Letters to the Editor - Hawaii Editorials

John Brizdie lays out his alarming vision of future traffic problems on Oahu and then says "Stop the transit tax." In other words, stop the mechanism to build an alternative to sitting in that traffic. Rail is needed for precisely that reason -- to allow commuters to avoid whatever traffic exists in 2030.

Oahu families are going to grow, as will the island's population and so, presumably, will the number of automobiles. Billions will be spent on road and highway improvements (other documents attest to this), and rail will be the alternative. Just build it.

"Those new homes and new jobs will eventually be filled by members of my generation, and that's why it's so important for Hawaii's young people to step up and support the economic engine which is Honolulu's rail project."

Glad you feel that way Tyler...because your generation will be funding this white elephant long after most of us are gone. Not only is it going to coat way more to build than what you are hearing it is going to cost a small fortume every year to subsidize so some tiny percentage can have cheap ride. It will be run and maintained by union workers so don't put all your transportation eggs in one basket, they DO go on strike and it WILL stop the choo choo when they do.

As to "creating" jobs, we call that make work and at best they will be temp jobs. There is not saying that many will even be local jobs, they may import workers from virtually anywhere.

Yes Oahu needs 30,000 new homes...and guess what, each one will have at least one car. You are at Yale, do the math on that.....as to being affordable, please, don't make me laugh. Builders are NOT in the business to be nice guys.

Ref teachers taking pay cuts. I have mixed feelings on this. I know they only work 180 days per year however, there are outstanding teachers and they work very hard to not only educate our future, but also counsel and try to guide studends in the right direction. The one thing I have a big problem with, here in Sayre, teachers won't go to parent/teacher night as they say they don't get paid for it. Thats part of their job to meet with the parents.

The Yale Portagee no understand no use have rail if passengers too stupid to figure out how to get on because the generation before them cheated them out of their basic education.

Yale?

Bra, try common sense instead.

Priorities, moron.

The last thing a government wants is an educated public.

Tyler Dos Santos-Tam proves that young peoples minds a full of mush. The reason our young people cannot return to Hawaii is that they cannot afford to live here due to high taxes. Rail is just one more reason young people will not be able to come back and elderly people on fixed incomes will have to leave. The Hoopili project can't get a permit yet has a transit station right in the middle of an empty field. Why are you forcing Leeward people to go downtown to get minimum wage jobs and ride the rail instead of building a world class UH West Oahu campus so they can get and good education and decent jobs so they can stay in Hawaii. Rail seems good until you look at the cost and what it won't do for us. Tyler, stay in school, stay on the mainland.

Everyone should know that Tyler Dos Santos-Tam is the Youth Outreach Coordinator for "Youth for Mufi." Do a quick Google search if you don't believe me. In other words, his letter is obviously another part of a well-orchestrated campaign run by Mayor Mufi's hard-core supporters and designed to create the illusion of overwhelming public support for rail. Let's see, in the last week we have had letters from "M. Chung" the "average citizen", then Gary Kai the businessman and now Dos Santos-Tam the bright young college guy. Who will it be next? A sports hero? A TV celebrity? Check back tomorrow to find out!

As for Dos Santos-Tam's claims, the most ridiculous one is the 30,000 new (not relocated) jobs that he foresees being created in Kapolei. The two biggest sectors of Oahu's economy are tourism and military spending. Both are growing slowly, if at all. The only way 30,000 new jobs are going to be created is if we build dozens of new hotels or a couple new military bases. The chances of that happening are very slim. So maybe Tyler can tell us where all those jobs are going to come from. I'll bet he can't. Ten or twenty years from now, when he will be living on Oahu and watching his tax dollars go to provide massive subsidies to fund the daily operation of rail, Dos Santos-Tam might eventually realize he's made a big mistake by backing Mayor Mufi. But by then it will be too late.

Kalli wrote:

Tyler Dos Santos-Tam proves that young peoples minds a full of mush. The reason our young people cannot return to Hawaii is that they cannot afford to live here due to high taxes.

