Letters for Sept. 4, 2015 Leave Kee Beach alone I’ve driven to the end of the road everyday for the past five years, I even wrote a song about it — (Rock Fever, available on iTunes!). When I started reading
Letters for Sept. 4, 2015
Leave Kee Beach alone
I’ve driven to the end of the road everyday for the past five years, I even wrote a song about it — (Rock Fever, available on iTunes!).
When I started reading about the plans for Kee, my first thought was “what is the problem they are trying to solve?”
Too many cars? Not enough parking? Too many people?
I don’t see a problem. Governments often try to fix problems that don’t exist, because that is their job. They have to do something.
But what if the “cure” is worse than the “problem?”
There is a limited amount of parking now, so it cannot get worse. We make money off the parking tickets. No one has been hurt by rocks falling, the idea of a “boardwalk” reminds me of my hometown, New Jersey. Ugh. Not here.
Now you want to put a gate up at Limahuli? You will create a traffic jam back to Haena. The shuttle didn’t work.
My thoughts: Everything is OK. Just leave it be. Don’t fix a problem that doesn’t exist.
Jeff “Gordo” Gordon
Hanalei
Shipping not only reason for high costs
In Loyd Clayton’s Aug. 28 letter he pointed out that somewhere between shipping and retail there seems to be some extraordinary price inflation. I couldn’t agree more. Any individual who has shipped goods from the Mainland knows shipping prices do not double the cost of those goods or no one would ship anything here but absolute essentials. Shipping costs add pennies to the dollar and are not the cause of many items being twice the price of Mainland goods.
In his Aug. 29 letter, Steve McMacken says the reason goods cost as much as they do here is directly related to the Jones Act, which requires shipping between U.S. ports to be on U.S. ships with U.S. crews. If the Jones Act, which protects U.S. workers, were to be repealed does anyone think shipped in items will be priced at half of what we pay now? Or priced at a small fraction over what’s charged on the Mainland? Not in our free market system which is doing very well for Hawaii retailers, including grocers. Want to eat? It’s going to cost you.
Valerie Weiss
Kapaa
