• Opinions everywhere • Don’t do it ‘doggone’ it • The Bike Path Again! • A Moratorium on new development Opinions everywhere Like New Year’s resolutions, the past two weeks of FORUM letters have contained several suggestions to improve Kaua’i:
• Opinions everywhere
• Don’t do it ‘doggone’ it
• The Bike Path Again!
• A Moratorium on new development
Opinions everywhere
Like New Year’s resolutions, the past two weeks of FORUM letters have contained several suggestions to improve Kaua’i:
1) Limit the number of people allowed on Kaua’i.
2) Charge each visitor a $200 impact fee.
3) Steve Case should donate $100 million for energy projects.
4) Pit Bulls banned; all must go (Where not specified).
5) (From Wash.) Like Singapore, fight crime with public canings.
6) Close all government offices and services on Monday and Friday.
7) $45,000 lifetime bike path license.
8) March the KCCC inmates down the highway to pick up trash.
9) Stop all development.
10) Stop all resort development.
I am completely sure that these suggestions do not affect the people making them or require any sacrifice from them. They are all things to do to, or require sacrifices from, other people. In this regard, they are like the archaic, nonfunctional and just plain mean, 90 years of pet quarantine laws; Hawaii’s shame.
There were also several letters thanking individuals or groups who are sacrificing their time and energy in doing projects or helping to improve Kaua’i. This is where to direct our respect and not to those saying “Let ‘s have somebody else do something!”
Don’t do it ‘doggone’ it
I must be a voice for the dogs that may be shipped back to their abuser on O’ahu.
When a judge makes a decision to send abused children back to the same home where they were mistreated (sometimes with disastrous results), at least he consults an expert first.
The experts to be consulted, in this case, are the people at the Kauai Humane Society.
If, in fact, these animals are returned to the person who was responsible for their fleas, ticks, heartworm, starvation, and behavior problems, I will be appalled.
The Bike Path Again!
I really cannot believe the criticism towards a bike path. Almost every town on the Mainland has bike paths, and they also have other things they need fixed.
But a few people do not want a bike path, keep tearing at the bit like a rabid pit bull.
Most people would like to get a little exercise, while breathing in clean fresh air.
Look at the traffic every single day in Kapa’a, a lot of people who are just driving a few blocks, or a few miles could do so on their bikes, which is healthy, and uses less gas, which is good for the environment and your pockets, and lessening the traffic a little bit.
So please, all of you who do not want to use the bike path … don’t. And please, complain about something constructive, something useful.
Its getting boring.
A Moratorium on new development
I first visited Kaua’i in the summer of 2002. I immediately fell in love with the place and people, and came back each subsequent summer, with an increasing determination to make this my home. In October of 2004, that dream came true.
This place is magical — that’s the only word I can think of to describe its effect on me (therapeutic is too cold a word). Whenever I have to return to the Mainland, I become severely stressed/distressed. As soon as the plane touches down in Lihu’e, the weight of the world is lifted from my shoulders. Has anyone else ever felt this, too? I have friends on the Mainland who have actually taken bets on how many times I have left the island since I moved here.
Even though I have lived here slightly more than a year, I consider it a personal affront when I see what developers are trying to do to this place — turn it into a playground for the wealthy. They can get away with this by giving elected officials a false sense of the benefits their development will have on the island. I don’t care how beautiful your development is or how many low-paying jobs you will create. I don’t even care how much you are going to be paying in property taxes (it should be high, though). I want to know that a significant portion of your profit will STAY ON THE ISLAND to benefit the island and its residents. This should be the number one criterion for determining if a new development will even be considered. I want to know that the operation of your development is not going to compound traffic issues on an already stressed infrastructure. I want to know that you are using some of your wealth to introduce environmental sustainability so you aren’t sucking natural resources for no good reason.
I want to know that you care abut this place even half as much as I do.
I am calling for at least a five year moratorium on new development until county officials come up with a detailed plan showing where they see the island going in terms of resident and transient population, infrastructure improvements, sanitation, energy consumption, etc. I am pleading that the residents of the island DEMAND that new development CEASE until such a plan has been presented.