Rail is just one more reason young people will not be able to come back and elderly people on fixed incomes will have to leave. The Hoopili project can't get a permit yet has a transit station right in the middle of an empty field. Why are you forcing Leeward people to go downtown to get minimum wage jobs and ride the rail instead of building a world class UH West Oahu campus so they can get and good education and decent jobs so they can stay in Hawaii.

Rail seems good until you look at the cost and what it won't do for us. Tyler, stay in school, stay on the mainland.

Why is it that the rail project analysis apparently assume Oahu will grow a larger population?

The state economy is based on tourism and defense spending. With its geographical location and limited natural resources, I doubt that new industries will spawn in the state over the next decade or so. So where will the jobs be to support this larger population?

And will the existing natural resources, especially the fresh water supply, support a larger population? Seems to me that water will be a big limiting factor.

"Give folks cash for health care"
My daughter broke her arm and that almost cost 10 thousand!

"It is insane to pass a health bill costing $1.2 trillion dollars. Medicare should serve as an example. This health care is estimated to eventually cost us over $15 trillion dollars over the next 10 years."
It is merely a very misguided and extremely far left globalist Congress that is attempting to socialize the U.S. Many of us are wise to them now and I hope our numbers grow to the point we can shut them up. Medicare will be toast with $500 Billion taken from it. Those of you who have Medicare Advantage will lose it. You will become solely dependent on the government for your very life. Is this what you want? Doesn't that scare you? It scares me!

Suzanne Hammer,

I couldn't agree with you more. I envy you where you live, as I live in a place that is a cultural black hole. If we want to listen to any decent music we have to venture almost 100 miles to Seattle. What Port Angeles's city council decided to do instead of investing in a concert hall with good acoustics was to invest 15 million dollars in a BUS DEPOT!! Anytime there is music to be heard in this town, we get to listen to it at the high school auditorium9whose acoustics are worse than awful. Anytime I return to California, I always make sure to vacation during concert season.

French Surrender Flag wrote:

<quoted text>
You see folks, mufi get cash he took from you to send his p.r. yes man to Paris France!
YOUR tax dollars at work!
His post is not totally worthless, however, because he is right that "Hawaii's families will grow.."
Yeah, they going grow alright. They going grow stupid because folks like this Paris guy think it is better to take money for a make work project for mufis cronies, that could and should be used to educate the next generation.
Eh, tell the French they are a bunch a panties for not backing us up in Iraq.
They are a bunch of pansies just like you.

What the ding-dong are you talking about?

Kalli wrote:

Tyler Dos Santos-Tam proves that young peoples minds a full of mush. The reason our young people cannot return to Hawaii is that they cannot afford to live here due to high taxes. Rail is just one more reason young people will not be able to come back and elderly people on fixed incomes will have to leave. The Hoopili project can't get a permit yet has a transit station right in the middle of an empty field. Why are you forcing Leeward people to go downtown to get minimum wage jobs and ride the rail instead of building a world class UH West Oahu campus so they can get and good education and decent jobs so they can stay in Hawaii. Rail seems good until you look at the cost and what it won't do for us. Tyler, stay in school, stay on the mainland.

Hey, Kalli. Have you noticed that a majority of Oahu residents have already VOTED TO BUILD A RAIL SYSTEM? You're wizzing in the wind, and in the wrong direction.

BTW, real nice of you to insult an entire generation on the way up. They can't take over soon enough if they'll be succeeding the likes of those whose answer to their sentiments is to insult them.

Build Rail Now!

wendell wrote:

<quoted text>
Why is it that the rail project analysis apparently assume Oahu will grow a larger population?
The state economy is based on tourism and defense spending. With its geographical location and limited natural resources, I doubt that new industries will spawn in the state over the next decade or so. So where will the jobs be to support this larger population?
And will the existing natural resources, especially the fresh water supply, support a larger population? Seems to me that water will be a big limiting factor.

