Monthly Archives: August 2010

The background on Neil Abercrombie’s 1977 F-U letter

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It looks like both Hannemann and Abercrombie are having to deal with items from the past.

In Neil’s case, it’s his somewhat infamous September 1977 “F*** you” letter addressed to then-Board of Education Chairman Noboru Yonamine.

In today’s climate, I would guess that a lot of people would agree with Neil’s concisely expressed sentiment about the DOE bureaucracy.

Back in 1977, the Board of Education suggested he should apologize, according to a Star-Bulletin story

“Apologize for what?” said Abercrombie.

“It’s the normal reaction of a red-blooded American to bureaucratic arrogance,” said the Makiki Democrat.

At issue was the Makiki Community Library, staffed by volunteers and located in the old Hawaii Sugar Planters Association building on Keeaumoku Street, in what is now Makiki District Park.

Abercrombie was backing a proposal by then-Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi to turn the building over to the state library system. The proposal had initially received the backing of the Board of Education, but then bogged down in politics and red tape.

His curt letter was in response to an letter from Yonamine which said legal issues and budget problems prevented the board from pursuing the library plan, despite its earlier vote.

Through a spokesman, Abercrombie recalls being told privately that the library might be considered if he lined up with the administration on several other key issues. Abercrombie, who was first elected in 1974 as an outspoken outsider, said he objected to that kind of horse-trading on an issue that had so much public support.

The issue was also caught in the political war between the Democratic establishment and Mayor Fasi, like Abercrombie an outsider in the back rooms of political power. It was likely political opposition to anything associated with Fasi that doomed the library proposal from the start, and the whole situation made Neil mad.

Of course, that was all a long time ago, before Neil’s terms in the State Senate, City Council, and his 20 years in Congress. It’s not the kind of letter he would write today.

Oh, the end of the story? The Makiki Community Library is still funded and run by the community independent of the state library system, which still doesn’t have a facility in the densely populated Makiki area.

And in July 2009, Yonamine contributed $500 to Abercrombie’s gubernatorial campaign, accompanied by a note: “Neil will be a Great Governor!”

Tuesday morning in Kaaawa

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We just missed getting down to Swanzy Beach Park before the sun came up this morning. Almost got there, but not quite.

But the sun appears a little later every day, and it won’t be long before we’re back in that part of the year when we get the brilliant colors of dawn to accompany our daily walk.

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Hilo news guild gets contract, readers pick on other coverage

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Newspaper Guild members at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald finally have a new contract. It’s only for two years, and includes a meager 1% pay raise in the second year. Not much, but its the first increase since 2002, according to Baron Sekiya, Hawaii 24/7. Employees had been working without a contract since late last year.

With Mufi Hannemann touting his plan to bring back the Superferry, it was most interesting to see the story KITV broadcast on Saturday about the current status of the two ships.

Denby Fawcett reported the ships will be sold at auction. Just as with a home mortgage foreclosure auction, a bidder would have to bid more than the amount owed to the lender in order to walk away with the ships. The U.S. Maritime Administration guaranteed $150 in loans, and the agency’s administrator said he doesn’t expect any private bidders at that price.

As for Hannemann’s plan, Fawcett reported:

A source who knows the Hawaii investors who want to bring back the Superferry said they were counting on a fire sale, and hoped to pay no more that $40 million for each vessel.

Despite its relevance to the campaign, the Star-Advertiser apparently hasn’t followed up on Fawcett’s report.

Another reader questioned why the Star-Advertiser’s story on the elimination of 97 polling places statewide didn’t include a list of the disappeared sites.

“If they had listed the closed places it would have been a service to their readers,” he wrote.

Actually, a list of closed polling places along with the location where those voters should now go to vote is what voters could use. But I guess we can’t necessarily expect value added these days.

And, finally, does anyone else worry when the monopoly daily newspaper partners with the Hawaii News Now near-monopoly to produce news, like their current political poll? This seems to be taking the lack of diversity and competition, and turning the crank a few more revolutions. It may make financial sense for them. It doesn’t feel like a positive development out here on the receiving end.

Another Waikiki street brawl getting lots of views on YouTube

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I’ve commented here several times over the past several years about the underreporting of street fights and brawls around the island.

This week, a sharp-eyed Waikiki resident forwarded the link to this YouTube video showing a street fight in the heart of Waikiki that took place a couple of months ago.

[The video has been removed (in December 2012) following a warning from Google that all ads will be suspended if this video, which shows a street fightin Waikiki, is not removed.]

We’re talking the center of our visitor industry. Does anyone else find this disturbing?

Here’s what I wrote a year and a half ago (I point out the date so that I’m not accused of raising this only as a last-minute campaign issue:

The pattern seem clear. For whatever reason, this disturbing series of fights involving large groups is being largely ignored. Follow-up reporting to make sense of it is almost nonexistent, as is reporting to hold public officials responsible for responding. Shouldn’t there be some public discussion of how to best respond to this obvious increase in gang related violence, including the appearance of home invasion robberies, drive by shootings, brawls in public places, etc? I would like to hear more than a sound bite from HPD, the city council, and the mayor. What’s going on and what are you doing about it?

Type “brawl” in the Google search bar on the top right of this page and you’ll get a list of earlier entries involving underreported and unanalyzed gang fights.

That video had been viewed about 14,000 times as of this morning, as have several of the others that turned up when I searched YouTube using the words “Waikiki” and “fight”.

I’m hearing candidates talking a lot about management experience and public safety. I haven’t heard much, now or over the past several years, addressing this emergence of new and serious types of community violence, from gang fights to recreational violence to home invasions.

I would welcome somthing substantive on this important issue.