Hoping to meet, thank finder of wallet
On Friday, June 7, I lost my wallet at Walmart. On Saturday, I received a call from Walmart that my wallet had been turned in by a good Samaritan. I immediately went over and received my wallet intact. The finder did not leave his name. Will the finder call me at 245-3168 or 651-4306 so I can meet and personally thank you.
Robert “Bobby” Tamura, Lihue
Ride sharing a good option
In the Monday, June 3 issue you published a story on the ridership on the Kauai Bus. Then in the Tuesday, June 4 issue you published a letter by Steve Martin on alternative transportation for visitors.
Living in San Francisco where I can catch a bus on most street corners every 10 or f15 minutes to go anywhere in the city, I can see Mr. Martin’s point that the once-per-hour and limited number of stops makes the Kauai Bus less than ideal.
For 25 years I was at a stop one block from my home at 7 a.m. to catch the bus to work on the opposite side of the city downtown. That bus arrived at the stop promptly at 7:05, and dropped be off at a stop in front of the building I worked in at 7:25, and I was at my desk at 7:30. Not “island style”, but it worked like clockwork.
But to the point Mr. Martin is making on alternative transportation for visitors, I wholeheartedly agree that the situation could be improved.
For the past dozen or so years, we have vacationed on Kauai in the winter. One of the largest expenses when we visit the island is car rental. And — while we enjoy some “exploring” and visiting our favorite haunts — the car largely sits idle at our timeshare, when not clogging the roads.
Having an acquaintance who worked very hard to buy and keep his SF Taxi Medallion, and continues to work hard to pay the company lease on his taxi, I am not a big fan of Uber, although I have used them on occasion and found their service convenient and reliable.
However, as another alternative I suggest local government might want to encourage resort and timeshare developments to provide designated parking spaces for car-share services such as Zip Car or City Car Share. This way, visitors could take a shuttle from the airport to their accommodations, then just “check out” a car to use when and just for how long they need/want to use one. (Hand-in-hand with this, the local government would probably need to offer some inducement to the car share company to situate vehicles and staff on Kauai which is relatively speaking a small market.)
Thomas Knapp, San Francisco
The irony of someone who admits being from San Francisco lecturing Kauai on how to run a City/County. I can’t stop laughing!
So… How has local-only solutions to local problems been working out for you?