• Complete Streets has some flaws • Is there a better solution to feed the world? • Other issues that deserve attention Complete Streets has some flaws Wow! Big smiles on the front page of The Garden Island Thursday. Happy
• Complete Streets has some flaws • Is there a better solution to feed the world? • Other issues that deserve attention
Complete Streets has some flaws
Wow! Big smiles on the front page of The Garden Island Thursday. Happy Fourth of July, everybody. Independence Day. Isn’t it ironic how we declared independence from one nation 237 years ago and now so many depend on our government? What happened to “independence?”
The big smiles on the front page is about the Complete Streets bill.
Better late than never, I guess.
I retired 11 years ago from a city in California where I worked for 30 years. Prior to starting there 41 years ago, the city had developed conditions of approval for all developments. Residential, commercial, industrial, etc.
Yeah, yeah. I know what some of you are already saying: “That’s the Mainland. This is Kauai.”
If you really think there’s that much of a difference, stop reading, now, and go on to the next letter.
Part of those conditions included dedicating the necessary right of way in front of a property for the ultimate street widths, and constructing all ultimate improvements in that street right of way. (Our city council and the county board of supervisors had adopted a master plan of highways. That included all pavement out to the ultimate width of that particular street, including bicycle lanes, curbs and gutters, and all sidewalks.).
However, a great amount of thought and consideration must be put into this. At what grade are the improvements to be constructed? If there is no approved design for that particular street, at what elevation is the developer to construct the improvements? Building it all too low may later result in a large ponding area if the adjoining properties construct their improvements at a higher elevation. And vice-versa if it is built too high.
The solution to this problem was to take a deposit from the developers for the estimated cost of the improvements. We took cash deposits or passbook deposits. Passbook deposits accrued interest, which was returned to the developer when the funds were used for those particular improvements. All cash deposits were kept in a special fund until such time they were needed for the ultimate improvements of that particular street.
I sincerely hope the County of Kauai has considered this option, rather than just waiving compliance with this very overdue bill: “… the sidewalk condition is waived by the planning commission due to a feasibility issue or a conflict with local context and sensitivity to community character ….”
A few questions come to mind.
Why was the new access road going up to the Lutheran Church and German Hill constructed without sidewalks and bicycle lanes?
Why was the Western Koloa Bypass road constructed without bicycle lanes?
Will certain “developers” and “agencies” be exempt from complying with this bill? Maybe because of feasibility issues?
Larry Arruda
Lihue
Is there a better solution to feed the world?
Google this, Google that — I’m sick of the anti-GMO letters.
My sister is a chemical engineer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she is trying to make it possible to sustain the world’s population.
If we don’t use GMOs and pesticides, people are going to start starving to death.
I’m tired of all the propaganda being spewed. Go talk to an engineer at Pioneer DuPont or better yet go back to college and get a degree that applies to ag.
People keep talking trash about things they know little about.
If you want to sign up for who’s going to starve, I have a pen and paper.
The old adage applies, if you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem, and If you have a better solution, I for one, am all ears.
Joseph Lavery
Kapaa
Other issues that deserve attention
Here are some things affecting Kauai I would love to see have as much fervent radio air time, print articles, marches, council bills, public meetings with hundreds in attendance, sign waving, frenetic social media debates, and letters to the editor about before I want to hear anything more about GMOs:
• Women, elderly, and child abuse
• Teen suicide prevention
• Veteran suicide prevention and reintegration programs
• Alcoholism and drunken driving by teens and adults
• Teen pregnancy rates
• Obesity and diabetes prevention
• How to develop healthy body image in our daughters
• Our Arthur Dent-like access to road works and development info
• Maintaining high high school and college graduation rates
• Hunger at home and abroad
• Making it easier for kids who move away to return to a job
• Homelessness (yes, there are families living out of cars or on the beach)
• Meth! Any real solutions out there?
• Land/water management on the other 339,872 acres of this island
Is discussion and mutual understanding of issues around GMO research and pesticide use (any use by anyone) important? Absolutely.
Do the issues warrant duplicate, overreaching regulatory measures?
No.
Will juvenile spray painting of our roads and condescending, paternalistic slogans win support for whatever your cause is?
No, even if I sympathize with the cause.
Do employees of companies singled out by our council deserve to have their families’ addresses publicized and receive direct or implied death threats via social media trolling?
Unequivocally, absolutely not.
Matt Stevenson
Wailua
