Posts: 4,533
Threads: 241
Joined: Jan 2006
quote:
Flight Simulator is an out of the box and fun idea, however its not clear who would be using it, tourists?
Pilots. Pilots who fly commercial planes. Pilots who go to Arizona, etc to flight simulator schools. My brother just went for two weeks - his company (a major airline)picks up the tab for hotel, transpo, meals. He spent some of his discrentionary funds on incidentals. Might be an idea to keep Aloha, Hawaiian, Go pilots here in Hawaii training. Keeps the hawaii money in the Hawaiian economy. Plus if, like my brother, pilots came here to train, of course they may bring their families!
quote:
Unwillingness by the local labor pool to work for low wages is a good part of the reason sugar and pineapples left. I don't think you will find that attitude to have changed.
And why should local people work for low wages? Typically low wage work is the physically hard work. IMHO only.
quote:
Geothermal is an interesting one... provides 30% of Big Island Power. What prevents it producing 100% of power or even power for exporting? On the other side of the coin what are the environmental consequences? I am aware of strong opposition from some members of the community.
HELCO fights geothermal. And in Cali the Sierra Club supports Geothermal as an alternative energy. In Hawaii, the Sierra Club opposes. Same geothermal, same process. go figure.
Edited by - kapohocat on 11/22/2006 07:33:40
Posts: 129
Threads: 16
Joined: Apr 2006
Development is often shunned at the price of people that are in most need of jobs. It is generally a form of classism/racism. Look at this quote from the Hanalei article:
"Activist Ray Chuan, of Hanalei, frequently has proposed an even more radical step: barring all tourists from driving on the North Shore and requiring them to use shuttle buses from Princeville instead." Or:
This is a rule sought to protect the rich from the masses by placing barriers preventing restricting access. Paying to ride a shuttle bus is a barrier, kind of like a poll tax.
Or "The one-lane bridges create a sense of friendliness and slowness on the North Shore," she said. "It isn't like Lihue, and we want to keep it that way."
Translated: People in Lihue are uncultured slobs, we do not wish them to be here.
The Highway Dept should wait until the bridges need repair and then replace them with heavy duty single lane bridges that can take buses and tractor trailers, but look like the orignal bridges. Yes, a bus could fit on the single lane bridges and you would be suprised where a tractor trailer can fit, just observe some in NYC talk about driver skills. Boy the locals would be pissed waiting behind several tour buses and a tractor trailer at a single land bridge. This way they are maintaining a one lane road with higher capacity, its done all the time in National Parks. Plus the bridges on the Hanalei Hwy aren't pretty or old they are just bottlenecks. Restriction of use for public roads must be proven to support all public needs. A National Register of Historic Places does not prevent upgrading of registered properties as long as upgrade are approved by NRHP or changes ensure saftey, I know lived in one. An example is when wooden covered bridges are restored, the bridge remains the same while the foundation/superstructure and road base may be changes to support addition loads of modern vehicles where the orginal look of the bridge is maintained and the NRHP does not restrict additional or auxillary routes this is how some covered bridges maintain their still in use public use funds while there is another HD bridge right next to it.
If people want low impact development they should look to examples in Europe. In London many companies have broke apart divisions that now work as small cells in various parts of the city. Look at Hilo harbor that place is a great port and should be expanded to help the whole big island, Hilo and Puna should lobby for more research facilities public and govt. Voting for no develpment doesnt help the community, controlled and designed processes do. Citizens should control their destiny, along with their school boards, community planning/development and taxes/expeditures. If people are so against development they should vote to let the roads and hwys revert to unmaintained dirt tracks/trails like Govt/beach road.
Since geothermal plant is there we should use it to the greatest advantage. How would you feel about building a nuclear/oil/NG/rubbish powered generating plant? Makes a gt plant looks much nicer.
