PLDC needs balanced board

Are we going in the right direction with the Public Land Development Corp.?

Yes.

Public land in Hawaii is finite and precious and needs to be carefully managed so as to protect natural resources while maximizing the benefits to the people of Hawaii. The PLDC aims to accomplish this.

A second question: Is the PLDC perfect?

No.

The means of generating revenues should keep the community’s interest in the forefront. Departments vested in tourism and military activities that fuel the economy dominate the five-member board of directors. Local voices are missing.

Solution: A community member could be added to the board to represent local concerns such as community centers, parks for children and a preserved landscape. In turn, the PLDC would give the people of Hawaii the means to preserve their unique culture and land while managing the needs of 21st century development.

Emma Pascal
Manoa

Cayetano plan has few details

As someone who drives a truck, I was interested to hear former Gov. Ben Cayetano say that trucks would not be able to use his proposed underpasses along Kapiolani Boulevard.

I went to the Cayetano website and was unable to find anything other than a PowerPoint presentation, which provided little real information and a press release.

The Star-Advertiser was right to say that this is not a plan. Cayetano’s campaign staff slapped something together so they can say they have a plan.

Jonn Serikawa
Hawaii Kai

City insincere about iwi plan

Contrary to Bill Meheula’s claim, the archeological survey work on the rail project was not delayed to protect the iwi ("Phased testing was meant to protect iwi," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Oct. 7).

The delay was a clear, deliberate effort by the city to circumvent the legal requirement that such work be completed before the project could begin, thus "fast-tracking" the enterprise.

Meheula cites the city’s environmental statement that it will conduct archeological work in locations where the support columns will be located.

That is spurious. The city’s real reason for delaying the archeological survey was that it knew it would find iwi in Kakaako. By the time iwi was uncovered, the city would argue that the project had proceeded too far for it to comply with the legal requirements for removal or reburial. For that same reason, the city illegally segmented the project, so that when construction reached Kakaako it could argue it had spent too much money to stop the project.

Walter Heen
Wailupe

Driverless cars already reality

If the ongoing development of self-driving vehicles has not yet been factored into local planning and debate about rail and other traffic solutions, the time may have come.

According to a recent issue of The Economist, since the 1990s some cars have used radar to monitor surrounding vehicles and computers to break or accelerate automatically, and self-parking models have also been developed. General Motors, Ford and BMW are also developing cars that steer themselves by following lane markers.

Self-driving vehicles are already being used in industry, and two experts quoted by The Economist predict they will be available to the public in eight to 10 years.

In addition to reducing accidents due to human error, driverless cars could potentially coordinate routes and travel in close formation, thereby increasing road capacity, reducing congestion and saving fuel.

Tom Brandt
Downtown Honolulu

TV hijacked for political ads

I’ve decided to turn my TV off until after the election. Well, almost.

The barrage of ads and the negative tone of most of them is too much for me. How many more attack ads do we need to see? How many times do we need to see the Pacific Resource Partnership PAC call out former Gov. Ben Cayetano? Kirk Caldwell is eloquent and very capable of speaking for himself. Politics has become a vote against someone rather than for someone.

Mayor, Congress, president — they all do it. I used to mute the ads. Now I change the channel. So the next logical step is to turn the TV off completely.

I’m not telling anyone to do the same thing, nor am I telling anyone whom to vote for. I just want to be rid of these PACs and politicians who hijacked my TV. Free speech is one of the things that makes America great, but I’ve heard enough, thank you.

Charlie Panui
Kapahulu