By Request (from a fan) Reposting My Open Letter To Blake and Jack

I got these two comments on the Bathroom Post yesterday. My first request. I have to admit that when I reread this, I am right. The only thing happening over there is a couple of signs in the woods by Sunset Beach Elementary.

Anonymous said... hey toe gge, could you repost the open letter to jack & blake?It was so true. I am now driving my kid to Millilani to swim on a good team. EVERYDAY!Thanks Jack! 9/14/2008 1:57 PM

Anonymous said... Actually we drive to Waipio Central Oahu Regional Park.to think we almost got Northern Oahu Regional YMCA. Makes me very unhappy with those spoiled brats.my father came back here after 20 years away. he asked if this place was gonna ever grow up?Nah, Jus getting worse cuz........... 9/14/2008 2:02 PM

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Open Letter to Blake and Jack.

I've read the stories about back in the day when you were Groms and your parents dragged you out to wave signs and protest something on the North Shore. As early teens these events shaped you into the sensitive, environmentalists that you are today. Now as adults you are ready to save the Country from all sorts of greedy, seedy, self serving, bulldozer obsessed capitalist developers.

Well, Blake and Jack, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Your good intentions realized with Pupukea Paumalu will lead to a place that is much less desirable to live in for a majority of our Keiki and Kapuna for generations.

I have the luxury of having time and the ability to afford to find things for my young relatives to do. With the new school schedules - almost 4 weeks off at Christmas, I've been busy looking for programs on the North Shore to let them have fun, blow off some steam, get educated a bit. There is not a lot out there unless you want to commute 30 minutes or more each way.

Blake and Jack, I came to realize this again, you and your group are destroying any chance for the North Shore between Haleiwa and Kahuku to have any meaningful alternative recreation area. Your closed door, closed minded no communication meetings with Obayashi and the Govt. will most likely result in the destruction of the commitment that runs with the land. That commitment would have seen built a brand new YMCA on the North Shore. Swimming pool, gymnasium, indoor basketball and volleyball, recreation floor space for varied children, adult and senior activities. That is just what this area needs and you guys are throwing it away for us.

Yeah right, your efforts will lead to more open space and rural park. You'll have nature programs. Well WHOOPPPEEE. I'll tell you what, we do not need any more parks and trails here. You can walk to Laie from the top of Pupukea on a great trail. You can go up past Comsat, or the motor cross track. Great Mauka trails behind Waimea, Sunset, V-land, Turtle Bay, Kahuku, Laie, Haula, etc. Knock yourself out every weekend of the year and you'll have plenty of varied terrain, views and conditions.

The youth and nature programs we have here on the North Shore are woefully unattended by local kids. Take a look at the programs they have at Waimea for kids. If it weren't for the haole kids of the environmentalists of the North Shore and townies, there would be a handful or less of kids there.

Jack, the irony of what your doing is going to fall on you when your kids get old enough and you have nothing for them in terms of the kinds of programs the YMCA has. No pool, no gym, no crafts, no senior fitness, no "Mommy and Me" programs, no youth and adult basketball, volleyball leagues. No pool, no swim teams for all ages, no place for youth leadership development.

Jack and Blake, they do not have lanes and starting blocks or swim teams in the ocean. Jack and Blake are to blame, when our children suffer for a lack of recreational diversity. Your closed loop trail and park, after your opening ceremonies, will have what, maybe, on a beautiful perfect day, a hundred people there? The same people who are going to the other Mauka parks and trails on other weekends. In the mean time hundreds of kids, adults and seniors an hour could have been at the YMCA.

If you choose to respond, don't lie to us and tell us you saved us from hundreds of homes being built. I know there was a proposal made to you guys that would have enabled about 30 homes to be built there, not all on the bluff. All the benefits to the community would have stayed intact. But you all said "No. Not one thing shall be built there".

Did you ask us? NO. Are you guilty of closed door negotiations without public discussion - YES. I know you are seeking to destroy the Unilateral Agreement to take away the conditions that would have benefited the community. You have not told anyone that. It is not on your website. You are hiding that very important fact, and that is shameful. You are going to damn generations of residents here. Just wait Jack and Blake, as you start families, you'll see soon enough how much we could have used the facilities you are dooming to oblivion.