Make it permanent
On the front page of the Tribune-Herald (June 23), Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy writes about the extraordinary long time it is taking to complete the road work project on Kalanianaole Avenue. And, indeed, rightly so — three years is way too long.
But isn’t it funny how differently the public sector operates when compared with the private sector? Sue Lee Loy is part of the county administration — she is on that payroll, and in what is probably some senior position, and carrying some clout. Yet, she finds it necessary to publish her problem with a county project in the local newspaper.
Let us consider a hypothetical similarity in the private sector. Let’s pretend the state’s largest bank is undertaking a project, and that one of their executive vice presidents is unhappy with progress. Do we think he or she would write a letter to the editor of the Tribune-Herald? Or do we think he or she would be working furiously behind the scenes to ensure the project is completed on time, to the satisfaction of the general public? You decide.
Back to the project in question. In the late 1990s, there was talk about a long-term plan for the installation of a one-way traffic system, where traffic coming from town (Kanoelehua) would go east on Kamehameha, all the way to Silva where it bends left, stop at a traffic light on the Silva/port entrance/Kalanianaole Avenue, and then turn left to visit one of the many businesses on Kalanianaole.
The entire route (Kamehameha east, Silva and Kalanianaole west) would be one-way traffic. That is exactly the way it is running right now, albeit over very poor and uncompleted street surfaces.
Way back then in the late ’90s, the county envisioned this one-way system as part of the long-term project plans. Congestion today, some 25 years later, is extreme, yet the traffic flow in today’s temporary one-way environment seems to work really very much better than before the long-delayed project was started in 2018
Surely, this would be the time for the county and state to decide to make the temporary one-way traffic system permanent?
Chris Tamm
Pepeekeo
Monkey slave labor
Every once in a while you read a story that makes you just roll your eyes and wonder.
The Kroger groceries company announced it will be the latest of several grocery chains to ban the sale of certain brands of Thai coconut milk. The reason? Thai farmers are using “slave monkeys” to harvest the coconuts!
A few things to consider:
1. The chains on the monkeys are very light-weight chains. The coconuts are really high up in the trees, and the monkeys won’t climb the trees in heavy chains.
2. The chains are really not designed to enslave the monkeys. Their purpose is so the monkeys don’t run away with the coconuts!
3. Apparently, one of the big objections to monkey-harvested coconuts is that the monkeys are not paid a “living wage.” The monkeys are paid in bananas.
The current exchange rate for Thai baht to U.S. dollars is about 35-to-1. Each baht is worth around 3.5 cents.
In fact, the monkeys are better off being paid in bananas.
Kenneth Beilstein
Kailua-Kona