Wendell, it may not be apparent to you back in Chicago, but Hawaii is on the cusp of a renewable energy revolution that will provide jobs in a whole new market area. Out of the green electrical generation will come desalinization of sea water, so your concerns about running out of H2O are over the top. The jobs will be there, and so will the higher population. Trust me; it's human nature.

Spock wrote:

Everyone should know that Tyler Dos Santos-Tam is the Youth Outreach Coordinator for "Youth for Mufi." Do a quick Google search if you don't believe me. In other words, his letter is obviously another part of a well-orchestrated campaign run by Mayor Mufi's hard-core supporters and designed to create the illusion of overwhelming public support for rail. Let's see, in the last week we have had letters from "M. Chung" the "average citizen", then Gary Kai the businessman and now Dos Santos-Tam the bright young college guy. Who will it be next? A sports hero? A TV celebrity? Check back tomorrow to find out!
As for Dos Santos-Tam's claims, the most ridiculous one is the 30,000 new (not relocated) jobs that he foresees being created in Kapolei. The two biggest sectors of Oahu's economy are tourism and military spending. Both are growing slowly, if at all. The only way 30,000 new jobs are going to be created is if we build dozens of new hotels or a couple new military bases. The chances of that happening are very slim. So maybe Tyler can tell us where all those jobs are going to come from. I'll bet he can't. Ten or twenty years from now, when he will be living on Oahu and watching his tax dollars go to provide massive subsidies to fund the daily operation of rail, Dos Santos-Tam might eventually realize he's made a big mistake by backing Mayor Mufi. But by then it will be too late.

So Spock -- let me get this right. If you are pro-rail, your views are worthless. But if you're anti-rail, you're beyond reproach. Is that it? Because if that's "it" as you see it, you have one jaundiced view of democracy, where every person's vote counts. As in, the 53% who voted in favor of rail last year.

Oh...yeah...I forgot. Their views don't count for whatever reasons you've conjured up.

Enough with the warped views of society. Build Rail Now

BuildRailNow wrote:

John Brizdie lays out his alarming vision of future traffic problems on Oahu and then says "Stop the transit tax." In other words, stop the mechanism to build an alternative to sitting in that traffic. Rail is needed for precisely that reason -- to allow commuters to avoid whatever traffic exists in 2030.
Oahu families are going to grow, as will the island's population and so, presumably, will the number of automobiles. Billions will be spent on road and highway improvements (other documents attest to this), and rail will be the alternative. Just build it.

Car registrations for the county of Honolulu has gone down these past few years yet you harp on more cars in the future? The easiest and cheapest way to reduce the number of cars on our highways is getting those without auto insurance off our roads!

BuildRailNow wrote:

<quoted text>
Wendell, it may not be apparent to you back in Chicago, but Hawaii is on the cusp of a renewable energy revolution that will provide jobs in a whole new market area. Out of the green electrical generation will come desalinization of sea water, so your concerns about running out of H2O are over the top. The jobs will be there, and so will the higher population. Trust me; it's human nature.

lol! That's what they said about geothermal and OTEC electrical generation. In just a couple of years, wind power has already surpassed those options. Even solar hasn't really taken off until recent. And it's all come down to cost and credits.

The ball was dropped long ago when Governor Linlge proposed local school boards. Does anyone believe local school boards would have allowed 17 fourlough days? Empower the local communities with control of their public schools and you would have seen a very different outcome. The legislature will have a second chance to reform the public schools in 2010. Will it be union first, parent and commuities second or will they finally step up and call for local control of local schools? This is not a funding issue, it is an issue of control and responsibility for results. Governor Lingle was absolutely correct in 2002.

"Build Rail Now" is obviously one of Mufi's lackeys. The fun is trying to figure out which one. My money is that it's that Yadao chick off on a vacation to Paris using part of the $500,000 she "earned" from the taxpayers of Oahu.
Anybody else have any ideas.

Lingle was insincere about local school boards and neevr really fought for it. It more of her shibai to appear to be somethign while accomplishing nothing.