• Build ‘Complete Streets’
• Start at the top
• Plastic continues forever
• Apples and oranges (and berries)
Build ‘Complete Streets’
There is but one road that connects the communities of Kaua‘i, so its design should reflect the communities it serves. Pedestrians, bicyclists, and people with disabilities all use the roadway in addition to cars and trucks.
We walk, wheel, or bicycle along the broken road shoulder, which is sometimes euphemistically labeled a “bike lane”, inches away from speeding cars. There is no doubt we are there because car drivers occasionally hit us even though they may drive carefully.
The current road is designed so that accidents will happen, because it takes no account of the way people use it. More than just being widened, the main highway needs to be accessible to all of the people of Kaua‘i.
The Complete Streets legislation passed in Congress — www.completestreets.org — mandates the design and construction of streets in the U.S. to be accessible to all users. That includes pedestrians, bicycles, access for the disabled, and cars.
Using scare tactics and abstruse legal references to obstruct the design and construction of safe and accessible pathways, streets, and crossings for pedestrians and bicyclists is not beneficial to the community.
There is no excuse for having a poorly designed road when money is available to design and build “Complete Streets.”
Kurt Rutter, Kapa‘a
Start at the top
If Gov. Lingle is so anxious to cut salaries, why not start with her own?
I feel the governor, lieutenant governor, all legislators, and all department heads should not be paid (or maybe just get a token like $10,000 per year) until the budget mess is fixed. Think of the savings!
Each department could start with reducing ridiculous repetitive paperwork, opening windows and turning off (or way down) the air conditioning.
If it is good enough for our children in school to swelter in the heat, maybe it should be good enough for the head of DOE!
No cars for anyone! Period! No one takes a car home. Trucks for maintenance and vans to transport workers. (If they use their cars during work hours for work purposes only, no errands, they could get reimbursed for mileage at the nonprofit rate of $.17 per mile)
This would increase efficiency and cut down on wasted trips. Everyone else has to pay to drive to work, why shouldn’t they?
If the people that sit in the big offices with the big salaries had to deal with the public and had implement the policies and paperwork they create, things would simplify.
If they had to live on the meager amounts most people live on, they would get a new perspective on what really needs to be done.
Make the cuts at the top and leave the little people, who actually do the work, alone.
Suzi Bond, Kea‘au
Plastic continues forever
The ocean purifies all. Do you really think so?
Plastic is made from oil and cannot biodegrade. Plastic continues forever in the environment, ocean and land, and cannot return to nature. Once plastic garbage is thrown away, it remains there until someone collects it.
On the beach, plastic is easily buried. It can float in the sea. Have you ever seen a plastic bag flying by?
No one can digest plastics. Sea creatures and birds are no exception. Birds come upon large amounts of plastic garbage. Whales, dolphins, seals and turtles find plastic sheeting, bags, lighters, toothbrushes, etc. at sea.
When these foreign objects collect in an animal’s digestive organs, necessary nourishment ceases and the animal weakens and dies.
Our Hawaiian monk seals and sea turtles, endangered species, are subject to pollution and death by plastics. We humans need to resolve the issue of plastics.
This week we have the opportunity to involve ourselves with Kaua’i County Council’s Bill 2321 — the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance.
Reduction of plastic bags will help our environment. It is a good beginning. Mahalo for making the pono decision.
Chizuru “J” Yoshida, Koloa
Apples and oranges (and berries)
Regarding Lynn Brodie’s letter of Aug. 15 (“Sticks and stones”), it would appear that serious ignorance is in play here.
“Dingle berries” is the somewhat humorous word describing residual toilet paper left on one’s person, while “faggot” (the word used by coach Mac) is a slur directed at persons born of a different sexual preference or identity. Think “N” word.
That the writer would equate one with the other only shows the lack of knowledge and understanding of the writer. Maybe you should check your dictionary before you spew crud like that in the newspaper.
And for the record, I don’t think the coach Mac is a homophobe. He was just talking off the cuff, maybe trying to be humorous without thinking. He knows what he said was wrong and has admitted it publicly.
Susan L. Straight, Waimea
