• Add signs to bike paths • Save Kaua‘i • Bike Path • Democrats hurt Workers’ Comp Reform Add signs to bike paths I have been following Kaua‘i’s bike path plan for several years. I am a cyclist and my
• Add signs to bike paths
• Save Kaua‘i
• Bike Path
• Democrats hurt Workers’ Comp Reform
Add signs to bike paths
I have been following Kaua‘i’s bike path plan for several years. I am a cyclist and my wife has commuted to work between Kilauea and Kapa‘a for years. Being a cyclist and my wife’s support crew, I have deep concern for bicyclist safety.
I do support any effort to improve bicycling on Kaua‘i, however we currently have terrible roadsides to ride on. These are the roadways most cyclists use and we have narrow if any bike lanes, our roadsides on the north shore are narrow and filled with slippery and encroaching vegetation.
We need to have signs which would daily remind drivers that a cyclist might be on the road and that we are a part of the road system. We need the internationally-recognized symbols for cyclist, painted on the road surface and signs for direction. I believe we need to name and “sign” our roadsides, improve roadside conditions with more maintenance and create a safer environment for cyclist in the roads we use daily.
The bike path system plans for Kaua‘i are federal monies and do nothing to improve state roads, this is the problem, big plans for the future and nothing for today. The simple signage I discussed can be applied with very little cost, federally-funded bike paths cost approx. one million dollars per mile, and are years away!
We are all tired of Kaua‘i’s crowded roads and traffic problems, bicycling may have never had a great impact on traffic but maybe we can make it safer for those who chose to ride! Perhaps a story in the paper about the true conditions of our roads for cars and cyclists, and maybe a story line about cyclists and other athletes who can educate and inspire others!! Lastly I would like to invite you and anyone to come ride to the North Shore, dangerous narrow roads, impatient drivers and the most beautiful scenery.
Save Kaua‘i
Kaua‘i’s natural beauty is stupendous, breathtaking really, but no one would travel so far more than once just for that.
My family and I visit again and again to share aloha with local people, who are Kaua‘i’s real treasure.
The best thing I have ever done there is trick or treating with keikis of friends. I also love to shop (and even stand in line) at Longs, Big Save and stores where local people shop. I avoid the fancier places and always leave with more value than I came with.
Now there is a new reason to visit for far too many: real estate.
People who are not invested in the local aloha culture in any way come to puff themselves up with decadent trophy homes or real estate pyramid schemes, both of which are insulting to this culture (and leave it behind).
The first attacks the atmosphere, and the second fixes it so local people can no longer afford to live in their own land. Grandparents see their children with families move away; they lose their grandchildren and their futures.
You have to elect some candidates with radical, Hawaiian-kine solutions — laws to tax large houses, to prevent gated compounds, to control rents, to tax property owners on their off-island incomes, to freeze development — whatever works to get the results you, the voters need.
You, the local people, are the real owners of Kaua‘i, whoever else holds the paper titles.
Otherwise watch Kaua‘i become a suburb of L.A.
In one generation of this current nonsense Kaua‘i could go from community to commodity.
- Bob Williams
Hood River, Oregon
Bike Path
It sounds all so nice, riding a bike along Kaua‘i’s coastline and enjoying the scenery. (Fresh air blowing against your face in the warm sun). This area will be so remote for one to ride the bike in safety. (Or, will it be safe?). How safe will it be there? And, what kind of public safety will be provided? (Mayor and councilmen, what?).
These people that are donating these lands and being accepted by our leaders — is this another setup for these people to build future unwanted projects for the rich? (Nothing for free).
Mayor, councilmen, and letter writers, “What are you guys thinking of?” You are creating just another place for drug dealers to hide and deal drugs or use drugs, crimes and violence (rapes, assaults, robberies, or murders) will occur in those areas.
Furthermore, there will be a problem with trash and graffiti. Trash will fill the shorelines there.
Then, there is the homeless who’s always looking for a new location to live on or call home. Then we will have another Taylor Camp situation along the coastline.
Mayor and councilmen, put the money where your mouth is. Stop and suggest to the state funding or federal personnel to use this money for our traffic problems, affordable homes, or to help our law enforcers to get better equipment to fight against drugs and crimes, here on Kaua‘i.
Seems like councilman Rapozo is the only one with his mind in the right direction for the future of Kaua‘i. Mr. Rapozo, keep up the good work.
Democrats hurt Workers’ Comp Reform
In the long list of recently overridden vetoes — courtesy of the Democratic Legislators — reads Senate Bill 1808, a transparent tool designed to handcuff Governor Linda Lingle and snuff out any viable workers’ compensation reform.
In a rare display of honesty from the Democrats in the July 10 issue of The Star Bulletin was the admission that they “passed Senate Bill 1808 precisely to stop the administration from implementing new rules.” And this is precisely what they accomplished last Tuesday. They tied the hands of the Administration from performing its age-old duties. So it should be no surprise that Section 7 of this bill, which strips the Administration of rule-making authority in the area of workers’ compensation, sunsets at the same time Lingle will be up for reelection. The curious thing is that the Senate Democrats set this date only after they were chided for formerly setting the sunset date at the time Lingle would be out of office if she won another term. But, of course, I’m sure there is good reason for this—they couldn’t concede defeat in 2006’s gubernatorial election this soon.
Perhaps the biggest proponent of SB 1808 and this veto override was Rep. Kirk Caldwell, who chairs the House Committee on Labor and Public Employment. Prior to the Legislature’s override, his committee convened a hearing exploiting the emotional pleas of injured workers who were hurt in the same system that the Democrats reinstated last Tuesday. These injured workers were not harmed by the enactment of the Administration’s rules, something Rep. Caldwell would have the public believe, but by the very system the Administration sought to improve.
- David Morrell
Executive Chambers
Office of the Governor
