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Transit plan would boost bus ridership

The chance to improve public transportation seems to be slipping away. Honolulu City Council members are wrestling with fares for TheBus. On one hand, they say, "Hey, use more public transportation," and on the other, "Let's raise the fares." Is there anything wrong here?

I challenge the Council to do something gutsy and forward thinking -- reduce the monthly bus pass to $15 and the single-ride fee to 50 cents, but increase the number of buses and frequency of runs. Add a 25-cent-per-gallon surcharge to gasoline. Triple the cost of license plates for cars.

If the Council doubles or triples the frequency of bus runs past my back door, I'll sign the title of my car over to the good old City and County of Honolulu.

Raymond Heath

Hawaii folks already know what's good

With all due respect to John Loring, Tiffany's guru of style and "good taste," I can think of other ways to spend $125 -- the price of a ticket to Loring's slide lecture at the Hawaii Theatre.

Here is a short list of "good taste" that $125 will get you in Hawaii:

About 20 pounds of broke-da-mouth poki from your favorite fish market.

Dinner for two at just about any fine dining restaurant in Hawaii. (Or treat the entire extended family to a meal at good old Zippy's!)

About 75 shave ices from your favorite local vendor.

Ten CDs of your choice.

A couple of rounds (with pupus) for 10 of your best friends at Side Street Inn.

Annual passes for Bishop Museum, Waikiki Aquarium, Honolulu Zoo and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

Four tickets (and bento dinners) to any outdoor Hawaiian music concert at the Waikiki Shell, including the May Day concert by the Brothers Caz.

And then there are the really valuable things that money can't buy and that aren't for sale anyway, like the beaches, surf, trade winds, Manoa rainbows, ohana values and aloha spirit.

Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. John Loring and Tiffany's. We already have plenty of "good taste" in Hawaii. Not to mention all the things that "taste good," too!

Matt Nakamura

Governor must abide by arbitrated union raises

We work in various departments and occupations in state government. From August 1998 until September 1999, we bargained in good faith with the governor's representatives, who consistently refused to negotiate any cost items.

Even immediately prior to the arbitration hearings, when there were indications that the state's economy may be recovering, we were told the employer's last and best offer was a "0 percent increase."

This forced all seven HGEA/AFSCME bargaining units to the only option legally available to us: final and binding arbitration. As you know, the arbitration panel awarded us a 14.5 percent increase over four years, similar to what SHOPO received.

However, Governor Cayetano says he will fight the pay increases awarded through arbitration because they take away needed funding for social services recipients. We are offended by the governor's suggestion that our pay raises must come at the expense of welfare recipients.

The arbitration panel found that the employer does have the ability to pay for the awarded increases. In fact, the panel ruled that management's arguments against the raise were "confusing, contradictory at times and unconvincing."

The governor, by his statements, demonstrates an unwillingness to pay rather than an inability to pay. He has the discretion to use other sources of funding, if he chooses.

He has a responsibility to be fair with his own employees. Doing less sends a poor message to all of Hawaii's workers.

Thomas Oi
Chairperson
HGEA/AFSCME Bargaining Unit 13
(Professional and Scientific Employees)

Editor's note: This letter also was signed by Unit 13 negotiators James Anderson, Irv Cohen, Emery Henderson, Keith Nagai, Peter Oshiro and Roger Thoren.

Quotables "There are so many diverse interest groups, and they all want to be heard. But how do you please the environmentalists and the utilities, too?" Calvin Say STATE HOUSE SPEAKER Saying that, with varying constituencies clamoring for attention, it is difficult for the Hawaii Legislature to ever get a high approval rating from the public. A Star-Bulletin poll showed low expectations for the upcoming 2001 legislative session. "I think the public has a good understanding of the Legislature." Galen Fox REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE AND HOUSE MINORITY LEADER Saying that the low opinion of the state's law-making body is deserved

Stock market heading for a wipeout

The psychics and especially Bank of Hawaii economist Paul Brewbaker have it all wrong about 2001 (Star-Bulletin, Jan. 9). I am not clairvoyant; I am just a researcher. But history and the facts speak for themselves. So I will give it to you straight.

Because of the amount of speculating, within the next two months, due to some outside event, possibly an oil spike, the stock market will crash. The Dow will fall at least 700 or as much as 1,000 points, and the Nasdaq will fall at least 400 points the same day.

Due to the record amount of volume of 4 billion or possibly as much as 6 billion shares, the Nasdaq's Select-Net-System will suffer delays or will fail completely. This will lead to a panic situation. Fear will set in.

After several attempts to rebound, the market will continue to fall. The Dow will lose as much as 25 percent and the Nasdaq at least 30 percent from the day of the crash. Unemployment and inventories will rise as the deflationary spiral begins.

The bubble will burst, the New Economy will end and the Bust Cycle will begin. This will be the greatest economic catastrophe of mankind.

Remember, you read it here first.

Rick Stefanko
Author, "The Bursting of the Bubble"

Founder of restaurant was a strong man

I helped the original owner of Columbia Inn, Gentaro Kaneshiro, in brushing up on his Okinawan karate in the late 1950s when Dr. Tsuyoshi Citose, judan (10th degree), came over from Kumamoto, Japan. Gentaro and several oldtimers performed.

I was an assistant instructor for the late Tommy Morita at the old Nuuanu YMCA in the late '50s and early '60s. At the restaurant, when it was on Beretania Street, I saw Gentaro unload 100-pound rice sacks two at a time on his shoulders. At the time, he must have been in his early 60s.

I stopped going to Columbia Inn because he would never let me pay for my meal.

Sonny Palabrica
San Francisco

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