Some politics...but local this time!
I thought I should organize my thoughts, even though I'm fairly sure nobody in Honolulu county will actually read this...
Mufi Hannemann (website)
Okay. So here's our incumbent. I have a couple of complaints, but that's true of almost any administration. I'm sick of having potholes filled in instead of actual long-term road fixes, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure everyone is, and I'm pretty sure it would cost more money and be more time-consuming to completely redo all the roads. I'm not sure I'm convinced about the rail thing, but I'm not convinced that anyone else has a better option right now.
My impression is that Mufi does spend an inordinate time trying to look good and put on a good show for the citizens of O'ahu over actually doing some real hardcore work, but I do think some of his initiatives make sense, especially in the revitalization of Chinatown and at least attempting to get a mass transit programme going.
Then again, there are smears on his record. In addition to the awful state of the roads, the whole "dump sewage into the Ala Wai" is going to sting, and I can't imagine that was the "only option" as much as the "cheapest option". The EPA is suing us for not treating our waste products correctly, and again - it seems like Mufi is more concerned with looking like he's doing something than actually doing it.
Also, a personal gripe camp from reading a pamphlet that got left at my door - he was bragging about bringing the Lion King to Hawaii - while I'm sure everyone else quite appreciated it, I really felt that was a terrible slight to the Symphony, and I'm really disappointed that the city would allow our own Symphony (which, right now, is considered to be one of the better city Symphonies in the country) to go bankrupt (or nearly) just for some people to see a show. Considering the majority of the people seeing the show were local, it's not like it drew tourists in any significant way, but it did let local money drain into the pockets of the mainland theatre companies who came here - not something I'm terribly fond of. But I think I'm probably one of the few people with no particular desire to see Lion King, and with quite a bit of desire to see the Symphony function until I can actually afford to go to their concerts regularly xD
Overall, I can't find anything huge wrong with Mufi, other than a different set of priorities. If he wins another term, I won't be that disappointed (although I'll probably kick myself 10-15 years down the line when I'm still paying for that damn rail system). But on the other hand, I feel like Mufi had his chance to prove that he could shape up the city, and that he hasn't really done so the way I'd like. Maybe it's just time to give the new guys a chance. After all, he has incumbent advantage, so at the very least I'd like to narrow that gap a little bit.
Panos Prevedouros (website)
I have a dream (forgive my insolence for starting that way)...but I really do have a dream that people can run cities and governments and whatnot without actually having been a career politician. That's my first impression of Panos. He's a tenured professor at UH, a real engineer, and...my mom's age. I know those are superficial reasons to actually support someone, but I can't help that my impression so far is positive.
Okay, but I should look at the issues, right? Well, his solution to the traffic problem is to implement toll roads, basically. Now, this is one of those things I'm sceptical about. On the one hand, I do understand the rationale behind them - drive prices up, demand goes (or stays) down, allowing for a regulated speed lane. Theoretically, if a reasonable number of people use the toll lanes, the rest of the lanes will also have less traffic, thus making it a win-win situation. And, of course, revenue from the tolls will pay for the infrastructure changes, thus being one of the cheaper plans (or at least, more voluntary than taxes). And on that note, it is quite good to target people to charge instead of charging the whole county for a system that will primarily benefit Kapolei residents. But I've never been one to begrudge the greater good, and I do feel like the more the cost is spread out, the less the burden on any individual. All right, so...the down side? Obviously, toll roads favour the rich and go against the philosophy of aloha spirit and public access for everyone, something I feel very strongly about due to my grandfather's position as one of the strongest public rights advocates as Chief Justice. I don't like stratifying society, especially considering that a lot of the people out in Leeward aren't exactly the richest people, and they might feel somewhat slighted that they were promised relief, but nobody can actually afford to relieve traffic. I also worry that in general people won't use the toll road much, and it will end up stagnating and taking up space without actually helping anything.
Now, another thing I noticed while reading all these campaign sites is that each candidate has his or her List - the constant stream of things each will supposedly do to may Honolulu a magically delicious city (or almost...) I liken it to the repeated campaign promise in middle school to have vending machines installed in Bishop Hall, the 7th and 8th grade building. Everyone running for student council promised some equally ridiculous variety - either vending machines would be installed, or our breaks would be long enough to go to the snack bar between morning classes. Needless to say, none of these promises were fulfilled, to my knowledge. Didn't stop them from trying, though. But the same problem exists in the mayoral race, and Panos is quite guilty of it, himself (not that the other two aren't). I fail to see how anyone could say "lower taxes" while also promising to institute recycling pick-up, close Waimanalo Gulch, and actually repair the roads. That's pretty much completely absurd, but it sounds good on paper!
