• Blink, don’t honk • Pick another site • The perfect place Blink, don’t honk Welcome to the beautiful island of Kaua‘i, most of the time that is. Paradise is best enjoyed with not too much sun and lots of
• Blink, don’t honk
• Pick another site
• The perfect place
Blink, don’t honk
Welcome to the beautiful island of Kaua‘i, most of the time that is.
Paradise is best enjoyed with not too much sun and lots of sleep to relax the body and soothe the soul. If you’re not hermetically sealed up with a noisy air-conditioner you hear the subtle rhythmic sounds of the ocean waves as you come out of a deep sleep and the morning coo of early island birds — both are something special together.
At a steady pace these mornings are very close to extinction due to sounds more predictable in the streets of Detroit — a “Honk. Honk. Honk.” This is the point of this appeal to all who rent or own new vehicles on Kaua‘i.
Our island paradise has been overrun by an ill-conceived audio communication procedure to ingress and egress most new vehicles. Using the horn to communicate to drivers that the lock is activating is simply a stupid idea, even in downtown wherever. I said to myself, “Self, what am I not seeing?” The visually impaired? Nope, they can’t drive a car without sight so … hmm, nothing, nada. It’s just plain stupid like “stupid is what stupid did” — and it’s unnecessarily noisy.
Over the last couple years or so many rental fleets have assaulted the island with these pre-programmed noisemakers. Perhaps if they are asked nicely to fix it or maybe demand a rental that blinks verses honks would get their attention.
Let’s make this paradise predator go away. Tell your rental agency next time you will find a renter who values less noisy over noisier; anyway, induced noise is pollution so it’s greener too right?
That should be our mantra: “Blink it, not honk it.”
In the meantime, if you have one of those noisemakers please try to remember to manually lock and unlock your door before 9 a.m. and after 9 p.m. if you’re within 200 feet of dwellings.
I thank you now for our collective overdue achievement.
Gary Bolster, Kapa‘a
Pick another site
I would like to add my voice to those speaking out against the absurd recommendation of Kaua‘i Coffee’s Umi site for landfill expansion.
As an A&B and Kaua‘i Coffee manager, I was intimately involved with Kaua‘i Coffee from its inception in 1987 until I left the Islands in 1999. During that time I was witness to the myriad challenges facing an agricultural and marketing venture of this magnitude. I was in a position to appreciate the enormous creativity, problem solving ability and belief in the eventual success of this business which were exhibited by the employees of McBryde, A&B and Kaua‘i Coffee.
Have no doubt about it, Kaua‘i Coffee was and continues to be a pioneering operation. From the outset, we all recognized that growing and producing coffee as it had not been done before would be a challenge. But we also knew that we needed to position our product as a premium, specialty coffee. We knew that we could not provide our workers with a living wage nor be actively mindful of environmental impacts if the best we could expect was commodity pricing.
Although Kaua‘i Coffee produces excellent coffee, perception of quality goes beyond the intrinsic characteristics of the product. There is no question in my mind that this proposed landfill sited in the middle of the coffee fields would sound the death knell for this brave and innovative business. Production of premium coffee and landfill operations clearly are incompatible activities.
On the entire glorious island of Kaua‘i there must be a more appropriate landfill site.
Judy Williams. Williams, Ore.
The perfect place
Living in the beautiful coastal San Diego community of La Jolla, we began feeling really impacted by the crowds, the freeways and the changed atmosphere in the level of friendliness as San Diego became a “big city.”
We wanted to find a place where people were friendly, the communities were small, the climate was pleasant and the ocean was ever present. Four years ago we found that — and more — in beautiful Kaua‘i.
We fell in love with the people and the island almost instantly. Two years ago we decided to move to Kaua‘i and we put our house on the market. Timing was clearly not the best and we are still trying to sell our house. When Realtors ask, “Well, when do you want to move to Kaua‘i?” our answer is always, “Tomorrow.”
Our next door neighbors have always vacationed on Maui. As we described our trips to Kaua‘i to them, they said they would try it. Two years ago they stayed in Kaua‘i (Princeville) for four weeks and for the past two weeks they were in Kaua‘i again.
Last Thursday we received this e-mail from them: “No question that this is the most beautiful place on earth. Not withstanding the weather when we first arrived, the storms have passed and one could not imagine a more perfect climate.”
0r, we would add, a more perfect place. Hoping to be there soon…
Jane and Joe Frisinger, La Jolla, Calif.
