Include mentally ill in affordable housing

Affordable housing and rentals are a major state issue that will be addressed in the 2005 legislative session. I hope they include the mental health community in providing funding for affordables.

There has been a needed change in thinking about the type of housing needed for the mentally ill. Until 2004 the goal was to prepare them to live as normally as possible in society. People in recovery would live independently in their own apartments. For many it was an achievable goal, but for a minority it was not. They needed semi-independent living arrangements with supervision from apartment or home mental-health managers.

The mental health community decided that this type of living arrangement should be a second option for the mentally ill in recovery.

Some who are in recovery need an "ohana style" living arrangement with others to keep on track. This includes making sure medication is taken and socialization is encouraged. I urge our state leaders to fund this new type of housing for those in recovery.

Bottle bill is worthy of public support

A month and a half of bottle bill setup time was lost because Governor Lingle failed to sign a measure to improve the bill. Staff hiring, public education and fine-tuning of the program all suffered.

The Retail Merchants of Hawaii held a meeting on ways to block and delay the bottle bill program. And many stores have not set up redemption centers.

So if you're frustrated, don't blame the bottle bill. And remember:

» With no bottle bill, our money ends up in the coffers of mainland corporations, while an average of 75,000 beverage containers per hour end up on our aina.

» Beverage-container litter fell about 70 percent to 85 percent in states with bottle bills.

» Glass lacerations in children fell 60 percent after a beverage container deposit law took effect in Massachusetts.

» Jobs have increased in almost every state with deposit systems. Beverage sales generally return to the national average in a few years in most states with deposit laws. And priceless beauty returns to unlittered landscapes.

» Collecting cans and bottles brings money to community groups.

» Most people in bottle bill states support the bills. No state has ever repealed a state container deposit law.

Help our economy, our people, and our aina. Don't bottle up this one.

Big Island highway must be expanded

It is my understanding that Phase II of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway expansion between Kealakehe Parkway and Kona International Airport has been shelved due to budgetary reasons. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we need Queen Kaahumanu Highway expanded to four lanes all the way to the airport.

But unfortunately the powers that be do not care and are sitting on their duffs while funding for Phase II gets pulled. I find this to be a travesty as Queen Kaahumanu has been maxed-out traffic-wise for the last seven years. To me, this is the No. 1 problem that needs to be resolved for West Hawaii, the bottleneck on Queen Kaahumanu Highway.

I strongly urge everyone to write to Governor Lingle, the Department of Transportation and your legislators to urge them to restore funding for this project. I have done it. But it will take more than my complaints to speed up this project.

All cities should use new hybrid buses

Honolulu is one of the few American cities that has a new fleet of hybrid diesel/electric buses that deliver up to 60 percent better fuel economy than a traditional diesel bus. The buses are much cleaner and quieter.

Particulate emissions (the smelly black smoke you used to see) are lowered by 90 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions are lowered by up to 50 percent. General Motors states that if America's nine largest cities replaced their transit fleets -- totaling 13,000 buses -- with GM's hybrid buses, the cities would save 40 million gallons of fuel each year.

City riders used to choking on diesel fumes from the old noisy buses love the new, 60-foot, flexible buses. They love the low emissions, great fuel economy, smooth and quiet operation, and the 50 percent faster acceleration. Let's get all the smoking, noisy buses off the road and replace all buses nationwide with hybrids.

Inouye should change vote on Arctic drilling

I was very disappointed to find that Sen. Daniel Inouye voted for drilling in the Arctic wilderness last year.

Drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge will ruin one of America's last wild places for what the U.S. Geological Survey and oil company executives concede is only a few months' worth of oil.

The coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge supports some of America's most spectacular wildlife, and I feel that's a huge sacrifice just to quench America's insatiable need for oil.

I think Inouye needs to instead help find ways to promote energy conservation and alternative energy sources.

While experiencing the disappearance of many of the open spaces that I grew up with in Hawaii, it's appalling to see one of our own support the degradation of another wilderness area for such a short-sighted cause.

I pray Inouye will vote against this bill when it appears again on the 2005 agenda.