Editorials
Monday, July 6, 1998

City yards must be
moved from Kakaako

IT'S time for the city to get serious about moving its base yard facilities off state land in Kakaako. In 1992 the state set a two-year deadline for the move, but it hasn't been met.

Last September the Hawaii Community Development Authority board rejected the city's request for permission to keep the facilities on the 13 acres of state land for another three years. The board ordered its executive director, Jan Yokota, to set a deadline for eviction. The city was supposed to move out by last Wednesday. Yokota says she is negotiating a timetable with city officials.

Admittedly, the move won't be easy. There is the problem of choosing the right site, and the cost -- estimated at more than $27 million.

But the move has to be made. The days when the makai portion of Kakaako featured a dump, an incinerator and various industrial activities are passing. The utility vehicles and equipment that occupy the city portion are becoming more conspicuous as the area is upgraded.

The Kakaako Waterfront Park is a major improvement and it has been enhanced by the new Makai Gateway Park on Ala Moana Boulevard. State officials envision a commercial development and an aquarium for the area.

The more immediate concern is that two of the three city base yards are on parcels needed for expansion of Ilalo Street to five lanes, which is scheduled to begin in the fall of 1999. Work on the extension of Ward Avenue to connect it with Ilalo is to begin this month.

Delays in moving the base yards shouldn't be allowed to hold up this work.

Russia cracks down

LATE payments of bills due throughout Russia have plagued the fledgling market economy since the fall of communism seven years ago. As the ripples have become waves creating a fiscal crisis, Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko threatened a government takeover of the country's natural gas monopoly unless it paid back taxes. Gazprom agreed to increase its payments.

President Boris Yeltsin's description of the problem as a "vicious circle" is an understatement. The government is months behind in payment of wages to thousands of teachers, doctors and other employees, who in turn have fallen behind in making various payments, including utility bills and payments to the government for the home mortgages issued under privatization. Unpaid coal miners blocked the Trans-Siberian railways for several days last month until the government agreed to pay back wages, but the promise went unfulfilled, triggering a renewed protest.

Gazprom claims its ability to pay its tax bill is limited by the fact that its customers -- industry, homes and the army -- owe it more than it owes the government. If it cuts off the gas to delinquent taxes, the effect on the economy obviously would be enormous.

The threat by Kiriyenko, the young reformist President Boris Yeltsin appointed to his post two months ago, seemed to work. Gazprom agreed to quadruple the amount of its monthly payments, an agreement welcomed by the International Monetary Fund, from which Russia hopes to receive a $10-15 billion loan to see it through the immediate crisis. Russia needs the funds to avoid having to devalue the ruble, which would be a dangerously destabilizing move.

Gazprom's agreement should encourage Kiriyenko to apply similar pressure to other industrial giants. Payments owed to and by the Kremlin need to begin flowing to move Russia out of its economic doldrums.

News media mistakes

SEVERAL prominent members of the news media have been falling on their faces lately, and all of us will pay. When the public's cynicism about the media finds confirmation, the fallout is widespread.

The big gaffe was CNN-Time magazine's sensational report that the United States used nerve gas in an attack on a Laotian village in 1970, which it was forced to retract. That followed disclosure that a Boston Globe columnist and a writer for The New Republic magazine had fabricated stories and quotes. The Cincinnati Enquirer apologized and paid $10 million to settle a dispute with Chiquita Banana over "deceitful, unethical and unlawful conduct" by a reporter.

There are many people who believe all the print and electronic media lie and cheat, and there certainly won't be fewer of them now. But that's a mistaken view. Most reporters and editors are dedicated to the truth. Mistakes are inevitable in the competition to be first with the news, but they are not condoned. The cheaters are punished and disgraced.

The greatest asset any newspaper has is its credibility. We at the Star-Bulletin try hard to protect ours by striving for accuracy and admitting our mistakes. At the same time, we aren't afraid to go after the stories that will make waves.

Drugs in care home

FOR sheer irresponsibility, it would be hard to top the report about the date-rape drug that police found stored in a water dispenser at a home that provides child-care services. Stevan Eberhardt of Foster Village was charged with promotion and manufacturing of a dangerous drug, gamma hydroxybutyrate.

Other members of the family were reportedly unaware of the storage of the drug and someone could have drunk it, with potentially fatal effects.

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Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership

Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor