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Ask pedestrians for safety ideas
Fining jaywalking visitors isn’t the answer to pedestrian safety.
Let’s face it: Honolulu is made for drivers. With its overly wide streets, pedestrian crosswalks at blind corners, and right-turn lanes with no traffic controls, walking in Honolulu is truly scary.
Why was the corner of Pahoa and Kilauea rebuilt with the only crosswalk at the recessed, blind corner?
We need to consult pedestrians to help design safer streets. And let’s think outside the box.
Why do the authorities think corners are always the best place for crosswalks, when drivers turn right on red at the same time others are making late left turns?
If you want to do just one thing that would be cost-efficient and make Honolulu safer, ban right turns on red.
Susan Hanley
Kahala
Street closures poorly reported
We have no problem with Nimitz Highway being closed for the Great Aloha Run (a great event).
Our problem is the reporting of times the highway will be closed. This year it was reported that the highway would be closed at 4:15 a.m.
Every year we get up earlier to head to work, but find out the highway was closed a lot earlier.
The scenario: The city heads say close the highway by 4:15 a.m. and tell the next person in the chain of command. They tell their workers by 4 a.m., who tell their workers by 3:45 a.m. and by the time it gets to those actually doing the work, the highway has closed at 2:30 a.m.
Just put out a news release that says, "Nimitz Highway will be closed between 2:30 and 4:15 a.m." That way, we all start our day with the aloha spirit, versus being aggravated by a closed highway that should be open.
Bill Tildsley
Salt Lake
Increased hours in class backfire
There appears to be widespread misunderstanding about the reluctance of Hawaii teachers to increase instructional time.
In fact, many teachers, myself included, have in the past advocated for increasing school hours, despite considerable research suggesting that a longer school day does not in itself lead to higher student achievement.
Regardless of the advantages or disadvantages, the simple fact is that teachers are already overburdened with larger class sizes, more bureaucratic obligations that pertain only indirectly to their traditional duties as classroom teachers (including the time-consuming new teacher evaluations), and less time for preparation and planning.
Increasing instructional time under current conditions will only result in the tendency of teachers to cut corners in order to preserve their sanity.
Final note: Students in top-performing Finland attend school for 777 hours each year, compared to 900-plus hours in Hawaii.
Andy Jones
Language arts teacher, McCully
What’s the asset if rail defaults?
Regarding the $1.9 billion in rail borrowing: If I take out a bank loan to purchase a condominium and later am not able to make the loan payments, I have the option to sell the condo to pay off the debt.
So, if the city borrows for the rail and cannot make the payments in the future, maybe the mayor could sell the project for a few billion to pay off the debt.
Didn’t someone once buy the Brooklyn Bridge (almost)?
Dennis Kohara
Diamond Head
Public sector has housing role
Regarding the Feb. 9 editorial, "Move quickly on home initiatives," Alan Kay once said, "Context is worth 50 IQ points."
In other words, if you understand the context surrounding a problem, you’re on your way to solving it.
The context here is that over 33 percent of the 323,000 families on Oahu make 60 percent of median income — $47,000 yearly for a working couple. And it’s getting worse, with housing prices rising faster than wages.
So as good as these public policy changes are, especially the new ohana zoning, our public sector should do more. How? By partnering with the private sector.
A public-private partnership built 204 rental units (for 109,000 families making 60 percent of average median income) at Hale–kauwila Place in Kakaako. Good.
Much better is building 3,525 affordable units at Ho‘opili in Kapolei.
Best is when the public sector uses its huge land holdings in support of affordable housing across the islands — for the 33 percent of us that are poorly (or worse) housed.
Ricky Cassiday
Kahala
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