QUALITY OF LIFE

O'AHU MUST TAKE DEEP BREATH, SLOW GROWTH

Stop! We need a total moratorium on all building permits.

Look! Do you see what is happening to our land? Is enough being preserved for agriculture and trees?

Listen! There are too many loud cars, trucks and leaf blowers!

What are we doing to our quality of life? Our environment? We live on an island; where will we get the water, power and food to support uncontrolled growth?

Stop! Look! Listen! I think we are about to be hit by a train!

UH

LACK OF GENDER EQUITY IN SOME COACHING PAY

It's good to see University of Hawai'i coaches getting a pay raise on the coattails of the UH head football coach. But there's a discrepancy in the table of salary ranges recently approved by the Board of Regents and posted in The Advertiser.

Currently, salary ranges are the same for the men's and women's coaches in the following positions: tennis assistant coach, golf assistant coach and golf head coach.

However, under the new pay schedule the men make more than the women. This didn't happen with the volleyball assistant and associate coaches.

If the job responsibilities are the same, the salaries should be the same. Perhaps it was a typo. If not, maybe someone at UH can explain why they moved away from gender equity in tennis and golf.

EDUCATION

CONCON NEEDED TO HELP FIX SCHOOL SYSTEM

Thanks to William Harris for describing his experiences in Ireland and the dramatic benefits that resulted after Ireland improved its educational system (Island Voices, Feb. 12).

It wasn't long ago that Ireland was the poorest country in Europe when the government decided to upgrade its educational system. Over time, the workforce become well educated and drew high-tech companies to Ireland. Today, Ireland is one of the richest countries in Europe.

Hawai'i can do the same. With a well-educated workforce, Hawai'i would be able to participate fully in the global high-tech economy. An increase in the number of high-paying high-tech jobs would improve the overall economy and benefit all people.

Without an improved education system, Hawai'i would be relegated to depending too much on low-paying jobs, and the economy would continue to suffer.

Unfortunately, there is no indication that Hawai'i's elected leaders are as courageous or far-sighted as the Irish leaders 20 years ago who made the decision to improve their educational system.

We need a constitutional convention that will give Hawai'i's people an opportunity to choose whether or not to change the organizational structure of public education so that teachers, school administrators, parents and even students will be empowered to determine how their schools will operate without being burdened to dysfunctionality by the bureaucracy.

TRANSIT

RAIL NOT MEANT TO HANDLE ALL COMMUTERS

Dawn Hayashi's letter (Feb. 14) doubting whether commuters will ride Honolulu's future transit system had a faulty premise, just like so many other letters that question future ridership:

"All the people who drive their comfy cars are not going to ride rail," she wrote. She's right about that; all current car commuters won't switch to transit.

What she and others fail to appreciate is that transit can't possibly accommodate all commuters, nor is it intended to.

Many will continue to drive, and that will be their choice, just as the new system will be the choice of those who no longer wish to drive.

How many times must this point be made before critics get it? Transit is an alternative to traffic, an option that currently does not exist to gridlock on the freeway.

IN THE LONG RUN, RAIL SYSTEM WILL PAY OFF

With respect to Dawn Hayashi's letter (Feb. 14), I've noticed that those who often oppose rail transit are those who "drive their comfy cars with air conditioning, stereos and a cup holder for their coffee" from anywhere other than the Leeward side. To you, this may be a "small area" that the rail will service, but the thousands who sit daily in hours of traffic may beg to differ. Rail means fewer cars, whereas another road allows more traffic. Traffic is the problem here, not the "look of Honolulu proper."

Not to mention the cost comparison — rail may initially cost more, but in the long run, the constant roadwork repairs (adding even more traffic) and the enormous cost of more cars and buses on our environment is more detrimental than a lower-maintenance fixed rail that runs electrically.

The big question is "if you build it, will they ride?" The proof is in the pudding. Look at every other city that opposed a rail system but is now successfully running an efficient mode of mass transportation for the commuter. And when the price of gasoline reaches $7 or more, I foresee many jumping ship — or car perhaps — right onto the train.

HAWAI'I KAI

DON'T CLOSE TRAIL, MOVE SHOOTING RANGE INSTEAD

Instead of the city attempting to close the Koko Crater trail due to the firing range, maybe we should be asking what is a shooting range doing within range of baseball parks, tennis courts, basketball courts, a hiking trail, private homes, a major road just on the other side of the shooting range and Hanauma Bay just over the hill.

It seems to me the shooting range needs to go, not public access to our parks in Hawai'i Kai.