• Move new Safeway across the highway • Renewable energy plan a ‘winner’ • Travel light to avoid fees • Superferry concerns need perspective • Prop 8 supporters sickening Move new Safeway across the highway I like shopping at Safeway
• Move new Safeway across the highway
• Renewable energy plan a ‘winner’
• Travel light to avoid fees
• Superferry concerns need perspective
• Prop 8 supporters sickening
Move new Safeway across the highway
I like shopping at Safeway and agree that a business district is practical. However, I am concerned about building a shopping center across the street from a middle school (“Puhi Safeway safety concerns aired,” The Garden Island, Nov. 13).
My suggestion: Build the new Safeway shopping center across the highway from the Burger King/Macy’s parking lot. There are two major traffic signal intersections already in place. Simple. A shopping center on the opposite side of the highway could help reduce traffic congestion.
Keeping pedestrian safety as the main priority, Keith Nitta, at a Planning Commission meeting, gave the following traffic suggestions for consideration:
1. Change Nuhou Road from four lanes to two.
2. Install two traffic lights, one at the driveway at the YMCA and another one at the intersection of Kaneka and Nuhou roads (the corner of Regency and Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School).
3. Build a roundabout at the intersection of Kaneka and Nuhou.
4. Install a pedestrian stoplight at the CKMS driveway.
5. Install a new traffic light on the main highway, designated as “Rapozo’s intersection.”
6. Synchronize all highway traffic signals from Puhi to Nawilwili Road to keep traffic flowing.
7. An ADA overpass on Nuhou Road could be ineffective due to the 160-foot on-ramp requirements.
Mr. Nitta repeated that traffic signals can be dangerous to pedestrians because drivers tend to speed up driving through yellow lights.
If you want to see what a shopping center could look like across the street from a school, drive to Waipouli and check out the arrangement at the current Safeway center.
Then think “across the highway” instead.
• Terese Barich, Lihu‘e
Renewable energy plan a ‘winner’
The Op-ed piece by Walter Lewis (“A plan to reduce power costs,” Forum, Nov. 15) described a proposal by Western Renewable Energy (WRE) that would result in significantly lower electric rates on Kaua‘i.
Also, at the same time, the WRE plan would significantly reduce the county’s solid waste disposal costs and greatly extend the useful life of the Kekaha landfill.
If there ever was a win-win program, this is it!
What is somewhat discouraging, however, is that neither Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative nor the county have done anything but study this proposal for the several months they have had it.
What better opportunity for KIUC and county leadership to demonstrate they are all for the change that Hawaiians so overwhelmingly voted for on Nov. 4?
Read our lips and stop studying, procrastinating and handwringing and get with the program! It’s a winner.
• Peter Nilsen, Princeville
Travel light to avoid fees
In regards to the letter in Saturday’s paper (“Lower Baggage Costs,” Letters, Nov. 15) I would like to share some of my own thoughts on the matter.
I’m a little baffled as to why anyone would need to bring four checked bags with them on a trip to the Mainland in the first place.
I’ve done a fair bit of traveling myself in the last few years, mostly internationally. In fact, last summer I spent two months in Eastern Europe, much of that time spent working on farms and hiking (in other words, getting very dirty) and I managed just fine with one small day-pack (carry-on) and one large backpack’s worth of clothes and necessities.
I’ve gotten pretty good, while traveling abroad, at spotting my fellow Americans in airports; they are typically the ones with two or three times more luggage than anybody else. (Many times they are also louder and the children are less well-behaved, but that’s beside the point.)
So, speaking of points, here’s mine: next time you take a trip, to the Mainland or beyond, try packing a little lighter. You might be surprised how much you don’t need.
You’ll find it’s good for fuel efficiency, good for your pocket book, and good for your sanity. And it can be quite a liberating experience.
• Sky Roversi-Deal, Kilauea
Superferry concerns need perspective
Friday’s letter (“Wake up Kauai,” Letters, Nov. 14) was a clear case of hysterical imagination colliding with false memory syndrome.
Dump trucks full of beach stones and hundreds of pounds of fish have not been removed from Maui; neither have whales been run down by the many unremarkable Superferry voyages.
What has made news is what people have been prevented from taking with them.
With any new activity, there are always a few who do not get the word. At the very beginning, some with pickup trucks, not dump trucks, tried and failed to remove stones.
During the summer, Maui’s mayor got hysterical about 400 pounds of fish in a month that never left Maui. Four hundred pounds is a big number if you’re bench pressing it, but it’s equivalent to two or three tuna.
All you really need to face the terrifying future is a little perspective. If that’s out of reach, then try a little Valium.
• Peter Antonson, Kapa‘a
Prop 8 supporters sickening
As many of you have experienced, another election has come and gone, and though the results for many were favorable, there are some results of this election that were very unfavorable.
I have recently learned of (California’s) Proposition 8, a proposition that clearly states the denial of same-sex marriage rights that were recently given to countless couples from all over the country. This proposition passed this past election.
Now what has that got to do with our beautiful island of Kaua‘i?
Let’s just say that people from all over the states supported this proposition, including people from this state and even our island of Kaua‘i. This idea made me sick.
To think that someone would support such a horrendous display of discrimination against a group of people makes me sick to my stomach, but to think that people from the place where I grew up supported this measure makes me even sicker.
You know who you are and you should be ashamed to support something that encourages discrimination and hate.
• Matthew Pescador, Kalaheo
