankrupting the people of this island as a more likely alternative.

    Charles M. Ferrell
    Honolulu

    IRAQ

    EXECUTION WILL MAKE SADDAM A MARTYR

    Executing Saddam Hussein will only accelerate the fall of the American empire and further fuel the fire of hatred toward western imperialism. Remember, all religions boast of their martyrs.

    A very wise kahuna from Nu'uanu once said: "There is no death, only transition."

    Eric Po'ohina
    Kailua

    ELECTION

    CAMPAIGNING IS PAU, TAKE DOWN THE SIGNS

    Now that the elections are over, I sure hope these candidates and their supporters go around their respective communities and take down their signs that pollute our neighborhoods and our 'aina.

    If they truly care about our beautiful 'aina, I hope they find it in their hearts to step up during the next legislative session and amend the current law, and put these signs in the same category as billboards.

    Let's get this done before the 2008 elections.

    Brian Matsusaka
    Honolulu

    FOOTBALL

    PLEASE, UH WARRIORS, SHOW SOME MERCY

    Shame on the Warrior football team! Blowing out opposing teams is unbecoming.

    Previous teams scored a lot of points, but at least the defense did not simultaneously shut down teams on a regular basis. Defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville's swarming defense makes me quiver, even cringe.

    Why not give other teams a fighting chance? Please show some mercy. Whatever happened to aloha?

    I fear other teams will refuse to play the Warriors at home because of their dominating style. The outlook for next year appears to be even gloomier, being that they may very well go undefeated.

    How sad that the Warriors may lose even more fans next year. What a brutal sport Warrior football has become in Hawai'i, the Aloha State!

    P.S. I'm being sarcastic. Go Warriors!

    Mark Owens
    Honolulu

    PICKING FOOTBALL TEAM OVER TV NEWSCASTER

    June Jones' Warriors: winners!

    Joe Moore: whiner

    Martin Hollowell
    Mililani

    NOT ART

    DO NOT GIVE UP BATTLE TO RID ISLAND OF GRAFFITI

    This is in response to Cheryl Abellanida's comments on graffiti (Letters, Nov. 4).

    If she wants to see "artistic treasures," tell her to visit a museum. If she wants to enjoy a "unique mark," perhaps these so called "artists" could do community service by helping older and disabled people paint their homes.

    Barriers, walls of the freeways and sewage tunnels are private property.

    Graffiti is making our island look like a third world country, not an island paradise. It is doubtful that any of these "villains" will be designing our clothes, houses and artwork. What they are doing is showing a total lack of respect for our communities.

    We will not give up the fight to keep our island graffiti free.

    Susan Viloria
    Waikele

    ACT 221

    HIGH-TECH TAX CREDIT A HIGH-END BOONDOGGLE

    Your recent article by Marcia Sakai and Bruce Bird regarding the Hawai'i high-technology tax credit (Island Voices, Oct. 26) makes some interesting points. The authors indicated that the credit is far more generous than the technology credit offered by any other state, and that 39.3 percent of the high-technology jobs counted under Act 221 in tax year 2003 were "performing arts" jobs.

    Since high-technology credits apply to performing arts jobs, the clowns in the Legislature who initiated this billion-dollar boondoggle might be eligible to apply for the credits themselves.

    Peter Knerr
    Kailua

    TRIBUTE

    ALOHA, JIMMY COCKETT, A VERY SPECIAL HOTELIER

    As I was unable to attend the service, I would like to add my aloha for my friend Jimmy Cockett. I wanted to give him my personal award for being the world's most patient hotel manager, having seen his handling of Mr. Frank Sinatra and his entourage. At the time, I represented Capitol Records for Hawai'i.

    It started with a phone call from Jimmy at 3 a.m. asking me for help in finding a grand piano to be lifted to the top floor of the Surfrider Hotel as quickly as possible, as Mr. Sinatra had just called him at home with the request. Frank had reserved the whole top floor, and he could not understand why there was no piano in his suite when he wished to sing for his guests. I told Jimmy that I was home in bed at home in Kane'ohe and that the ball was in his court.

    The next morning, I went by the hotel just in time to see the grand piano being hoisted up the side of the hotel to the penthouse.

    Jimmy was a great guy. I will miss him.

    Don McDiarmid Jr.
    Kailua

    OCEAN

    OVERFISHING HARMING HAWAIIAN MONK SEALS

    PBS just aired a very informative show on Hawai'i's endangered monk seals in which scientists were investigating what they called mysterious reasons for the seals' starvation.

    I was astonished that the show avoided the real reason for the distress — overfishing of the spiny lobster, their primary food source.

    Maine has 120 years of effective regulation of their lobster industry, but in Hawai'i greed has won over logic.

    Has anyone in Hawai'i looked into creating what are called artificial homes for our spiny lobsters?

    The PBS special did not mention lay gill nets, which also kill monk seals. But the most interesting aspect of the show was that seals have resorted to swimming 20 to 30 miles from the reef and diving 1,000 feet deep to feed under rare coral trees for the crabs and fish under them.

    I believe these coral trees have been harvested to make coral jewelry. It seems all animals will make a desperate act to survive against human plunder of our world to make a lousy buck!

    Ingrid Molina
    Honolulu