•Aloha, Stan •Why are Kaua‘i visitor counts down? •Kaua‘i needs long-term traffic plan Aloha, Stan Many readers of The Garden Island never send their own letters to be printed on the Forum, yet we read them avidly each morning, whether
•Aloha, Stan
•Why are Kaua‘i visitor counts down?
•Kaua‘i needs long-term traffic plan
Aloha, Stan
Many readers of The Garden Island never send their own letters to be printed on the Forum, yet we read them avidly each morning, whether we agree or disagree with their points of view. Over time, the names of frequent contributors become familiar and readers can pretty much guess what their opinions will be before we read on.
Stan Godes was one of those whose name appeared so often in this space. On Feb. 26, after a long illness, Stan passed away.
His friends and neighbors will miss seeing him walk down the street with his dog, Po, or as he did most recently, fly by on his motorized scooter. No longer will our great debater be here to challenge us, share Monday night football potlucks, make omelets to order on Super Bowl Sunday, or to share his opinion with Forum readers.
For those of you who do read the Forum letters, whatever your thoughts on Stan’s opinions, I hope you’ll join with us in saying, “Aloha, Stan. You will be missed.”
— Jill Landis, Hanalei
Why are Kaua‘i visitor counts down?
In recent reports in the media, it was lamented that the tourist count is down, attributing it in large part to the weak economy and reluctance of the public to splurge.
I offer some additional reasons:
1. One of the main destination resorts, in Princeville, which drew thousands of malahini to Kaua‘i, is shut down, closed for remodel of the famous Princeville Hotel, and the closing for rebuilding of the popular Makai Ocean and Lakes golf courses. These closed attractions force potential visitors to choose other venues.
2. The reduction in cruise ships may be directly related to media reports of disastrous — possibly food — poisoning, requiring hundreds of passengers to be quarantined in their small staterooms for days. Word gets around, and I suspect that cruise lovers dropped those plans.
3. Reports in the media that rental cars are in short supply. Smart travelers book online, get printed confirmations, and thus should not have disappointment when they arrive and presumably have their rental cars waiting.
4. The famous Kaua‘i Lagoons golf courses are partially torn up to accommodate the ambitious development plans there for condos, homes, and restaurants requiring a sort of gerrymandering of the two courses to create a mish-mashed 18 holes of play. There are other golf courses, such as Wailua — not well known to tourists but a favorite of local residents — Puakea, Kiahuna Plantation, Prince, and Poipu Bay. But other islands, and vacation destinations on the Mainland, have many more courses from which to select.
5. Media reports of restaurant closures could be a disincentive. By contrast, Maui and O‘ahu have many fine dining spots.
6. The years-long battle surrounding what to do with the Coco Palms, a rotting hulk, has created disappointment in many visitors, and reflects negatively on the island in that we can’t get our act together and resolve and implement whatever form the Coco Palms property may take.
While there are some bright spots, such as the attractive remodel of Princeville Center by owners, The Honu Group, these are small gains. Hopefully things will improve and Kaua‘i will prosper once again.
— Tom Rice, Princeville
Kaua‘i needs long-term traffic plan
I am writing to comment on the poor traffic conditions from the Westside to Lihu‘e on weekday mornings.
There is always a slowdown starting at Kahili and on bad days it starts in Omao. One source of the problem is the merge from the tree tunnel. It bottlenecks where two lanes merge into one.
I think that we should have a two-lane highway in both directions to increase the flow of Kaua‘i’s traffic.
I think that while they were doing all that work at Knudsen gap, they could have taken it a step further and created a new lane. All of that work did nothing to alleviate the traffic congestion. The halfway bridge seems to be wide enough to support three lanes so why not use it to its fullest potential. I am not an engineer, but I am hoping that someone had the foresight to make sure that it could hold another lane.
Another slowdown starts before Puhi. I think that the timing of the street lights should be looked at. There are plenty of alternate routes but that doesn’t even help. So other sources of the problem should be considered.
There are many options for traffic relief. For the safety of all motorists, a long-term relief plan is needed.
— Courtney Medeiros, Eighth grade, Phillip Steinbacher’s class, Island School
