Bad Plans, Dairy Facts And Guns

The Old Cannon Club in 1956. U.S. Army photo from Bob Jones

The recent revelation about our flinty support for the state’s Diamond Head film studio at 18th Avenue should shock our socks off.

But wait! Why is the studio there in the first place? Why isn’t the new culinary school or some other Kapiolani Community College expansion project there? Why is the old Army Cannon Club site on Diamond Head’s slope becoming KCC’s cooking school and restaurant instead of a parking-food-orientation center for the Diamond Head State Monument park?

The seven-acre Cannon Club property never was incorporated into the Diamond Head park land as it was supposed to be in the master plan. Visitors could have parked there, had an orientation and then transported into the crater. On the way out, they would be dropped at a gift shop at that location.

We could have kept all the vehicles there. Instead, there are 77 parking spaces in the crater. And the visitors’ center will be built in there. Too much clutter of the crater’s natural setting. Bad plan.

The film studio could have been built anywhere – Barbers Point or Kapolei. Why adjacent to KCC? It’s mainly used by commercial filmers, not the college.

I’m not against the $32 million culinary school. But I’d boot out the film studio, build there, and leave the slopes of Diamond Head what they’re supposed to be – part of the state monument.

Waialae-Kahala post office has put its parking lot in the hands of a commercial pay-parker for the off hours. Strikes me as a sock ’em and then sock ’em again policy. We get taxed to pay for the P.O. lease, and then “taxed” again to park on our paid-for property on Sundays and evenings.

Who is advising Mayor Peter Carlisle and what’s the plan?

Vetoing a City Council 7-2 vote against commercial use of Kailua Beach Park isn’t smart politics. He might get some campaign bucks from a few businesses but surely will lose a bundle of Kailua votes.

Remember the bad old Hanauma Bay days of commercial snorkel hordes and beach picnics before City parksman Walter Ozawa said “enough already”?

Carlisle’s been dead-man-walking in popularity polls. This could make the primary strictly a Caldwell-Cayetano race.

Consumer Reports (Sept. 2012) agrees with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and me: “In a new study of almost 75,000 people, those who consumed the most low-fat dairy were 12 percent less likely to have a stroke over a 10-year period than those who didn’t have any. The magic number is four servings daily. Skim or lowfat milk as well as low-fat yogurt, cheese and cottage cheese.”

While waiting in a repair shop I saw a shopper flier for this and that – including an ad by Young Guns on Paa Street for wide availability of 5.56 ammunition rounds.

Here’s the formal description of that ammo from NATO Infantry Weapons:

“5.56 is a rifle cartridge originally chambered in the M16 rifle. When the bullet impacts at high velocity and yaws in tissue, fragmentation creates a rapid transfer of energy which can result in dramatic wounding effects.”