More Hawaii gripes

After doing a Google search on “Hawaii sucks”, I’ve found that many people have expressed opinions that match my own. I already know that many of the military people currently here and who have lived here in the past also share the exact same feeling about Hawaii. I’m surprised at how many other people resent this place. To that end, I’m going to just post bits and pieces I find in the local media and personal experiences about the lie that is “paradise”.

•  Bid-rigging at Hawaii International Airport : “The conspiracy involved submission of phony and inflated bids for “small” airport repair jobs worth less than $25,000. Airport officials were given leeway in awarding these “smaller” jobs. The contractors then paid kickbacks in the form of cash, meals, groceries and other gratuities to the state officials. The contractors were told that some of the cash payments were needed for political donations to unnamed Island political figures.”
• Teachers fight to stop drug testing : Teachers work at the mercy of the state, because they have to receive a state teacher’s certification. If the state requires it’s own government workers to be drug tested, then they have every right to require it of people needing a state license. Plus, why should teachers be exempt? Nearly every company now requires it. I certainly wouldn’t want a teacher to come in stoned or selling drugs.
• Man gets 20 years of beating 2 year old: It’s not the first time it’s happened here.
• Water main breaks: On average there is a water main break somewhere in Honolulu every day. The government hasn’t taken steps to maintain it’s infrastructure over the years even though the state has over half a billion dollar budget surplus.
• The roads are also horrible. Road repair is done slowly by contractors rather than actual DOT workers. Outside my work is a bridge that was torn down for repair/replacement. A temporary bridge was built next to it while the repairs are made. However, the “bad” bridge was torn down when I moved here over 2 1/2 years ago and hasn’t been touched since. The cranes and other equipment are all parked next to it but no one has moved them, much less worked on the old bridge in that time. The temporary bridge regularly develops pot holes from the amount of traffic it wasn’t designed to support; these pot holes, being on a bridge, end up making a hole clean through the bridge structure. The local government has patched the holes at least 4 times and has repaved the whole bridge at least once.
• The drivers here are the worst I’ve seen. I’ve lived in and visited California several times and I honestly feel the drivers and traffic here is much worse. Turn indicators are a foreign concept; very rarely are they used. Usually people just merge over without concern, feeling that a hand wave is sufficient. I’ve nearly been hit several times when someone switched lanes without looking; I know they didn’t look because I could see the person’s head and it never turned. There’s at least one pedestrian death every week, usually a hit-and-run. Hawaii has one of the highest (if not the highest) pedestrian fatality rate in the U.S. Only in the last two years was the state law changed to require drivers to stop for pedestrians rather than just slow down. Of course, it doesn’t help that jay-walking is almost a “cultural” thing.

That’s all I can handle right now but I’m sure I’ll vent some more later.