So I guess there are some pros and cons here, too. I'm not sure I'm really convinced about the whole toll road thing, but at the same time, his other ideas about improving the bus system and synchronizing lights sound good, and I'd rather trust an engineering professor to figure that shit out than someone who's just really good at rhetoric.
Ann Kobayashi (website)
Okay, despite being a woman, Ann Kobayashi really gives me "old boys' network" vibes. First of all, she's old. She's around the same age as my grandmother, maybe a year younger. While age itself is certainly no reason to discount someone's opinions (hello, lower the voting age plz), I do feel like Ann Kobayashi represents another era of Hawaii politics, and I don't think it's productive to continue those policies, since they obviously didn't work in the past.
Ann is by far the most out-of-touch of the three candidates, especially in terms of technology. I find it very telling that when I googled "ann kobayashi mayor campaign website", Panos Prevedouros' website actually came up higher in the search results, while Ann's website was halfway down the page (and it didn't even show up in broader queries like "ann kobayashi mayor"). I don't expect every candidate to be super techy, but I do expect them to be aware of the impact of the internet and to hire a webmaster who doesn't suck. Ann's website was the only website that had layout problems for me (text would go beyond the borders because they didn't expand properly, and videos and links were broken). I can either blame this on a shitty webmaster (which is likely), or a website built for a browser other than Firefox (which is also fairly likely) - either way, it shows a lack of understanding of the way things work today online.
Along those lines, Ann's actual campaign website had the worst actual campaign content of the three. If anyone is guilty of listing unreasonable goals, it's Ann. Her website literally had one page entitled "issues" where she kind of outlined everyone's dream city - yeah, we're going to give everyone roadside recycling pickup, effective mass transit, and reduce water and energy use. Really? Well, I'm going to sprout wings and fly to New Zealand. Her website was disgustingly vague - "Ann will work to improve conservation efforts to reduce our island’s demand on this valuable resource [water]." Anyone can say "well, I'll try to maybe help people start reducing some of our demand on water eventually". It's kind of hard to take someone seriously if they don't have serious campaign promises.
She claims to want to put more accountability and fiscal responsibility into the government, but it leads me to ask what she was doing while on city council with very little transparency? On the lines of accountability, there are very real accusations of excessive politicization in her run itself; she announced her bid for Mayor the day the registration closed, apparently telling no one about her plans. By running for mayor, she vacated her seat in city council, leading to a scramble for the paperwork to run for that seat. Somehow, Duke Bainum, who was apparently on the mainland, managed to get all that paperwork done before anyone else, and is therefore running for the seat uncontested. They claim that there was no correspondence before her announcement, but it does sound a little fishy, doesn't it? At the very least, it seems kind of sneaky to run for mayor so suddenly, and I can't help but think it was an overtly political move rather than a genuine desire to help out the city.
And of course, we have to talk a bit about transit. Ann's proposal is some sort of train that's not a train...or something. I'm actually not sure, but my impression is that she wants to make a mass transit system that works with rubber on asphalt. In other words, some system that runs on the same roads as cars. Wait, doesn't that sound a lot like a bus? Don't we already have one of the best bus systems in the country? Why exactly do we need another bus system? Wasn't the original proposal to improve the bus system, anyway? Maybe I'm just retarded, but I get the distinct impression that Ann Kobayashi is kind of full of shit, here. I don't have a problem with revamping the bus system - in fact, I kinda like the bus, and I do think that with some improvements it can be a viable traffic decongestant. But I'd really love it if she'd either admit to being pro-bus, or explain what it is that makes her proposal so different.
And...in conclusion, I really think that Ann Kobayashi is going to get a lot of the "old vote", but I'm really not convinced she'd be the best mayor. I'm not going to discount her positions entirely, but I find it unlikely that I'll support her tomorrow.
H'okay, so there we go. Hopefully I'm being somewhat accurate and not slandering anyone accidentally, but too late now! xD As a disclaimer, these are my personal opinions and I'm totally cool with people not agreeing with them - as long as you're nice, I would LOVE to hear comments from anyone about it, thus why this is actually a public entry. That being said, non-friends will be screened. Have at it, guys!
