Letters for Thursday, February 22, 2007

• Preserving the lifestyle?

• Maybe not so absurd

• Aloha, Dave Boynton

• Disgusted by councilmember’s remarks

• Happy trails, Mr. ‘B’

• Gathering grounds are dumping grounds

• Let’s be wise with rezoning

Preserving the lifestyle?

Earlier this month our planning commission recommended to the County Council a law to limit the size of stores. This was done “to preserve the island’s rural lifestyle.”

Then a week later they give tentative approval of a new resort at Waipouli. This is for 540 units. What “rural lifestyle” does this preserve?

Planning Commission, you can’t say one thing one day “rural” then say something else another: “540 units.”

Kapa‘a

Maybe not so absurd

When Sam Walton opened his first store in Arkansas, the Wal-Mart business was smaller than Kaua‘i’s Big Save business chain of markets, Subway Sandwiches, etc.

If it is more than absurd to contend that Big Save could compete with Wal-Mart’s low prices by building a giant structure, as suggested by Michael Mann (Letters, Feb. 20), then it is equally absurd that Sam Walton built a giant structure to compete with the likes of Sears, Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field, etc.

Lihu‘e

Aloha, Dave Boynton

I was saddened to hear of David’s passing, for he was such a humble spirit, an all-around good guy and so very good as a teacher. He was my science teacher at Waimea High School and was always so understanding and caring towards his students and those around him. He was also my daughter’s educator when she went to Wilcox and went on a trip to the Discovery Center in Koke‘e. Such a loss to the island this man is, lest we never forget his aura, his presence among men.

Aloha, Dave, though you are no longer among us, you live on through your work and in hearts throughout Kaua‘i and beyond. Thank you, The Garden Island, for allowing me once more to share from so far away with my island home.

Fort Mohave, Ariz.

Disgusted by councilmember’s remarks

I totally support Erik Danner’s bike path letter. I have been a resident “haole” for the past nine years. However, I am insulted and disgusted by the stupid mindset of some council member’s “haole” remarks at a recent council meeting.

Who voted for that council member? This is a perfect example of why the present council and administration is dysfunctional and pushing Kaua‘i into gridlock, quickly destroying what Kaua‘i was and could have become. I would urge the council to push “shave ice” sales to their big developer friends to boost their outrageous bottom line profits, rather than to depend on local sales to the “cheapie bike-riding haoles.”

Hanalei

Happy trails, Mr. ‘B’

Went to school, just like any other day. Everything was normal, no different. I walked up to my classroom and found out that David Boynton had passed away.

Mr. Boynton knew me quite well, as I did him. My mother is a sixth-grade teacher, so I got to go up to the Koke‘e Discovery Center with her classes every year ever since I was a baby.

Mr. Boynton was a nature lover and someone who cared. He would always try to help people and would give good advice.

Mr. Boynton was an inspiration to all who knew him, and he always will be. He was an inspiration to me and that’s a fact. He taught us to love the land and cherish what we have. He showed us many of the native and indigenous species of plants and animals on our island. He also taught us to conserve and reuse our resources wisely.

David Boynton was good at so many things: knowing which birds song is which, where we were when hiking, photography, writing, and much more. We love you, Mr. Boynton. We always will.

Happy trails Mr. “B”

Kilauea

Gathering grounds are dumping grounds

While you are at it, Mr. Erik Danner, why don’t you add no more dumping cars, refrigerators, mattresses, beer bottles, … You should be ashamed to call the area of land that will be used for the bike path as “our gathering grounds.” It’s more like your dumping grounds.

Kilauea

Let’s be wise with rezoning

Mayor Bryan Baptiste and County Council members Kaipo Asing, JoAnn Yukimura, Jay Furfaro, Mel Rapozo, Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and Ron Kouchi are proposing a law to ban big box supercenters because they soil the rural nature of Kaua‘i.

What is this?

A joke?

Are they kidding?

In the past, these very same Kaua‘i politicians voted to rezone thousands of acres of agricultural land for big developers like A&B (Spouting Horn), Grove Farm (Puhi), Kaua‘i Lagoons (Lihu‘e airport), the Moody family (Kealia Kai), the Robinson family (Pakala) and the Faye family (Waimea) to grow hotels, condos, timeshare apartments and thousands of expensive homes.

Paving over thousands of acres of former agricultural land will do a lot more — a thousand times more — to spoil the rural nature of Kaua‘i than building big box supercenters.

And you know what? Our Kaua‘i politicians know this.

They’re not stupid, you know.

And the rich get richer. Take A&B, for example. When Baptiste and County Council members Kaipo, JoAnn, Jay, Mel, Shaylene and Ron rezoned 1,000 acres of beachfront property for A&B, the value of the land soared from $5 million to over $400 million. A&B owes a huge debt of gratitude to our Kaua‘i politicians, don’t you think?

I wonder what, if anything, our Kaua‘i politicians received from the big developers. Moreover, I wonder why the people of Kaua‘i keep re-electing the same politicians over and over again.

Kekaha