UH academic elitism won’t help students

The interview with Tom Apple, University of Hawaii-Manoa chancellor, shows how little emphasis is being given to the needs of the incoming UH freshman class ("Name in the News," Star-Advertiser, June 22).

Apple’s singular focus on competing with University of California-Berkeley and University of Southern California for faculty and research grants will have little, if any, benefit to undergraduate education. Administrators who orchestrate the bidding war for grants to pay the "world class" faculty you will never see in Science 101, however, do benefit.

Apple will be paid more than President Barack Obama for his ability to raise money for research and burnish the university’s reputation among the academic elite. His predecessor can look forward to a taxpayer-funded sinecure in paradise. Local kids, who by virtue of stellar grades and SAT scores, scholarships, grants or generous parents will, like Obama, go out of state for a real Berkeley or USC education.

Mark Smith
Waikiki

Yoshioka trying to have it both ways

Methinks Wayne Yoshioka, city transportation director, doth protest too much.

He repeatedly tells the media "bus changes have nothing to do with the 20-mile rail project." But at the May 3 Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting, Yoshioka was asked when we could expect the bus route cancellations and changes to be reversed. He replied that the long-term plan is rail; there is no plan to restore the service.

We had the best bus system in the nation. No more. Long waits, overcrowding, harried drivers. Seniors giving seats to seniors. What about the cost to riders, businesses, workers and tourists? The city says the changes are to reduce monetary costs. It needs to pay attention to what it is costing the public in lost time, productivity, unhealthy conditions.

Fuel costs are dropping. The shortfall will be less than predicted. Riders say they are willing to pay more. The city isn’t listening. The mayor and City Council must step in to restore service and admit the changes to date have been a dismal failure.

Lynne Matusow
Downtown

Original BRT nixed due to land, costs

There is an incorrect assumption that the Regional BRT, or bus rapid transit, that Ben Cayetano wants to implement would come into town straight from Ewa to in-town BRT lanes starting at Middle Street and Dillingham.

In reality, the original Regional BRT planned for on- and off-ramps at various locations in Waipahu, Pearl City and elsewhere so that commuters living in neighborhoods along the route could access BRT service. Building new ramps would have required land acquisition; their cost caused major concerns to the Cayetano administration’s Department of Transportation.

Use of existing ramps would require more land for widening to allow for priority bus lanes to access the freeway. DOT also raised concerns about highway capacity if BRT used the freeway.

One ramp connected to a BRT transit station planned for the Kam Drive-in site in Pearl City. The community there unanimously opposed it. So, besides public opposition to the in-town portion, there were parts of the Regional BRT that were objectionable to Leeward communities and the driving public.

Will Fuller
Kailua

All candidates deserve attention

Esther Kia‘aina, a Native Hawaiian lawyer, has much, much more hands-on experience in Congress than any of the other candidates running for the 2nd Congressional District.

With more than 20 years experience in public policy in Washington, D.C., she is by far the most qualified candidate running. Among her work: She served as chief of staff to Congressman Ed Case, chief of staff and legislative director to Robert Underwood of Guam, and legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka.

The Star-Advertiser would do well to profile all of the Democratic candidates equally instead of presuming to narrow our choices for us.

Linda Paul
Kailua

Infrastructure work would spur demand

Despite what most conservatives and some liberals would have you believe, lowering taxes will not create jobs; it never has.

Business owners don’t hire when the government gives them more, or takes away less, money. They hire only when the demand for their particular goods or services increases so much that hiring more people is the only solution. And right now, demand is down, because people who would otherwise buy more stuff are out of work.

Vicious cycle? Yes and no. There’s plenty of work that’s not being done. It’s called infrastructure improvement — highways, sewers, water system, power grids, etc. The solution is to raise taxes on the richest — whose rates have been going down for more than 30 years — and use that money to pay for all those vitally needed improvements, and reduce the deficit.

The newly hired doing all that work will then start buying more goods and services, and other businesses will start hiring more.

Tracey K. Scott
Wahiawa

Occupiers unfairly indulged by city

Regarding "Occupy protesters outwit city on stored property law" (Kokua Line, Star-Advertiser, June 25):

Sure sounds like third-party aiding and abetting to me. Also collusion to avoid proper enactment of the law.

If any one of us who work, run businesses and pay taxes tried to get tricky with licenses, permits, inspections, rights of way, health codes, taxes — the city would close us down in a heartbeat. What a bunch of nonsense.

Maybe it’s time to bring back the Met Squad — that persuasive "attitude adjustment" police crew from the late ’50s.

Doug Kilpatrick
Maunalani Heights