• Taste of Hawai‘i is first-class event • No aloha in parking policy • Superferry or super folly? • Help needed for Kaua‘i’s South Shore Taste of Hawai‘i is first-class event Earlier this year I was working at a food
• Taste of Hawai‘i is first-class event
• No aloha in parking policy
• Superferry or super folly?
• Help needed for Kaua‘i’s South Shore
Taste of Hawai‘i is first-class event
Earlier this year I was working at a food service establishment in Kapa‘a. One night a fight involving no less than six people broke out in the bar. I personally called 911, but because this was the same night as the stabbing at Tokyo Lobby in Lihu‘e, more than 25 minutes passed before I saw any law enforcement officers. The fight continued and spilled out onto Kuhio Highway causing traffic to stop. The owners of the restaurant even had time to speed away in their BMW because they “did not want to deal with the police.” When the police finally arrived, they took a statement and that was it: No arrests, no newspaper articles, no liquor law violations.
A few months later, a more subtle altercation occurred at Taste of Hawai‘i. As a participating chef, I witnessed four policemen immediately take into custody two individuals and the event continued on. To my knowledge, there have been at least three front-page articles documenting the story with headlines like “Bad Taste,” etc.
Now I read that the liquor commission is holding a public hearing almost two months later to look for violations of state drinking laws. A public hearing? What is wrong with this picture?
I am not a Rotary Club member and I honestly don’t know that much about Rotarians. I do know that this is a first-class event that Kaua‘i should be grateful to host. The Rotarians that I’ve met are primarily business owners or professionals who donate lots of their own time to pull off an event that raises substantial cash that gets spent and donated locally. Furthermore, I can attest that everyone on my crew had their I.D. checked and were given colored armbands to show whether they were of legal drinking age. It would be a shame if the future of this event is in doubt because of a few bad apples amongst several thousand people.
Maybe we should hold a public hearing to investigate the Kaua‘i Liquor Control Commission and their motives.
Mahalo to Pam Brown, Smith’s Tropical Paradise and the Kapa‘a Rotary Club for hosting an event that left a great taste in my mouth!
Chef Shannon Jones
Hurricane Cheesecakes
Hanalei
No aloha in parking policy
With regard to paying for parking at Anchor Cove, I am so glad that there’s nothing there that I can’t live without, because I don’t intend to go there any more. Just because “paid parking is a way of life for cities such as Honolulu” doesn’t mean that it doesn’t add to the burden of living there. I don’t want Kaua‘i to become like those cities, and for as long as possible I will avoid the places here which take on such big-city characteristics.
I wish that the word “aloha” was not used so often as a way to sell things to tourists, because in this case I would like to use the word to describe something real, a traditionally Hawaiian attitude of love and welcome that is indeed lacking in Anchor Cove’s new parking policy.
This is more disturbing than the $2 it would take to park there for an hour. Aloha would be to donate the money to the nearby Food Bank or another charity helping residents in need.
Susan Coon
Kapa‘a
Superferry or super folly?
Out of curiosity, maybe someone more learned than myself on the subject of the Superferry can answer a few questions of mine.
1. If all someone needs to transport their car on the Superferry is a ticket, a current license and registration, along with proof of insurance, what other safeguards are presently in place to prevent illegal drugs, and weapons from being transported in the many concealed compartments a vehicle can provide?
Let’s face it. When you take into account the safeguards for years that the airlines have provided the commonwealth of Kaua‘i, in preventing such trafficking from taking place. Makes one wonder just what kind of illegal contraband the Superferry will allow one to bring to our shores, and leave with for that matter. To my knowledge, there are no safeguards in place such as drug-sniffing dogs, or X-ray machines built large enough to pass a car through, for detection and prevention purposes.
2. And now that we’re bridging the channel between O‘ahu and Kaua‘i via the Super Ferry, will RVs (recreational vehicles), and camper trailers be allowed to book passage as well? And if so, is that something Kaua‘i has to look forward to on our roads, as well as at our state and county parks around the island from this day forth? Will “we the people,” as the voice of Kaua‘i, just claim “after the fact ignorance” once the invasion begins? Or should we perhaps be asking these questions, along with many others I’m sure, before this behemoth is allowed to land on the shores of our beloved Garden Isle in the first place?
In all my years here, I’ve always referred to Lihu‘e as “the Big City.” That’s all going to change in a matter of weeks. Will Kaua‘i become just another suburb of O‘ahu? I’d like to think not.
Here’s one last closing thought to ponder. Taking into account the dramatic population differences between Kaua‘i and O‘ahu. If my calculations are correct, for every 10 vehicles Kaua‘i sends to O‘ahu, O‘ahu sends approximately 120 vehicles our way, in exchange.
All I can say is, “Kaua‘i, didn’t we as a community speak up while we still had a voice?”
Joe Callen
Princeville
Help needed for Kaua‘i’s South Shore
Mahalo, Judge Watanabe, for the moratorium placed on a potential plan to build between the old Beach Boy and Makaiwa hotels.
Now, similarly, whoever instigated that move needs to bargain for the same moratorium placement on two gi-normous south shore development projects that virtually have these areas hidden away from public scrutiny behind black screening, complete with road closures and detours.
Too many sensitive sites that abound in this region are carefully being covered up. Thousands of pictures that have since been taken of this activity reveal kapu signs placed on one heiau that a few days later was moved to a completed electrical infrastructure site a few yards away and the original signage site, complete with rock crusher, destroyed. Other sensitive sites are blatantly being mismanaged, degraded, blown up, dismantled, or simply covered up.
Sadly, like everything else on Kaua‘i these days, folks are struggling to maintain whatever lifestyle they are familiar with and it appears that only the courts are able to put a stop to such rampant, out of control movements as described. Apparently, there are no longer any archaeologists, activists, burial council members, or other save Kaua‘i groups available that have helped put a lid on other such projects of this magnitude in the past.
I’m a willing participant to see this is stopped, so if anyone has any ideas feel free to make contact.
Debra Kekaualua
Wailua Homesteads
