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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/11/bike-share-program-in-honolulu-will-expand-as-ridership-soars/" target="_self">Bike-Share Program In Honolulu Will Expand As Ridership Soars</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Tue, 13 Nov 2018 17:29:28 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('HONOLULU (AP) — More than 100,000 rides were taken last month through Honolulu’s self-service bicycle rental platform, marking a record number of rides in single month, the operator said. Bikeshare Hawaii, the manager of Biki, is planning to add 300 more bikes and about 30 more rental stations by the end of the year. Biki launched in June 2017, offering about 1,000 rental bikes at 100 stations throughout urban Honolulu. Biki has since recorded more than 1 million rides. The ridership last month increased by 62 percent compared to October 2017. “We are very pleased with the record number of rides taken in October, especially compared to the numbers from last year,” said Todd Boulanger, Bikeshare Hawaii executive director. “This progress demonstrates that both Honolulu residents and visitors are seeing the benefits of Biki and that it’s a viable transportation option for short trips around town.” Biki bicyles are ceremoniously blessed with rainwater and ti leaf on the lawn at the Capitol in 2017. The bike-sharing program is enormously popular, with ridership up 62 percent from the year before.Cory Lum/Civil Beat The service began with funding and support from the city, state and public institutions. The expansion will be supported by funding from the federal Transportation Alternative Program. Biki plans to reach more neighborhoods, including Iwilei, Makiki and Waikiki, as well as better equip the city’s urban core, Bikeshare Hawaii said. The proposed locations for the expansion were shared late last year, and community feedback has informed the selected locations, it said. “We are very encouraged both by a successful first year of service and record-breaking rides since then, and look forward to servicing more residents and visitors with these expanded sites,” Boulanger said. The post Bike-Share Program In Honolulu Will Expand As Ridership Soars appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/11/getting-a-drivers-license-or-id-can-be-easy-really/" target="_self">Getting A Driver’s License Or ID Can Be Easy. Really!</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Tue, 13 Nov 2018 10:10:33 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('It’s the end of the infamously long wait in line for your license renewal. Oahu residents are now offered the convenience of making an advance appointment to renew a driver’s license or state identification card and be done in under 30 minutes. Appointment times are the latest customer-service offer to access basic government services more efficiently. Since introducing the new system in April of this year, it has been a game changer for those who use it, providing a quick and convenient way to do business. The Kapolei Driver Licensing Center at 1000 Uluohia Street.City and County of Honolulu Department of Customer Services We’ve housed all the related tools you’ll need for success on one easy site (license.honolulu.gov) where you can: Access our interactive document guide and be comfortable that you have all the necessary documents in hand. Make an appointment up to three months in advance at nine different locations across the island. Find locations and hours. It may be helpful to know that our five driver licensing centers process only licenses and state IDs, so they have the capacity to handle more volume per day. Our Satellite City Halls manage a variety of city services, from vehicle registration and handicap placards, to dog licensing, bill payments and moped and bicycle registrations. Satellites manage a smaller percentage of license and ID renewals. Access application forms and fill them out ahead of time for faster processing. Cancel your unneeded appointment using the confirmation code provided when scheduling. You will help the next person needing an appointment. When making an appointment on line or via your smartphone, you will be asked to enter a phone number.  The last four digits of that number will be your ticket number on site. If it is text-capable, you will receive a text confirmation with a unique code. Save this. That text offers a quick one-click cancellation option at the bottom. Or print out the confirmation code online and save that. Other helpful tips: Bring a recent vision certificate from your eye doctor and avoid the onsite eye test. Know that temporary paper cards are not acceptable as identification at U.S. airport security checkpoints. As it may take up to six weeks to receive your permanent card in the mail, plan your renewal around your trips. If you have not received your card by then, leave your name and contact info at 768-9128 and we’ll check on the status of your envelope. For security reasons, licenses and IDs cannot be mailed to business addresses and they cannot be forwarded to an alternate address. If you did not provide your primary residential address, as recognized by the U.S. post office, the card will be returned to us as undeliverable. You will need to make another visit bringing two new documents