BAD GROWTH

TURTLE BAY EXPANSION WOULD BE DISASTROUS

The development plan of the Turtle Bay Resort for five new hotels with 3,500 new hotel rooms must be stopped. The population impact of such an expansion would significantly destroy the quality of life of O'ahu's rural North Shore.

Economic studies show that one quality hotel room can produce about two jobs; each job should support one to four new people. A growth of 3,500 hotel rooms could be responsible for at least 14,000 workers and members of their families. In addition, if two visitors occupy each room, another 7,000 people would be present on a daily basis of full occupancy. Therefore, the proposed new hotels could increase the population of the North Shore rural area by 21,000 or more new persons.

Hawai'i's jobless rate, lowest in the nation, is at a 15-year low at 2.4 percent. Economists accept a 4 to 6 percent unemployment rate as a full employment standard. The development of new low-paying jobs is not desirable for this state. In contrast, the availability of such jobs lures new in-migrants to these low-quality positions.

Hotel growth encourages in-migration and rapid population increase. This occurs at the cost of environmental deterioration; land, water, air and noise pollution; water supply and sewage overload; urbanization of agricultural, conservation and beachfront lands; increase in housing costs; disruption of native ecosystems with loss of land and marine flora and fauna; possible destruction of cultural, historic and archaeological sites; rising crime rates, social stress and parking problems.

The proposed Turtle Bay development would cause severe traffic congestion. Urban studies in 1980 showed that new hotels at Kawela Bay and Turtle Bay would require at least a four-lane highway for economic viability. Are Hawai'i taxpayers to support this growth for the gain of out-of-state investors?

TV STATIONS

WEATHER REPORTS SHOULD BE SIMILAR

All of our TV stations should get their weather reports from the same source.

It seems that each station wants to either exaggerate or downplay its report simply to get its viewers.

O'AHU TRASH

CURBSIDE RECYCLING DESERVES SUPPORT

Hawai'i residents generate a whopping average of 6.2 pounds of 'opala each day. That's 41 percent more than the national average (4.4 pounds). This wastefulness is compounded by our lack of recycling, with more than two-thirds of our waste being landfilled or incinerated.

Honolulu needs a comprehensive curbside recycling program to pick up recyclable materials — paper, plastics, bottles and green waste — to help address our problem with too much trash and too little landfill space. Honolulu is the largest municipal government in the nation that has not implemented a curbside recycling program.

Last month, after the mayor canceled curbside recycling, the City Council passed a bill and finally committed the city to doing curbside recycling. Now the discussion has centered on funding this program.

The mayor has suggested it would take $8 million to fund curbside recycling. Many municipalities on the Mainland, however, actually make money by contracting with a private company to collect and resell recyclable materials. A well-run curbside recycling program on O'ahu will capture more than 40,000 tons of recyclables annually.

The economics of curbside recycling are fairly clear — recyclable materials are an asset, whereas trash is a liability. For each ton of recyclables collected, the city would receive $5 (according to the bid offered by a recycler during the most recent request for proposals).

With trash, however, the city has two costly options: burn it at H-Power by paying $60 per ton, or landfill it for $15 per ton.

More important, our environment and future generations are paying the real costs for not recycling. Whether the amount is $8 million or much less, reducing the amount of trash we landfill is desperately needed in our community, and recycling helps us fix our trash problem.

Curbside recycling is the most effective means of dramatically boosting the amount of trash diverted to recycling. We estimate that over 25 million pounds of recycled materials have been wasted, going to the landfill instead of being recycled since the city canceled its plans to launch an islandwide curbside recycling program last year.

The city has had a number of administrative hiccups, including procurement lawsuits and contract problems, in trying to launch a comprehensive islandwide curbside recycling program over the past three years. Last year, the mayor canceled curbside recycling in part because of these administrative problems.

These administrative hiccups, however, should not stop us from undertaking this worthy and needed project. Rather than completely cancel curbside recycling because of administrative problems, we need to instead redouble our efforts to make sure we get it done right.

The beautiful natural environment is one of the special things about Hawai'i. Our government needs to do what we can to help preserve this wonderful resource. Fixing our municipal solid-waste problem by starting a comprehensive curbside recycling program for O'ahu is exactly the sort of thing we need to undertake.

We simply can't wait any longer for real solid-waste solutions. Let's stop burying our problems. Easy, convenient curbside recycling will help us get there.

FRENCH SCHOOL TEACHERS ALSO STAND AGAINST CHANGE

The French must have been jolted upon learning that 28 of the top 29 secondary schools in their country are private and only one is public. The right to good public education is such a prominent part of the French ethos. For example, Napoleon declared public education to be the most important of all institutions.

The French have become increasingly dissatisfied with public schools, as 20 percent of secondary school students now attend private schools. Commenting on the situation, France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, said, "For a century, free secular republican schooling has proudly ensured equal opportunity, permitting thousands of children from modest families to obtain secondary and higher education. But today it has become inegalitarian." Strong words from a high-ranking public official of a country whose motto is "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite."

Mr. Sarkozy wants to improve the public schools by giving them more freedom to experiment and specialize. However, the public school teachers in France, who are centrally employed, constitute a body that equates decentralization and diversity with an assault on uniformity. They have been able to use their power to stifle change.

Like the French, Hawai'i's residents also have historically valued public education. To us, it also represents a means by which anyone can become successful, no matter what social or economic background.

As in France, about 20 percent of Hawai'i's secondary school students attend private schools. A further similarity is that an effort to decentralize Hawai'i's public education system two years ago was disabled by the teachers union, the Hawai'i State Teachers Association.

Hawai'i and France aren't usually thought of as being very similar. But when it comes to education, Hawai'i is much too similar to France. Mon Dieu!