Mufi Hannemann (website)
Okay. So here's our incumbent. I have a couple of complaints, but that's true of almost any administration. I'm sick of having potholes filled in instead of actual long-term road fixes, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure everyone is, and I'm pretty sure it would cost more money and be more time-consuming to completely redo all the roads. I'm not sure I'm convinced about the rail thing, but I'm not convinced that anyone else has a better option right now.
My impression is that Mufi does spend an inordinate time trying to look good and put on a good show for the citizens of O'ahu over actually doing some real hardcore work, but I do think some of his initiatives make sense, especially in the revitalization of Chinatown and at least attempting to get a mass transit programme going.
Then again, there are smears on his record. In addition to the awful state of the roads, the whole "dump sewage into the Ala Wai" is going to sting, and I can't imagine that was the "only option" as much as the "cheapest option". The EPA is suing us for not treating our waste products correctly, and again - it seems like Mufi is more concerned with looking like he's doing something than actually doing it.
Also, a personal gripe camp from reading a pamphlet that got left at my door - he was bragging about bringing the Lion King to Hawaii - while I'm sure everyone else quite appreciated it, I really felt that was a terrible slight to the Symphony, and I'm really disappointed that the city would allow our own Symphony (which, right now, is considered to be one of the better city Symphonies in the country) to go bankrupt (or nearly) just for some people to see a show. Considering the majority of the people seeing the show were local, it's not like it drew tourists in any significant way, but it did let local money drain into the pockets of the mainland theatre companies who came here - not something I'm terribly fond of. But I think I'm probably one of the few people with no particular desire to see Lion King, and with quite a bit of desire to see the Symphony function until I can actually afford to go to their concerts regularly xD
Overall, I can't find anything huge wrong with Mufi, other than a different set of priorities. If he wins another term, I won't be that disappointed (although I'll probably kick myself 10-15 years down the line when I'm still paying for that damn rail system). But on the other hand, I feel like Mufi had his chance to prove that he could shape up the city, and that he hasn't really done so the way I'd like. Maybe it's just time to give the new guys a chance. After all, he has incumbent advantage, so at the very least I'd like to narrow that gap a little bit.
Panos Prevedouros (website)
I have a dream (forgive my insolence for starting that way)...but I really do have a dream that people can run cities and governments and whatnot without actually having been a career politician. That's my first impression of Panos. He's a tenured professor at UH, a real engineer, and...my mom's age. I know those are superficial reasons to actually support someone, but I can't help that my impression so far is positive.
Okay, but I should look at the issues, right? Well, his solution to the traffic problem is to implement toll roads, basically. Now, this is one of those things I'm sceptical about. On the one hand, I do understand the rationale behind them - drive prices up, demand goes (or stays) down, allowing for a regulated speed lane. Theoretically, if a reasonable number of people use the toll lanes, the rest of the lanes will also have less traffic, thus making it a win-win situation. And, of course, revenue from the tolls will pay for the infrastructure changes, thus being one of the cheaper plans (or at least, more voluntary than taxes). And on that note, it is quite good to target people to charge instead of charging the whole county for a system that will primarily benefit Kapolei residents. But I've never been one to begrudge the greater good, and I do feel like the more the cost is spread out, the less the burden on any individual. All right, so...the down side? Obviously, toll roads favour the rich and go against the philosophy of aloha spirit and public access for everyone, something I feel very strongly about due to my grandfather's position as one of the strongest public rights advocates as Chief Justice. I don't like stratifying society, especially considering that a lot of the people out in Leeward aren't exactly the richest people, and they might feel somewhat slighted that they were promised relief, but nobody can actually afford to relieve traffic. I also worry that in general people won't use the toll road much, and it will end up stagnating and taking up space without actually helping anything.
Now, another thing I noticed while reading all these campaign sites is that each candidate has his or her List - the constant stream of things each will supposedly do to may Honolulu a magically delicious city (or almost...) I liken it to the repeated campaign promise in middle school to have vending machines installed in Bishop Hall, the 7th and 8th grade building. Everyone running for student council promised some equally ridiculous variety - either vending machines would be installed, or our breaks would be long enough to go to the snack bar between morning classes. Needless to say, none of these promises were fulfilled, to my knowledge. Didn't stop them from trying, though. But the same problem exists in the mayoral race, and Panos is quite guilty of it, himself (not that the other two aren't). I fail to see how anyone could say "lower taxes" while also promising to institute recycling pick-up, close Waimanalo Gulch, and actually repair the roads. That's pretty much completely absurd, but it sounds good on paper!
