ELECTIONS

SHENANIGANS GOING ON IN COUNCIL DISTRICT 5

Dear Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, thank you so much!

Your constituents (Council District 5) owe you a debt of gratitude for so effectively taking away any choice we might have had in picking a replacement for your soon-to-be vacated City Council seat.

Your last-minute withdrawal from running for City Council and filing for the mayoral race, without notice to anyone save your friend Duke Bainum, was a ploy that worked so well!

Why would we want anyone else to run for your vacant council seat? How could a regular resident of our district, who knows our community, be any better?

Why wouldn't the ideal representative for our community be someone with no dedication to Hawai'i, who has been living in Arkansas for the past few years and who, on filing deadline day, managed to conveniently rent an apartment in our district to qualify himself for the seat? Who cares if he actually has a home with a Kahala address?

I dislike politicians who pull these kinds of shenanigans. I thought you were better than that, Ann. Please be assured that you will not have my vote in your quest for mayor.

SAT

SCORES REFLECT LACK OF FINE-ARTS EDUCATION

Your headline (Aug. 27) on the drop of SAT scores in the state of Hawai'i should really be no surprise.

Hawai'i public schools in the past few years have significantly dropped their offerings of the fine arts in public schools. Research has shown that students participating in a fine-arts program in school increase their test scores.

Fine-arts teachers have struggled to maintain their programs. It is unfortunate that we have a state administration that continually underfunds public education, and a federal administration that makes demands with unfunded mandates. But the consistent underfunding and draconian demands of the public education system must end.

The management of public education must remain in the hands of public educators. But they must be given the tools, funds and freedom to educate the students, the real constituents of public schools.

COMPLAINTS

SPEND TIME FIXING, NOT DEFENDING PROBLEMS

Over the past couple years a pattern has developed within city government. This pattern is a letter to the editor by some bureaucrat responding to citizen complaints.

Mostly they try and defend this or that position, attempting to deflect the complaint. Instead of tackling the problem, they find time to justify the problem through the print press.

Recently construction on Fort Weaver Road was halted for more than three weeks because they could not figure out that contraflow, along with police directing traffic, would go a long way to speed up traffic.

Evidently our suggestions for said contraflow must have been passed along and guess what? Contraflow is in place now and traffic is better — not great, but better. If these bureaucrats have time to write letters, then clearly they are not doing their job.

ROADWORK

KAPI'OLANI BOULEVARD A LONG-TERM HAZARD

I read Russell Takara's rebuttal (Letters, Aug. 27) with a grin. I realize he is beholden to the city administration for his job, but can he really be serious?

He states that the present Kapi'olani Boulevard roadwork is long overdue, yet this stretch of arguably the busiest roadway in Honolulu has been under constant upheaval for years.

In the '90s, Kapi'olani Boulevard was torn up from Cooke Street to Pi'ikoi for sewer work for what seemed like years, steel plates comprised most of the road then, too.

The point that everyone at the city, including the mayor, does not seem to get, is how you get these public works projects done. It's the duration, chaos, danger and constant disregard for public safety that is at issue here.

Every day is like a set from the movie "Saw," where steel plates, huge craters and loose gravel attempt to snare innocent victims. Who's in charge of this disaster, and why are they allowed to place the public into such hazardous circumstance for so long?

Who allows them to funnel rush-hour traffic into two lanes from four, creating the very gridlock they preach about avoiding in their "Beat the Jam" commercials? Talk about contradictions!

To put it all in perspective, San Francisco buried the BART and Muni rail under Market Street in the '70s. It took them four years to create a second city three levels below the street.

It's been more than two years to dig up one sewer line six feet below Kapi'olani. Mr. Takara, do you take us all for fools?

LITTLE LEAGUE

TAKE OUR HEROES AROUND THE ISLAND

I wish to congratulate our young Little League World Champions. We all should honor our Little League heroes by renting a trolley car to take them around the island so all the local people can honor and see our young heroes in person. I am willing to help donate for gas.