Here's a video I made of a recent walk from L'Orange Place to the next closest public access for Kailua Beach, which L'Orange residents claimed was just a couple hundred feet away when they went on TV and spoke to news reporters. Aside from that inaccuracy, the video shows how dangerous this stretch of road is for pedestrians, bicycle riders and children who have no choice but to use Kalaheo Avenue to get to that public access.
Since it's a pretty long walk, contrary to what the L'Orange homeowners say, I had plenty of time to also talk about the recently passed State legislation that will supposedly make beachfront property owners responsible for trimming back vegetation that could impede lateral beach access. Good luck with that. The bill was modeled on a City law that makes homeowners responsible for maintaining sidewalks and unimproved sidewalk areas next to their properties... a law that isn't being enforced, as I can personally attest to.
Showing posts with label public shoreline access. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public shoreline access. Show all posts
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Op-Ed Piece on State Gov Reform
NOTE: THIS IS THE LAST POST ON WWW.BEACHACCESSHAWAII.ORG... NEW POSTS ARE NOW ON:
http://beachaccesshawaii.blogspot.com/
Hawaii's system of government is broken. One only has to look at the way our State legislature dickers over every issue and gets little done each session to see the proof. The bicameral Senate/House of Representatives structure for such a small state makes no sense. It's inefficient and redundant to have so many reps, who all have staffs and cost taxpayers extra money to perform the same tasks!
It allows our elected officials an easy out: oh, don't blame us for inaction -- the other committee killed it... not my fault -- the chairperson didn't schedule your bill for a hearing... blame the House/Senate -- they didn't act when the bill crossed over.
Those are some of the excuses we've heard for the past two years from legislators on why public beach access bills died in committee, despite strong support we had. Here's the link to my op-ed column in Sunday's Star-Bulletin on this topic... please feel free to add your comments on the Star-Bulletin site below my piece!
Excerpt:
To read the rest, go here: http://tinyurl.com/yckyokj
http://beachaccesshawaii.blogspot.com/
Hawaii's system of government is broken. One only has to look at the way our State legislature dickers over every issue and gets little done each session to see the proof. The bicameral Senate/House of Representatives structure for such a small state makes no sense. It's inefficient and redundant to have so many reps, who all have staffs and cost taxpayers extra money to perform the same tasks!
It allows our elected officials an easy out: oh, don't blame us for inaction -- the other committee killed it... not my fault -- the chairperson didn't schedule your bill for a hearing... blame the House/Senate -- they didn't act when the bill crossed over.
Those are some of the excuses we've heard for the past two years from legislators on why public beach access bills died in committee, despite strong support we had. Here's the link to my op-ed column in Sunday's Star-Bulletin on this topic... please feel free to add your comments on the Star-Bulletin site below my piece!
Excerpt:
Hawaii should adopt unicameral legislature
As the 2010 state Legislature gets under way, it's hard not to have a sense of deja vu. Thousands of bills will be introduced — many of them resurrected from last year, or the session before that. Most will die in committee. About 10 percent of those bills will cross the finish line, amid great cheering or hand-wringing. But the vast majority of citizens who get involved because they care about a particular issue will walk away disappointed or disillusioned...
To read the rest, go here: http://tinyurl.com/yckyokj
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