• Coco Palms worth saving • Stop the madness • Bring back the benches • Resist the ‘ScaryFerry’ • Please, protest with pono • Coco Palms worth saving It seems to me the developer has bent over backward to conform
• Coco Palms worth saving
• Stop the madness
• Bring back the benches
• Resist the ‘ScaryFerry’
• Please, protest with pono
•
Coco Palms worth saving
It seems to me the developer has bent over backward to conform with the requirements of the Hawaiians as well as the county to move forward with this much-needed project. There has been hundreds if not thousands of hours of hard work that has gone into making this once-beautiful hotel the landmark hotel it once was and a hotel that the whole island can be proud of instead of the eye-sore that well over a million of people have had to look at as they drive by.
I often think that why anything that can be so beautiful for all must have such a high price for beauty when we are already in a beautiful place. Please reconsider this project for the good of all.
Benjamin Winningham
Princeville
Stop the madness
Okay, Planning Commission, here’s your chance to do something positive for our island and its people. Coco Palms “ain’t gonna fly” but the current owners are going to “auction it off” to other developers. Same ole, same ole!
Had Coco Palms developers gone on with their plans to build 250 units at the site, this would have added … let’s see … about 500 more people, not to mention additional autos, to help congest the present traffic nightmare in this area. Now, if Waipoli developers would follow suit, it could be a major beginning to stop this @#$&**@!! building boom!
Frankly, I am more opposed to the Coco Palms and Waipouli developments than the Superferry … but actually don’t like it either!
Paleka Smith
Kapa‘a
Bring back the benches
Dear Bernard:
The park located in front of the historic County Building in Lihu‘e town is a great area to have a lunch break. I choose to take a lunch break there because it’s close to my work, I get to relax outside in fresh air and there’s shade.
A couple of months ago the county took away these benches in that park, which leaves me inconvenienced during my lunch break. I’m aware of the homeless issue in this area, which explains why the benches disappeared, although this is unwarranted to everyone else who enjoys this little park in Lihu‘e. Since my voice of concern isn’t enough I ask you in this letter to please bring back these benches.
Shyla M. Suarez
Kalaheo
Resist the ‘ScaryFerry’
So Gov. Lingle announces that the ‘ScaryFerry’ will return to Kaua‘i on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 11 a.m. Hmmm … any coincidence that the return of this monster will be in the middle of the work week and in the middle of the work day? The governor has stated that the arrival time was pushed back for more daylight to ensure public safety. Right. That smells like Wal-Mart’s statement that the reason they want a 200,000-square-foot Supercenter on Kaua‘i is to bring lower prices to us. Right. I believe it is fairly obvious that an arrival time was chosen that would make it the most difficult for average, working-class people to show up and protest.
The governor should have learned from the Hawaii Superferry president’s mistake of starting service early and at deeply discounted fares that the more they try to force this thing hastily and illegally down our throats, the more we will resist. It is time to stand up to big businesses that look at this island paradise and see nothing but a profit; environment, culture and lifestyle be damned.
Finally, where is Lt. Gov. “Duke” Aiona’s voice in all of this? For someone with future political ambitions in the state, he has remained awfully quiet. Leaders should take a stance, step up and lead … a memo that most of our “leaders” here on Kaua‘i never received. See you in the harbor 9/26!
Shannon Jones
Hanalei
Please, protest with pon
Aloha.
Stop the rhetoric already. The opponents of the Superferry are repeating themselves over and over again. As a passenger of the Superferry from Kaua’i, I would like to thank the Superferry for their 100 percent restitution to me for all expenses incurred as a result of the protesters at Nawiliwili.
If you have an issue with a business, do it with pono. When I go to visit family on O‘ahu, I feel shame to say where I’m from. Disrespecting the authorities and using foul language to other island people is not pono. I was there, I heard you.
The Superferry needs to answer to the questions but I do not need to hear the opponents telling me to “catch a plane, aunty” or “rent a car.”
If I choose to go by ferry, let me have that choice.
Ruth Garza
Lawai
Ignore vacation rental rhetoric
In his letter (TGI Forum 9/12/07), Seth Dudley mischaracterized the message in a recent guest viewpoint article by Walter Lewis by mis-stating the facts in an attempt to support his views on the growth of vacation rentals.
The Walter Lewis column urged control of the proliferation of visitor accommodations, noting that “we cannot afford to oppose the tourism that our economy needs, but we can and should regulate its growth.” As to vacation rentals Mr. Lewis commented that the council has been considering a bill that would end new vacation rentals of single family dwellings in non-Visitor Destination Areas. Nothing was said about existing rental units. However, Mr. Dudley asserts that the council is on the verge of passing a law that would outlaw the great majority of vacation rental facilities. This statement is irresponsible and inaccurate.
Under a 1982 ordinance the county was divided into two parts — areas where visitors would be allowed accommodations (VDAs) and areas where they would not (non-VDAs). Most of the vacation rental properties are, as was intended, located in VDAs. Bill 2204’s substantive provisions address only vacation rentals of single family residence units in non-VDAs.
It remains uncertain whether this bill will be enacted. But, if it is, existing non-VDA vacation rental properties will be considered nonconforming uses and allowed to continue. All that would occur is that new vacation rentals would be stopped. Mr. Dudley’s dire prediction about shuttered businesses, irreplaceable loss of jobs and other effects if 2204 is adopted are simply inflammatory rhetoric. The growth of vacation rentals in the more rural parts of our county is not in our best interests.
Glenn Mickens
Kapa‘a
