Support the Weekly

Diary

Testifier Blade Walsh is escorted from Council room.
Image: karleanne matthews

Winding Up

by Karleanne Matthews | Dec 12, 2012

In its last meeting of the year, on Dec. 5, the City Council approved the receipt of $1.55 billion in federal funds for the rail project, with Tom Berg casting the lone vote against it. Some community members questioned the financial soundness of the entire project and expressed concerns that devoting funding to rail would harm the bus system. Proponents argued that passing the resolution was simply a way to ensure funding for a projectthat voters had approved.

The Council also agreed to remove a park symbol in Nanakuli from a public map, despite testimony from many community members who decried the lack of park space on the Waiʻanae Coast and the disparity in facilities compared with Hawaiʻi Kai or Kailua. Councilmember Breene Harimoto, who voted in favor, argued that while there ought to be more parks in that area, the issue at hand was if this particular park symbol should remain. Councilmember Ernie Martin said that since this parcel was extremely unlikely to be developed into a park, the county should find a different parcel.

A resolution allowing the Honolulu Police Department to accept a gift of $75,000 from the Waikiki Business Improvement District Association drew fire from citizens concerned that these gifts amounted to bribes.

Kaitlyn McKee, a farmer, asked that one item not on the agenda–a resolution on GMO labeling–be discussed. When Blade Walsh brought up GMO labeling, he was asked to limit his testimony to agenda items, but he continued until he was escorted out by police. Michael Daly also testified about GMOs and was made to step down. Outside, a group of protestors held signs and sang.

COMMENTS

We often print online comments in our “Letters to the Editor” section of Honolulu Weekly. While submitted letters are often edited for length and clarity, online comments we use are printed entirely as they are written for the website. If you do not wish for your comment to be used in Honolulu Weekly print issues, please write “Don’t Print” at the end of your comment. For questions, e-mail editorial@honoluluweekly.com. Thank you!

blog comments powered by Disqus

This week

Derelict Downtown

For as long as we can remember, Chinatown has been notorious for drugs, homelessness and filthy streets. Some claim nothing has changed–and that it never will.

Sweet Ride

Bicyclists have long been overlooked by four-wheel riders on Honolulu’s congested streets. In the gleaming, armored pecking order of the road, cyclists are too often dismissed as lane hogs, hand-signaling nuisances and unfortunates who can’t afford cars.

Hoopili miss

The fate of some 1,525 acres of land at Hoopili in ‘Ewa may have been decided last Wednesday in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The decision might have gone differently, but the appellant attorneys’ strategy seemed to collapse as Judge Rhonda Nishimura picked it apart based on technical errors.

Housing First $

Last Thursday, May 9, the Caldwell administration revealed its action plan for solving Honolulu’s homeless problem. But at the City Council’s budget meeting the same day, Budget chair Ann Kobayashi wanted to know where the money for “Housing First” (see Cover Story, pg.

Do it Wright

The Mayor Wright Housing project has been slated for major redevelopment by the Hawaii State Housing Authority (HSHA); requests for qualifications will be going out to developers in three to six months. Nonprofit group Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) wants to make sure the project’s tenants have a say in the redevelopment process, which could include major renovations or a total rebuild.

Street Disconnect

The Honolulu City Council held a special Committee on Transportation meeting on Tuesday, May 7, to go over its Complete Streets initiative with input from the department directors of Design and Construction (DDC), Planning and Permitting (DPP) and Transportation Services (DTS). At prior meetings, including the Moiliili workshop, community members pressed the idea of combining Complete Streets with Caldwell’s repaving projects, which Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and some councilmembers have said makes sense.

Stopping Growth

Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.

Get it together

In your Diary of May 8 (“End of the 27th)” you reported on SB 1214, passed by the Legislature. In their nimble way, the Legislature tacked the wheel boot prohibition on a bill that was intended to abolish the Commission on Transportation.

Look both ways

On Friday, May 3, at 3:45 p.m., I was driving town bound through the Wilson tunnel on the Likelike. I was parallel to another car, and there were several other cars following closely behind me.

Thank you!

Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).

Truth be told

When the biofuel guys say that costs are “confidential” (“Big-foot Biofuel,” May 8), I reply that since I am the one who is going to end up paying the cost, I have a right to know. Frankly, when everybody tries to hide the costs, I smell rat …

Nature’s beauty

The Foster Botanical Garden never ceases to inspire for an urban setting it is like a step back in time (“See the Flora,” May 8). If Koko Crater Botanical Garden contains the world’s largest plumeria collection as suggested, it may be thanks in part to the Prussian born Dr.