Brainstorm! Challenge

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Taxing in tough times makes no sense

I'm happy to see the mayor is not proposing any fee increases since, according to administration officials cited in the March 5 Star-Bulletin, an improving economy is "leading to a less gloomy fiscal picture." This implies that the administration believes that the right time to raise fees and taxes is during times of economic hardship.

Does this make any sense to anyone who knows something about economics?

Doug Thomas
Mililani

Waahila line would have kept lights on

On March 3 all of Waikiki suffered a major power outage that need not have occurred. As revealed in testimony before the Department of Land and Natural Resources on HECO's proposal to add an additional circuit to the existing transmission line on Waakila Ridge, Waikiki -- the engine of our state's economy -- relies on two 40-year-old 138 kV lines that supply power to the Pukele substation in upper Palolo Valley.

On March 3, when one of the two lines was out for needed maintenance, the other line tripped off and Waikiki went black. If HECO had been allowed to install a 138 kV circuit on the Waahila Ridge transmission line, the outage in this critical area would not have occurred.

Because the DLNR would not allow HECO to strengthen its East Oahu transmission system, residents, visitors, hotels and other businesses in Waikiki and Kapahulu were again exposed to an unnecessary risk.

Alan Lloyd
Kailua

Oceanic mishandled long cable outage

I am one of the 70,000 Oceanic digital customers who lost service (in my case it was nine hours) on Wednesday. This is the second time in 15 days that digital service has been interrupted. During the Feb. 24 outage, we were advised by Oceanic not to unplug the box to reboot. So why is Oceanic surprised that customers did not manually reboot by unplugging their boxes for 10 seconds and then restoring power on March 10 (as it suggested in yesterday's Star-Bulletin story)?

Why did Oceanic wait until 6:30 p.m. to send out a forced reboot message to restore service when the problem was fixed at 11:15 a.m.? If customers cannot get through on the telephone; if they cannot get reception on the TV screen telling them to unplug the boxes; if Oceanic sends out different instructions each time there is an outage, then it needs to do a forced reboot as soon as the problem is fixed.

Oceanic must get its act together. With customers switching to digital to receive HBO and other enhanced services, Oceanic must provide a fail safe whenever it does computer software upgrades.

Lynne Matusow
Honolulu

Traffic jams don't 'beautify' anything

I was in disbelief when I saw two of the middle turn lanes that I use on Kuhio Avenue drilled up ("Waikiki repairs on a bumpy road," Star-Bulletin, March 8). It's great to make wider sidewalks for pedestrians, but it is not wise to give up turn lanes for a landscaped median. The buses already take up one of the lanes.

Traffic backups are not "beautiful" and to take out the turn lanes for a beautifying project is a big mistake.

Paula Baldwin
Waikiki

Allow the pros to fix education system

Next time Governor Lingle needs major surgery, let's put put it on the ballot for the community to decide. Teaching is one of the few professions in which everyone thinks they are an expert.

Dennis Yamamoto
Honolulu

Makakilo road plan should be expedited

While stuck in traffic on Makakilo Drive on Friday, Feb. 27, as I was trying to get down to H-1 and make a flight to Maui, I realized it was again time to address the lack of a second exit route for folks on the hill. Previous letters along with a proposal submitted to the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization's Policy Committee -- to add an already approved project to extend Makakilo Drive to the new North-South interchange in the Transportation Improvement Program for the current period -- have elicited no replies.

Apparently, we will have to experience a disaster before anybody notices that (increasing numbers of) people live on the hill above Kapolei.

Frank Genadio
Kapolei

Supreme Court made right decision on information charging

In the story "State wants amendment vote: Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle vows fight for a rejected constitutional rule" (Star-Bulletin, Feb. 27), comments are attributed to my friend and colleague Carlisle, expressing his disappointment with the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision invalidating the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the prosecution to charge suspects with felonies without presenting evidence or witnesses to a grand jury.

The Supreme Court's action was characterized as permitting "a pragmatically purposeless procedure to thwart the wills of a sovereign people." I have a different perspective.

No matter on which side of an issue one stands, sight must not be lost as to the function and purpose of our courts. Our democratic society demands that courts decide disputes that are at times at the center of public debate, objectively and dispassionately. Across our land, we exhort our courts to decide cases on the facts and the law.

The publication and disclosure requirements of Article XVII, Sections 2 and 3 of the Hawaii Constitution were established by the Constitutional Convention. They were simply not followed when the proposed constitutional amendment was presented to Hawaii's voters in 2002.

Therefore, the Hawaii Supreme Court could not ignore that circumstance and declared that the ratification process was invalid. The Supreme Court's duty and obligation was to enforce the law and it did just that.

Deputy Attorney General Richard Bissen correctly recognized that as the ratification process was not done right the first time, it can and will be done right the next time. That is all that the Supreme Court decided. As a sovereign people, we should demand nothing less.

Dale W. Lee
President
Hawaii State Bar Association

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[ BRAINSTORM! ] Does Honolulu need a city museum, and what should be in it? Does history matter? If so, whose history? Bishop Museum is one of the leading cultural museums in the United States, but it is not a history center. Honolulu seems to be the only state capital city without a municipal museum. Does Honolulu need a city museum? What should be in it? Where should it be? Should such a museum be a collection of artifacts or a learning center? Would such a museum be geared for Hawaii education or for entertaining tourists? Send your ideas by March 17 to: brainstorm@starbulletin.com Or mail them to: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson Star-Bulletin 500 Ala Moana 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Fax: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson 529-4750