showing your valid address and pay $6 for the address to be updated and the card replaced. A license or ID can be renewed six months in advance (still retaining your birthday expiration) so people are encouraged to schedule well ahead of time so the new card is receive before the old one expires. We all need less stress in our lives. Remember, state law does not allow you to drive with an expired license. With an appointment, all the correct documents in hand along with a completed application form and arriving 10 minutes before your appointment, getting your driver license or state ID should be quick and easy. The post Getting A Driver’s License Or ID Can Be Easy. Really! appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/11/can-setting-out-tables-painting-street-murals-transform-honolulus-neighborhoods/" target="_self">Can Setting Out Tables, Painting Street Murals Transform Honolulu’s Neighborhoods?</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Tue, 13 Nov 2018 10:01:51 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('Early next year, Honolulu neighborhoods will get a chance to turn their streets into murals or transform metered parking spaces into parks. Inspired by do-it-yourself, guerrilla urban planning projects, which became popular in American cities over the last decade, Honolulu’s transportation department hopes the new approach will get communities engaged in projects that get people out of their cars and make Honolulu more walkable. And hopefully, make the streets safer. The program won’t launch until early 2019, and kinks are still being ironed out. But the idea is to allow community groups to identify a dangerous street or intersection and propose a way to improve it. The city will offer materials and technical know-how, but community members will actually go in and build the project alongside the city’s crew. A public seating area in Kakaako was an early attempt by Honolulu planners to claim metered parking spots for pedestrians. Project ideas could include new bike lanes, roundabouts, curb extensions, mini-parks or an artfully painted crosswalk. At least initially, the streetscape changes are meant to be temporary. But if the community likes the changes, the projects can stay. Honolulu is joining a national trend. A 6,000 square-foot mural on Cox Avenue corridor in Asheville, North Carolina by tactical urbanism pioneer Tony Garcia.Courtesy of Street Plans A 2005 project by San Francisco-based planner John Bela popularized the idea using low-cost materials to alter public space on the fly, transforming spaces for cars into spaces for people. Bela and fellow urbanites fed coins into parking meters in downtown San Francisco, covered the parking spaces with a sheet of grass, added a bench and potted tree, then watched as people started hanging out there. The project ignited a now world-wide event called Park(ing) Day, when parking spots are converted to so-called “parklets.” In time, municipal transportation departments took notice and institutionalized the DIY trend. Los Angeles calls its community program “People St,” and San Francisco has “Groundplay.” For now, regulations make similar projects in Honolulu almost impossible. Gaining approval to turn a few parking spots into a public, outdoor seating area in Kakaako was painfully bureaucratic, said Harrison Rue, the city’s Community Building and Transit-Oriented Development Administrator. “We’re essentially trying to make the rules to make the pop-up aspect easier,” said Honolulu planner Nicola Szibbo. Safer Streets In most American cities, 80 percent of paved public space is dedicated to cars. “We design our streets for the big afternoon peak,” Rue said. “When you do it that way, everybody speeds too much when the streets are empty.” The number of pedestrian fatalities in Hawaii increased by more than 500 percent from last fall, according the state Department of Transportation. The number of deaths reached 36 last week, the highest number of fatalities in a year since 2005. In 2012 the city adopted a policy called Complete Streets that aims to make the city safer for pedestrians, bike riders and passengers using public transportation. Rather than wait for long-term capital projects which can take years to get funded and built, local planners are embracing “tactical urbanism.” In essence, it means using low-cost materials to quickly build things that make streets safer for people on bikes and pedestrians. The goal is to claim more street space for people, rather than people in cars. Honolulu planners Harrison Rue, left, and Nicola Szibbo, right, want more community engagement in Complete Streets projectsCory Lum/Civil Beat The city’s already tried a handful of projects, including using potted plants and paint to create curb extensions in Chinatown and building the King Street bike lane. The approach allows the city to do more with less, and do it quickly. “It’s a great approach to getting stuff done in a city where bureaucracy and politics and money can get in the way of perfectly good planning,” Gordon Douglas, a professor at San Jose State University’s urban and regional planning department. The program launching next year might give community members a chance to try projects that city officials have rejected in the past. In 2014, someone painted between the lines of two crosswalks, one in Hawaii