KAKA'AKO

LET'S HEAR IT FOR URBAN GROWTH (YEAH, RIGHT)

We at "Keep the City City" wholly endorse the new 20-year plan for Kaka'ako's new skyline. There have always been too many breezes and too much sunshine in the area.

The cancer-causing sun and gentle (yeah, right) offshore breezes not only have encouraged better-shaped waves for those pesky surfer types, but have always encouraged the growth of plants in our otherwise "tidy" future city.

We all know the damage that plants, especially trees, have done to our state. Trees not only litter the sidewalks, along with those other plant parts called flowers (which attract bees, by the way), but cause numerous deaths. I cannot personally count how many times a tree has entered the "road space" where I happened to be driving home from the bar at night. Not to mention the weak food that trees provide.

The new skyline will provide much-needed shelter for our valuable citizens. And when the population doubles, we will need the space to house this all-important food source of the future.

Go Kaka'ako!

EDUCATION

CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENT ASKS FOR FUNDING PARITY

I am a student at Hakipu'u Learning Center (HLC), which is a Hawaiian charter school.

I come to school every day because I love HLC. Not only do we learn the usual subjects, we also learn about the Hawaiian culture through hands-on learning experiences.

We help/learn about loko i'a (fishpond) and lo'i kalo (taro patch). We learn that Hawaiians were self-sufficient and sustainable. Also, we learn the importance of Hawaiian values and how to use them in our everyday lives. It is the duty of our youth to keep the Hawaiian culture alive.

We do a lot of fundraising because we lack money. We should get the same amount of money that the Department of Education gives to its public schools because we work just as hard for our education.

We get $2,000 less per student for instruction than our regular DOE counterparts, and they plan on increasing this gap even more next school year by providing less money per student.

Hopefully, lawmakers will hear the voices of our youth and the love charter school students have for learning, and will make a choice to prioritize our education.

TRANSIT

LITTLE ATTENTION GIVEN TO SOME DRAWBACKS

The incessant debate over an elevated commuter rail system has raised many legitimate issues and ignored or minimized others.

Experts assure us that the noise of a steel-on-rail system will be minimal. A noise level below a certain number of decibels might be minor, but it is the incessant repetition, like water dripping from a faucet, that will drive residents crazy.

Furthermore, little attention has been paid to aesthetics. An elevated system, despite official protestations to the contrary, will be a blight on the landscape of our city.

Not only that, a recent U.S. Department of Transportation study, focusing on the Gulf Coast, has concluded that a mere 0.5 - 2.5 degrees Celsius temperature increase will cause steel rails to buckle. The report strongly encourages transportation planners to explicitly consider effects of a changing climate on extreme weather events (including hurricanes, rain storms), a charge that seems not to have been heeded in the city's haste to build a system that may be obsolete before it is even built.

One solution? Despite the cost and challenges, build a subway system, like the Metro in Washington, D.C., that is durable and acclaimed worldwide.

CITY RAIL SYSTEM ALL ABOUT DEVELOPMENT

One needn't look farther than Mayor Mufi Hannemann's own remarks to realize his commuter train isn't about traffic relief (which his plan clearly won't fix). It's about development (ka-ching, ka-ching) around the new train stations.

Panos Prevedouros aimed directly at the traffic problem, with his clever, affordable fix. And those of us who really want to solve the traffic mess love his thoughtful plan.

It's no surprise the mayor doesn't agree.

WHY HAVE COUNCIL; LET MAYOR MAKE DECISIONS

Why does the City Council have to make decisions when Mayor Mufi Hannemann can do whatever he wants regardless of how the City Council votes?

Just think of all the money we could save by not having the City Council and its staff, and not having to pay for their salaries, benefits and the trips they make.

TOLL ROADS CHEAPER, WOULD BE BUILT FASTER

Isn't it about time the people of O'ahu woke up and realized that if you break it, you have to pay for it and keep paying for it. I'd like to see an accounting on the convention center.

No one has said the train will ease our traffic problem; it won't even keep it from getting worse. It isn't even viable unless it serves Waikiki, the University of Hawai'i and the airport, and including these stops and over- runs, the price could easily exceed $6 billion.

It will probably be 10 years before the train even gets to Honolulu, so what happens in the meanwhile?

We could take a different tack and build toll roads, which would be cheaper, be built faster, relieve ordinary traffic and provide alternate routing during freeway stoppages.

If you let these council members railroad you into this system, you and your children will wonder how we got into this just as we now wonder how we got into the Iraq war on a lot of inadequate information.

Just picture the train 100 feet up in the air going down Kona Street over the top of the new Nordstrom connection to Ala Moana Center.

SAFETY

INSTALL REFLECTORS ON UNLIT AREAS OF H-1, H-2

On the stretches of H-1 and H-2 that have no lights, reflectors should be installed to make it clearer to drivers where the road goes.

FALLS OF CLYDE

NOT NECESSARY TO KEEP HISTORIC SHIP IN WATER

Your recent articles on the plight of the Falls of Clyde have aroused my attention and I have researched some information regarding the preservation of the Fletcher-class destroyer at Baton Rouge, La.

The vessel is preserved out of the water at an accessible pier, which allows visitors to tour the ship.

The Falls does not need to be in the water, and this could become a feasible means of saving this valuable historic vessel. A location must be found that would allow tourist access.

The preservation of an old steel hull would not be necessary to maintain the value of this famous vessel, and the maintenance of the deck gear, cabins and spars would be sufficient to attract visitors who are interested.

The quoted $30 million to preserve the hull would not be justified, since the value of the display does not depend on its flotation.