Letters for Sept. 1, 2015

Letters for Sept. 1, 2015

Maybe fourth-graders could solve traffic woes

Ever watch Jeff Foxworthy’s program, “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?”

I believe that for our traffic problems here on Kauai we should lower the bar on this idea and create a challenge for our fourth-graders in Kauai schools. Their story problem would require some research like; how many cars do we have on island right now? How many miles of road do we have right now? How many and how often are new cars coming onto the island? Who brings them? How many old cars are leaving?

The children would have access to any information that we now have and asked to find an answer to the traffic problem. With today’s information accessibility these questions could be easily answered by fourth graders. I would wager that they would suggest that we limit the number of cars coming to the island and increase the number of older vehicles leaving the island while improving our roads and traffic flow technology. This is the conclusion that is self evident.

What other solution could be drawn for an island?

Nothing increases urban development more than the supposed demand for more roads to accommodate more cars. More cars, more roads, more people, more development. Citification of a place occurs when there is hurried growth without the matching of good planning. Honolulu is an example of rampant growth without adequate planning for population limits. As in the story of the Piper: ‘‘We will bear the consequences of the actions that have been enjoyed.”

Mark Jeffers

Hanapepe

Concerns remain on barking dogs

Let me just say how happy I am for Annette Oda that she has the good fortune to live in a bucolic setting with nothing but “its sweet country noises.”

Those of us that are less fortunate suffer from the not so sweet country sounds of barking, yapping, howling, whining dogs. This is not an urban or a rural issue. Believe it or not barking dogs are in the city also. It is not about the dogs, anyway. It is about irresponsible pet owners.

Now to your “scientific process.”

You have taken the emails of 1/7th of our County Council, performed some sort of editing and decided an islandwide number of .8 percent of residents have an issue with barking dogs. I don’t know what to call your efforts, but scientific is certainly not it.

Since you are a longtime Kauai resident, perhaps you can remember back less than two years ago when “we the people” voted for a barking dog law by a nearly 2-1 margin.

I must take umbrage with you speaking for me when you say “we longtime Kauai residents love Kauai because of its country lifestyle.” I do love the country lifestyle but I would never presume to speak for anyone else.

Lastly, Mayor Carvalho did not do a good job of repealing the barking dog ordinance. What he did was cravenly (Yukimura’s word and mine) return the repeal to the council unsigned so the repeal passed by default. I agree, you have no aloha.

Allan B.White

Hanapepe