Restaurant review was unfair to Kailua

What on earth is Nadine Kam thinking ("Contemporary fare at Prima is sure to please young foodies," Star-Advertiser, The Weekly Eater, Oct. 12)?

A restaurant review should be just that — a description of the restaurant, the food, the prices, and whether it was good or not according to the reviewer’s opinion. Why would she think it even remotely appropriate to slam a community?

She says she lived in Kailua for 10 years and then moved. I cannot believe that it was recent or she would be aware of a very lively restaurant scene in Kailua.

Buzz’s is not special occasion but rather the place where everybody knows your name, and the food and service are great and have been for 40-plus years.

Besides the Kalapawai Cafe, there is Baci, Formaggio, Noburo and other restaurants up and down the price scale, many of which provide polished professional service.

Kailua is host to any number of part-time residents from all over the world and they are not all running into town to eat.

Andrea W. Bell
Kailua

If rail fails, other programs will suffer

I went to the community information presentation for the rail recently and found out that the fares are projected to cover 30 percent of the operating and maintenance costs.

The follow-up questions to the mayor and the City Council need to be asked: Which programs are you planning to cut? Which parks do you intend to close? Which road, water and sewage projects will be canceled or conversely, how much do you plan on raising our property taxes to cover the 70 percent shortfall?

As we are seeing in Washington, D.C., you either cut spending or raise taxes. Which will it be for our city?

Joseph Uno
Honolulu

Remember Lingle vetoed civil unions

In coming out of a nearly year-long hiatus from public office to announce a campaign for U.S. Senate, former Gov. Linda Lingle has made no mention of the most contemplative issue spanning her two terms as Hawaii’s chief executive.

Just before vetoing landmark civil rights legislation last year, Lingle declared: "There has not been a bill I have contemplated more or an issue I have thought more deeply about during my nearly eight years as governor than HB 444 and the institution of marriage."

This is especially noteworthy because Lingle has herself been twice married, divorced and is childless. She has accessed a continuum of legal benefits for her own family that she humiliatingly denied to thousands of families across Hawaii.

Eduardo Hernandez
Palm Springs, Calif.

Lingle in Congress will benefit Hawaii

It is good news for Hawaii that former Gov. Linda Lingle is running for the U.S. Senate seat that will become vacant in 2012.

During her tenure, Lingle showed how much the people of Hawaii mattered to her through creating homeless shelters that also assisted occupants with social services and job training; promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) in the schools; championing robotics programs; protecting the environment, such as designating the northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a marine refuge, which led to Papahanaumokuakea being named a national monument; and so much more.

Lingle will be a welcome addition to the Hawaii delegation to Congress, with her innovative ideas and perspective as former mayor of Maui County and former governor of the state, someone who will keep Hawaii’s best interests at the center of her focus.

Anne Sabalaske
Wahiawa

Current visitors getting ripped off

When I was a young boy, I remember my mother telling me, "We have company coming tonight! Get upstairs, shower, and scrub up! And don’t forget to wash behind your ears!"

Perhaps that is what we are doing on Oahu now: at the airport, Nimitz Highway and certainly Waikiki.

I was on Kalakaua Avenue, which was shut down to one lane.

Traffic hazard? Yes.

Frustration? Yes.

And this stuff has been going on for months.

I feel bad for all of our guests who have arrived over the past few months. It’s a major expense and sacrifice for them to endure this cleansing for a showcase for many others who probably do not have to pay out of their own pocket.

I apologize to all of our super visitors and friends for this mess.

Hope you had a great vacation in spite of the fact that we had to "scrub up" for the November VIPs.

Wink Whitaker
Hawaii Kai

Kauai utility poised to reap windfall

Once again the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative is demonstrating its inability to control costs for the benefit of consumers, already burdened with the highest rates in the United States.

It is proposing to purchase solar power from Alexander & Baldwin at the same 20 cents per kilowatt hour as it pays me.

My 2,400-watt photovoltaic system was installed for about $7 a watt — A&B’s proposed 6 million-watt facility ought to cost more like $4 a watt.

Why should it reap a huge windfall while Kauai consumers suffer?

I have requested a public hearing be held on this matter.

"Sunshine" can generate more than just electricity.

Allan Rachap
Koloa, Kauai