Kai and another in Kapolei, to spell “ALOHA,” KHON reported. The act of guerrilla urbanism grabbed the attention of national news outlets but city officials didn’t take lightly to the vandalism. Removing the “ALOHA” from the crosswalks cost $4,000, according to KHON Community Pushback Community pushback against the city’s Complete Streets projects have made the streetscape changes a point of contention between the Honolulu City Council and the Mayor Kirk Caldwell administration. In May the council passed a bill that would allow it to have more control over which Complete Streets projects get built in Chinatown, but Caldwell vetoed the bill. Similar initiatives in other American cities have divided communities. A battle between African American churches and bike advocates over a bike lane in Washington, D.C. became “a proxy for changing power dynamics in a gentrifying city,” journalist Amanda Kolson Hurley wrote in an article for the Washington Post. “Zero-sum attitudes on both sides made compromise difficult.” To be successful, Honolulu’s tactical urbanism program must find ways to engage low-income communities or run the risk of only serving the wealthy, said Douglas, the San Jose State University professor. Decorative planters are used in Chinatown to extend curbs for more pedestrian use.Natanya Friedheim/ Civil Beat Honolulu’s new program, which doesn’t yet have a name, aims to make the top-down Complete Streets projects come from the bottom-up. That will help ease the resentment that can build up if the city fails to earnestly listen to community concerns on the front end, then holds press conferences to tout the success of Complete Streets projects, said cyclist David Jung, who attended the city’s meeting on tactical urbanism in September. Jung sees the city’s new program as a way to break down communication silos between planners and community members and try short-term, innovative projects. “Tactical urbanism allows you to do things in an incremental format, try a little here, try a little there,” Jung said. With community buy-in, the project can stay for good. The post Can Setting Out Tables, Painting Street Murals Transform Honolulu’s Neighborhoods? appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/11/danny-de-gracia-remembering-hawaiis-long-line-of-heroes/" target="_self">Danny De Gracia: Remembering Hawaii’s Long Line Of Heroes</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Tue, 13 Nov 2018 10:01:47 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('Reflecting on Veterans Day, Hawaii’s long legacy of courage, service before self, and honor must challenge us to keep these islands worthy of the lives that defended our nation. It is no exaggeration to say that Hawaii is for heroes. At the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the palladium Lady Columbia towers over the flower bulb-shaped Punchbowl crater, offering in eternal marble prose an invocation: “The solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.” Like pollen from a flower, Columbia invites us to take with us the stories of those who lived and died by a code, and to make it a part of our collective consciousness, empowering us all to bring the bloom of liberty and excellence everywhere we go. We would do well to consider the souls that have graced Hawaii with their lives and the spirits that have departed this vale of tears in our service. Hawaii is not a place where the fainthearted are born or live, nor a realm where inaction or indifference has precedent. U.S. flags and flowers at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe in 2014.PF Bentley/Civil Beat All of us who live in Hawaii, and especially those who serve the public – both in and out of uniform – have a responsibility to catch the mantle of our heroes and learn from their devotion. Hawaii has no shortage of examples to look up to. Men like Dorie Miller, a Mess Attendant 3rd Class aboard the USS West Virginia, who in the swirling chaos of the Pearl Harbor attack, commandeered an anti-aircraft gun and stood as a human wall against enemy bombs, teaches us that initiative saves lives. Men like Herbert K. Pililaau, a rifleman who volunteered to stay behind at the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge against waves of North Korean soldiers and fought to the last breath on Hill 931 with only rocks and a knife, inspires us to remember devotion makes us champions. Men like the legendary Ellison Onizuka, the first astronaut from Hawaii and the first Asian-American in space who tragically perished aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, remind us that these islands have birthed pioneers unafraid to take stellar risks in the pursuit of knowledge. Speaking of Onizuka and his crew, then-President Ronald Reagan would eulogize, “We remember Ellison Onizuka, who, as a child running barefoot through the coffee fields and macadamia groves of Hawaii, dreamed of someday traveling to the moon … Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on, despite the pain. Our nation is indeed fortunate that we can still draw on immense reservoirs of courage, character and fortitude – that we are still blessed with heroes like those of the Space Shuttle Challenger.” Perhaps it is only fitting that Veterans Day follows Election Day, because our political choices always have human consequences. Being