Rail lawsuits pushed up costs

I wasamazed at the national building boom as I traveled throughout the mainland this fall.

Developers in cities such as Austin, Dallas and Seattle are putting up new hotels, apartment complexes and shopping centers as fast as they can. Major renovations are underway on thousands of milesof freeways and highways across the country.

No wonder construction costs for Honolulu’s rail project are rising. Every builder is competing intensely for gigantic amounts of steel and concrete that are in short supply.

Had rail construction started on schedule, Honolulu would have avoided these higher costs.Instead, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation lost its competitive advantage when rail opponents delayed construction with lawsuits.

Now we’re facing millions of dollars in higher costs for voter-approved rail transit. It’s a dismal lesson that the short-sighted actions of a few people can cost all of us.

Patrick Williams
Downtown Honolulu

Makiki good for Obama library

Level-headed Richard Borreca got it right again. ("Maybe Obama library here not such good idea after all," Star-Advertiser, On Politics, Sept. 26).

So, how about an Obama public library in Makiki? We were short-changed out of a branch of the statewide system, helped by Frank Fasi. What residents now have is a nice little library with no connection to the vast resources of our state-wide system.

Ideal location?The Scottish Rite Cathedral: Save the facade, redo the rest. Add a parking structure with a meeting room for the public and offices for the Scottish Rite organization. The library’s top floor would feature President Barack Obama’s time in Hawaii.

Start with the birth certificate question. Ellie Nordyke was a great help when she shared the certificates for her twins, born at the same hospital, the next day.

Sylvia C. Mitchell
Makiki

Be sure to draft chicken hawks

I agree with Andy Kachiroubas ("Starting a draft might silence calls for war," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 28), and suggest taking his idea further.

He calls for elimination of college deferments, insists that 25 percent be draftees, and that "chicken hawks" like Dick Cheney, President George W. Bush’s henchman for invading Iraq, who avoided Vietnam (five deferments), be required to serve — no matter what.

This equates to equal opportunity for every young American to get killed overseas no matter what his or her background.

Taking the notion further — followingMichael Moore’s 2004"Fahrenheit 911," which said only one member of Congress had a relative going to ground in the Middle East in 2003. Hello?

Why not require that 40 percent of favored government executives have direct connections to our young troops committed anywhere? And we’ll see how quickly we go to war.

Chip Davey
Downtown Honolulu

Homeless grant just for talking?

Last Wednesday’sStar-Advertiser headline announced, "$4 million project to house homeless" (Sept. 24).

That sounded good — $4 million should be a nice start to providing shelter and a second chance for many folks who desperately need help.

Then I read what the $4 million is to be spent for — "coaching, training and collaboration as well as grant opportunities to improve agency performance and use of data."

Really? It takes $4 million to coordinate eight homeless shelter providers? Is all this money going to go to setting up more staff, facilitators and coordinators?

Wouldn’t it be better if the shelter providers received grants from the $4 million so they could help their clients directly?

Kay Kibby
Makiki

Boost spending on special ed

I’d like to see the state Department of Education fund and provide for services pursuant to Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act to students in public charter schools.

The DOE claims since Sec. 504 is a federally unfunded mandate (unlike the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal grant program with strings attached) that the DOE does not have to provide as they do for IDEA students.

Charter schools must choose to help with the resources they have based on the general per-pupil amount, about $6,200 a month.

And yet, I read the state Board of Education just cut the special education budget by millions of dollars as well as a per-pupil allotment.

The state must help my child and all our keiki who are eligible for special education and related aids and services under Section 504 and ADA but are not given more than "preferential seating" in a regular classroom or more time to take a test. Anything less is discrimination due to disability.

Linda Elento
Kaneohe

Policy fine print is license to steal

My daughter lives in Puna. A home she owns had trees fall on it. I read her homeowners insurance policy. The "hurricane exclusion" part troubles me deeply. It is a license to steal.

There is nothing wrong with requiring additional hurricane insurance, but requiring it when a storm is not a hurricane should not be legal.

The fine print states that for 72 hours after cancellation of a watch or warning, one is not covered unless they have paid additional hurricane premium. This fine print is the license to steal.

A storm is either a hurricane or it is not. If it is, then hurricane coverage should be required. If it is not, then it should not be required. Giving an insurance company three free days of not having to cover the citizens of Hawaii is wrong; and I hope there is some way to declare this practice illegal.

Mark A. Goldman
Hilo

Meat industry hugely wasteful

About a month or so ago, a letter was written claiming that global warming was the cause of resource depletion.

That is so far from the truth. The cause of resource depletion is the livestock-for-consumption industries.

Here are some facts that can be verified from "A Sane Diet For An Insane World."

It takes 23 gallons of water to produce one pound of lettuce and 5,214 gallons to produce four Quarter-Pounders; 2.5 acres of land producing potatoes will feed 22 people versus feeding one person if producing beef; the Exxon Valdez oil spill comprised 12 million gallons while the "lagoon" holding 8 acres of hog excrement that burst in North Carolina was 25 million gallons and killed 10-14 million fish; and if the Costa Rican rainforest was cleared to produce enough beef for the people of Costa Rica to eat as much beef as the people in the United States, the rainforest would be cleared in one year.

Consider dietary changes.

Hesh Goldstein
Hawaii Kai