So I guess there are some pros and cons here, too. I'm not sure I'm really convinced about the whole toll road thing, but at the same time, his other ideas about improving the bus system and synchronizing lights sound good, and I'd rather trust an engineering professor to figure that shit out than someone who's just really good at rhetoric.
Ann Kobayashi (website)
Okay, despite being a woman, Ann Kobayashi really gives me "old boys' network" vibes. First of all, she's old. She's around the same age as my grandmother, maybe a year younger. While age itself is certainly no reason to discount someone's opinions (hello, lower the voting age plz), I do feel like Ann Kobayashi represents another era of Hawaii politics, and I don't think it's productive to continue those policies, since they obviously didn't work in the past.
Ann is by far the most out-of-touch of the three candidates, especially in terms of technology. I find it very telling that when I googled "ann kobayashi mayor campaign website", Panos Prevedouros' website actually came up higher in the search results, while Ann's website was halfway down the page (and it didn't even show up in broader queries like "ann kobayashi mayor"). I don't expect every candidate to be super techy, but I do expect them to be aware of the impact of the internet and to hire a webmaster who doesn't suck. Ann's website was the only website that had layout problems for me (text would go beyond the borders because they didn't expand properly, and videos and links were broken). I can either blame this on a shitty webmaster (which is likely), or a website built for a browser other than Firefox (which is also fairly likely) - either way, it shows a lack of understanding of the way things work today online.
Along those lines, Ann's actual campaign website had the worst actual campaign content of the three. If anyone is guilty of listing unreasonable goals, it's Ann. Her website literally had one page entitled "issues" where she kind of outlined everyone's dream city - yeah, we're going to give everyone roadside recycling pickup, effective mass transit, and reduce water and energy use. Really? Well, I'm going to sprout wings and fly to New Zealand. Her website was disgustingly vague - "Ann will work to improve conservation efforts to reduce our island’s demand on this valuable resource [water]." Anyone can say "well, I'll try to maybe help people start reducing some of our demand on water eventually". It's kind of hard to take someone seriously if they don't have serious campaign promises.
She claims to want to put more accountability and fiscal responsibility into the government, but it leads me to ask what she was doing while on city council with very little transparency? On the lines of accountability, there are very real accusations of excessive politicization in her run itself; she announced her bid for Mayor the day the registration closed, apparently telling no one about her plans. By running for mayor, she vacated her seat in city council, leading to a scramble for the paperwork to run for that seat. Somehow, Duke Bainum, who was apparently on the mainland, managed to get all that paperwork done before anyone else, and is therefore running for the seat uncontested. They claim that there was no correspondence before her announcement, but it does sound a little fishy, doesn't it? At the very least, it seems kind of sneaky to run for mayor so suddenly, and I can't help but think it was an overtly political move rather than a genuine desire to help out the city.
And of course, we have to talk a bit about transit. Ann's proposal is some sort of train that's not a train...or something. I'm actually not sure, but my impression is that she wants to make a mass transit system that works with rubber on asphalt. In other words, some system that runs on the same roads as cars. Wait, doesn't that sound a lot like a bus? Don't we already have one of the best bus systems in the country? Why exactly do we need another bus system? Wasn't the original proposal to improve the bus system, anyway? Maybe I'm just retarded, but I get the distinct impression that Ann Kobayashi is kind of full of shit, here. I don't have a problem with revamping the bus system - in fact, I kinda like the bus, and I do think that with some improvements it can be a viable traffic decongestant. But I'd really love it if she'd either admit to being pro-bus, or explain what it is that makes her proposal so different.
And...in conclusion, I really think that Ann Kobayashi is going to get a lot of the "old vote", but I'm really not convinced she'd be the best mayor. I'm not going to discount her positions entirely, but I find it unlikely that I'll support her tomorrow.
H'okay, so there we go. Hopefully I'm being somewhat accurate and not slandering anyone accidentally, but too late now! xD As a disclaimer, these are my personal opinions and I'm totally cool with people not agreeing with them - as long as you're nice, I would LOVE to hear comments from anyone about it, thus why this is actually a public entry. That being said, non-friends will be screened. Have at it, guys!