sensitive to this fact, our newly elected federal and state officials should consider the gravity of what it means to represent free men and women in the State of Hawaii. To wear the lapel pin of the Seal of the State of Hawaii or the flag of the United States of America costs politicians nothing, but these symbols represent the highest virtues of a heroic society. It is for this reason that as we form our government and prepare our policies for 2019, that we do so with a re-dedication to duty, honor, country, and service before self. The residents and citizens of Hawaii are a good and noble people who truly believe that the life of the land is perpetuated in righteous deeds, not just righteous talk. Although at times the people have not been present en masse to testify before committees, plead before boards and commissions, or even vote at the polls, those who serve in government have a holy responsibility to honor the people of these islands and their long-traditions of excellence. Many of our local heroes have lived and died by a creed that, “I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God, and in the United States of America.” “I will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those among me who do,” is another oath that Hawaii heroes know well.  Even outside of military and law enforcement service, many Hawaii residents agree wholeheartedly in these words and expect and demand our government abide by them as well. A long, gray line of heroic spirits are watching us, even now. Was Veterans Day just another day off for Hawaii government? Or will our elected officials say, “Today, I will serve, I will do my very best, and I will stand and be counted for the future of Hawaii”? The post Danny De Gracia: Remembering Hawaii’s Long Line Of Heroes appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/11/protections-for-transgender-kids-still-spotty-inside-schools/" target="_self">Protections For Transgender Kids Still Spotty Inside Schools</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Tue, 13 Nov 2018 10:01:36 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('Every morning, a ritual takes place at the Kalaheo High School registrar’s office on the windward side of Oahu. It’s a small but vital action, since it could make the difference between peace of mind and debilitating anxiety for one 16-year-old junior. The school registrar pulls out the student roster, manually whites-out the legal name of the student and writes in his preferred name. This is performed daily to prevent a potential substitute teacher from inadvertently calling out the student’s legal name during roll call. “All my classmates know me as Johnathan,” says Johnathan Goodwin, who transitioned from female to male in intermediate school. “If (a sub) called out (my birth-given name), which has happened, it’s a very anxiety-inducing situation.” Kalaheo High student Johnathan Goodwin is the “TransTeen Ambassador” for The Lavender Center & Clinic, a nonprofit health clinic that works with the local LGBT community.Cory Lum/Civil Beat That step is just one way in which Kalaheo High, a public school in Kailua that has a large military student population, signals its willingness to be inclusive of all its students — including its most vulnerable who identify as LGBT. A recent study on transgender youth released by the Hawaii Department of Health unearthed sobering statistics about the students in this community, including a higher prevalence of bullying, depression, dropping out of school and attempts at suicide than their peers overall. The report lands two years after the state Department of Education adopted new guidelines around protections for transgender students — policies which transgender advocates say are robust but remain spottily applied. “It was very impactful — we thought we won that day (in 2016 when the guidelines were adopted),” said Cathy Kapua, transgender service coordinator at Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center. “But there was little follow-up.” Today, protections for transgender students in Hawaii’s public schools are uneven, according to advocates in this area, leaving it up to each school leader to set the tone. “There’s a lot of things schools can do to make students more comfortable, but it’s totally principal-dependent,” said Renee Rumler, clinical director at The Lavender Center & Clinic, a nonprofit health care clinic in Honolulu that focuses on LGBT issues. One of the main areas that still need attention, according to some advocates, is anti-bias training for staff that goes deeper than just a recitation of the DOE guidelines. This includes familiarity with what constitutes bullying and harassment against this community, best practices and guidance on how to handle student confidentiality concerns when they don’t have the support of their parents. The Hawaii DOE’s Civil Rights Compliance Branch has held training sessions with administrators across the state that covers behaviors and outcomes transgender youth are most at risk for; what state and federal laws say; and requirements under Hawaii’s own guidelines, according to DOE spokeswoman Nanea Kalani. Training is also available to individual schools upon request, she said in an email. “Schools can always call CRCB for guidance on specific situations or for additional training,” she