Speeding drivers plague Hawaii Kai

I am upset by the residents of Hawaii Kai who routinely speed on Lunalilo Home Road near Hawaii Kai Drive. Children, joggers and walkers are continually endangered by the impatient, aggressive drivers. Walking my dog each morning and evening, I have observed that most drivers go at least 40 to 45 mph in a 25 mph zone, whip around left-turners, and seem oblivious to others attempting to cross or enter the road. I don't think I have ever seen anyone going the speed limit. I know many are parents, as I see child car seats in the vehicles; I can only wonder what they are thinking.

Mahalo to the city for trying to plan some traffic-calming landscaping, but I don't think trees are going to make much difference. I suggest stop signs at Wainiha and Maniniholo would be more effective and less costly, and may reduce the road-racing impulses that seem to prevail on a long, uninterrupted stretch of roadway.

Since the light was changed at Hawaii Kai Drive to favor the downhill traffic, many are using Waoli Street in an attempt to beat the light. Now there is speeding on Waoli as well.

Please slow down. Children and small animals live and play on these residential streets.

René Garvin

Governor's record on education revisited

Who is Jackie Kido, the governor's spokeswoman, kidding (Letters, Oct. 29)? Governor Cayetano is the reason so many teachers are leaving the schools and going elsewhere. Who doesn't remember that the governor needlessly kept the teachers out on strike for 21 days and bragged about how much money he saved the state? Who doesn't remember him saying on TV that there was a settlement, and months later reneging? Have teachers been paid yet?

Teachers will soon start at $34,294 a year. Two years is soon?

Police officers make $31,812 and firefighters make $31,092 with only a high school diploma! Why would anyone go to college for five years to get a teaching certificate and spend all that money on their education to become a teacher who only makes $3,000 a year more? They would have missed out on more than $150,000 they could have earned in those five years.

So the state has to build new schools. When will they maintain all the others that are falling apart? If there are more classrooms, why are classes overcrowded? Mililani High School students, parents and teachers would like an answer.

Actions speak louder than words. There is a crisis in public education. The governor and the Legislature are to blame.

Also, Governor Cayetano and his new wife don't have their children in public schools. Actions speak louder than words.

Go kid someone else. Students, parents, teachers and the public can see clearly for themselves.

Harold T. Irving Jr.
Manoa

[Quotables] "I've been damned -- but I'm all right with that." Timmie Sinclair Winner of a private screening for 200 to 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,' describing how some parents at her daughter's school reacted to her invitation to the movie. "She did the kind of music that touched people's hearts." Nohelani Cypriano Member of the Local Divas, speaking of Loyal Garner, who died Thursday after a battle with cancer.

State can halt decline of Puuwaawaa

There is a sad history of decline in the natural values of Puuwaawaa, a large tract of state-owned land on the Big Island. But this decline does not have to continue. Things can get better. The Board of Land and Natural Resources needs to go in that direction.

The board took some steps back in 1984 when it reduced the size of the cattle-grazing lease and created the wildlife sanctuary. It also fined the lessee for illegal harvesting of koa from the slopes of Hualalai, some of which is in the sanctuary now.

An excellent proposal has been submitted by Ka 'Ahahui 'o Pu'uwa'awa'a for a lease that promotes conservation and restoration of the natural resources of this area, as well as providing the greater public benefits of increased access, environmental education and income generation that would go toward the specified conservation management goals.

The present Land Board now needs to agree to the proposal submitted by Ka 'Ahahui 'o Pu'uwa'awa'a that would create a public-private partnership to manage state land in ways that are both economically and environmentally sound.

Richard Scudder

Separate nonsmokers from smokers

I really don't mind if people want to smoke, or inject other drugs -- as long as it does not affect the majority of people who don't. That is the problem; if I can smell the stench (it really does smell bad) of cigarette smoke in a restaurant, I won't eat there.

There needs to be a physical separation between those who don't like smoking and those who do. If that can't be done, then smoking should not be allowed in the establishment.

Brad White

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