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This old nag isn’t
what she used to be

Hawaii's 2005 legislative session opened this week and for the next 60 days our lawmakers will discuss essential issues ranging from drug control and education to transportation and affordable housing.

Still, I can't help but hope they will also find time to finally begin taking some serious steps in solving our small-boat-harbor crisis.

I use the term "crisis" because, from just about any perspective, the facilities in our state-run recreational marinas have been on a downhill slide to disintegration for a decade or more.

There are now fewer and shoddier public boat moorings available statewide than 10 years ago, even though the demand for those facilities has grown with our population and with Hawaii's popularity as a cruisers' destination.

The disintegration of these state facilities runs counter to Hawaii's potential for recreational boating and diminishes what could be a powerful economic impact.

And yet, in the face of repeated warnings from the state's auditor, past legislatures and administrations have followed a strategy once humorously described by former Health Department director Bruce Anderson.

As to why government often seems to be unable to solve problems, he noted that common sense says when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

However, in government, he said, we often try other strategies that include:

» Buying a stronger whip.

» Changing the rider.

» Appointing a committee to study the horse.

» Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride a dead horse.

» Appointing a team to revive the dead horse.

» Passing legislation declaring the horse is not dead.

» Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.

» Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.

» Doing a study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.

» Declaring the horse is better, faster and cheaper dead.

I'm not sure if our state-run marinas can be officially declared lifeless, but they certainly will require some heroic measures to save them.

I've read that Chicago's Park District Board of Commissioners has recently asked for a study of its harbors to determine how it can develop more and better facilities.

Even though the city has the largest municipal recreational boat harbor system in the nation (over 5,000 moorings) and many of its marinas have been upgraded in the last decade, there are still some 1,000 people on its waiting list for moorings.

The commissioners understand that list equates to lost revenue, as the district expects to net more than $10 million this year, even after paying $7 million to its private harbor management firm.

If places like Chicago can use strategies to keep riding live, healthy horses, why can't we?