TWO years ago, Pearl City resident Tom Sugita faxed me a four-page tirade on the scourge of his community: graffiti. It seemed that every time gang members whipped out their spray cans to uglify walls, buildings and public structures, conscientious folks like Sugita would paint it over. Yet the newly purged surfaces would be defaced again just a few days later. A new war in the streets of Pearl City
Pearl City, the epitome of mainstream Oahu, was beginning to look more like scuzzy L.A.
Sugita was hu-hu about the misdeeds of the vandals. But he was even more miffed about the indifference of his neighbors.
"You would be amazed at how many excuses people have for not being available to help us eradicate graffiti during scheduled paint-outs," he wrote. "They are too busy, too tired, whatever. Yet when it happens to their property, they are the ones to scream the loudest."
At the end of his correspondence, which seemed more of a cathartic exercise than a genuine inquiry, Sugita asked if I thought Pearl City's war against graffiti would succeed.
Since this is one wahine who believes in miracles, he got a yes. "Don't despair," was my response. "Your army of painters will grow because homeowners DO want to protect their property values and enhance their public safety. They know that, by leaving the graffiti untouched, it sends the very clear message that they have given up.
"Remember, there are lots more good guys than spray painters in Pearl City. It's just a matter of outlasting them."
And whattaya know, I was right! Just last week, the postman delivered another long letter from Tom Sugita. It started off by acknowledging that Pearl City had, indeed, triumphed in its crusade.
"Thanks to the Graffiti Task Force, formed a year ago, we have pretty much controlled graffiti in Palisades, and from Pearl City to Aiea," Sugita wrote. "Dedicated volunteers have adopted specific areas - members of the local Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis clubs, and citizen volunteers."
Sugita's pride and satisfaction was evident in his missive. What great news to start off 1998, I thought. Oops, spoke too soon.
His letter went on to describe an even more perplexing and potentially deadly problem plaguing the streets of Pearl City: speeding. Despite the standard residential speed limit of 25 mph, vehicles are careening over the asphalt at 30, 40, 50 miles an hour.
"They seem to have a 'freeway' mentality when they drive within Pearl City, and must drive at 'raceway' mentality when on the freeways," Sugita wrote. "During a five-week speed monitoring survey we found, to our surprise, that the most blatant offenders are not teen drivers but women! It seems that they are rushing in and out of our community because of their multiple roles as working mom, housewife, chauffeur, etc., and time is short."
OH boy, Tom Sugita. This is going to be a real toughie. In the case of fighting graffiti, the numbers are on your side. There are way more law-abiding, tax-paying citizens than gang members on any block.
But modern-day society has ingrained in too many of us an impatience and need for immediacy so evident in contraptions like beepers and cellular phones, and information sources like the Internet and live CNN reports.
Pearl City - heck, every community - has got a big problem when it comes to driving too fast, because it's the "law-abiding" citizen rushing around just to get by. So many of us are breaking the law, we don't even realize it.