Kern derailed
Well, the 1% won again.
An acrimonious barrage of mostly affluent west-side property owners managed to derail the working 99% of affordable housing, a reduction in homelessness and action on the lower Puna lava recovery plan.
Planning Director Zendo Kern’s confirmation hearing was dominated by NIMBYism and those who found a nail to hang their hat on: his education.
Make no mistake — generally speaking, a college education is important. But it is not a disqualifier. Apple and Microsoft were both created by high school, not college, graduates. Enjoy light at night? Thank that home-schooled inventor, Thomas Edison.
Creativity, fairness and vision create results. Résumés do not.
So, while you were working Jan. 19, our chance at a progressive and fair planning director, with a local understanding of Hawaii Island, was derailed.
Don’t hold your breath for more affordable housing, keep wishing for a homeless solution and continue to hope for a coordinated lava recovery plan for lower Puna. Because right now, that’s all we got: “Magical thinking” that doing the same thing over and over will get a different result.
The only hope is that the upcoming council vote is based on cooperation, a shared vision and unity to have an objective, practical and progressive Planning Department, anchored in the established rules and laws of the county.
Thank you, Mayor Mitch Roth, Managing Director Lee Lord and those council members for standing up for practical, objective government and the working people of Hawaii Island. We appreciate your loyalty and commitment to the people.
Matthias Kusch
Hilo
Party over country
Americans are not losing faith in our democracy, they are losing faith in party politics.
Both parties claim they are acting in the best interest of the country, just as both sides of many wars have claimed God was on their side. However, when you put party over country, then you are committing treason, and you are certainly not a patriot.
When elected officials are corrupt that is no reason to blame democracy.
Carl F. Oguss
Hilo
Repatriation flights
The article, “American Samoans stranded by virus to stop in Hawaii” (Tribune-Herald, Jan. 21), reminded us of how many people are affected by COVID-19.
We need to know more about the repatriation flights because there are many more people stranded in the Pacific regions that will need help getting home. Help can come in many forms: donation of air miles or gifts of cash via PayPal, since some of these dislocated people have neither credit cards not can they cash a check.
Also, how were we to know when the individual can leave? Do they need to be on a list?
Tribune-Herald, please keep us informed and add a contact name and number in your next article. I have someone who desperately wants to go home to New Zealand and rejoin her family.
Toby S. Hazel
Hilo