added. Hawaii has the highest rate of transgender prevalence in the United States, according to the Williams Institute, which focuses on sexual identity and gender identity issues at UCLA’s law school. A little more than 3 percent of public high school students — about 1,260 — identify as transgender, with Native Hawaiian, Filipino and Caucasian students each making up a quarter of the transgender student population here. The Aloha State has taken considerable strides in giving attention to the issue of non-gender conformity, including with the 2016 DOE student guidelines. This past session, the Hawaii Legislature passed a state corollary to Title IX, the law banning discrimination on basis of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity in any educational program that receives federal funding. Community leaders gather for a hearing to discuss proposed revisions to Chapter 19, the DOE’s student misconduct code that includes discipline for bullying and harassment.Suevon Lee/Civil Beat Some say underscoring Hawaii’s commitment to these protections is needed in light of proposed rollbacks considered by the Trump administration. Those include rescinding Obama-era guidance allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity; banning transgender youth from serving in the military; and, most recently, proposing to define gender as immutable and “fixed” at birth. Hawaii is a leader when it comes to offering protections for LGBT people, which is why the proposals being floated at the federal level “sow confusion about which rules apply and where and whether or not trans and other gender and sexual minorities deserve protection at all,” said Dean Hamer, an independent filmmaker and LGBT advocate. “This is why it’s imperative that the Hawaii guidelines be firmly articulated and implemented throughout the DOE system,” he added. Use Of Restrooms A Common Problem Goodwin, born and raised on Oahu to parents originally from New Zealand and Canada, is like any other teenager, with hopes, fears and dreams for the future. He also possesses an inordinate amount of self-awareness for his young age, perhaps owing to his deeply personal experience with self-identity growing up. Four days a week after school, Goodwin travels via bus for an hour each way to work as a receptionist at The Lavender Center. He is also its “TransTeen Ambassador,” a role where he helps educate people of all career fields and backgrounds about the community by sharing his experience as a transgender teen to attorneys at Kapolei Judiciary Complex and active and former military personnel at Tripler Army Medical Center. The 16-year-old was born as a female but identifies as male, and has been taking hormone replacement therapy for the past two years to advance the physical transition. “My school has been absolutely wonderful in my transition. It’s been the most supportive school,” he said of Kalaheo High. But based on his conversations with other transgender students around Hawaii, the same can’t be said of many other schools. Farrington High School graduates wear different colors depending on gender. Transgender students can pick which color they choose to wear.Cory Lum/Civil Beat A common problem is the issue of restrooms, he said. While the DOE’s 2016 guidelines explicitly permit a preferred use of restrooms by transgender teens, Goodwin has heard of transgender males and transgender females getting bullied or harassed when trying to use their preferred bathroom of choice. “It’s pretty common for LGBT youth or especially for transgender youth to end up getting UTIs just from not being able to use the restroom at school,” he said. “It’s really common. It’s horribly common.” Another issue is the practice by some school Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or ROTC programs, to impose “gendered uniforms” — that is different uniforms for boys and girls, with reprimands issued to students who don’t conform to the clothing which matches their birth gender. The accommodation for students’ preferred names remains one of the most central concerns for transgender teens — and among the easiest for schools to address, he said. “A common misconception is that schools will argue, ‘we can’t use a preferred name, we can’t put it on your ID card, because it’s not your legal name.’ Legally, schools can put your preferred name down as long as it stays within the school system and doesn’t leave,” he noted. This could mean something as straightforward as assuring graduating seniors their preferred names will be read aloud when they “walk” across stage — without them having to undergo the anxiety of reminding administrators ahead of time. “It’s such a milestone to go through graduation, but to go up and have your wrong name called out – it’s pretty devastating,” Goodwin said. Currently, Hawaii’s public schools lack the ability to denote a student’s preferred name in the statewide record-keeping software program known as “Infinite Campus.” McKinley High Registrar and vice president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association Osa Tui raised the point at a recent Board of Education meeting. Board member Pat Bergin, a former DOE teacher and administrator, nodded and conceded the process of updating the system is “overwhelming.” Board of Education Member Pat Bergin, a former DOE teacher, says the process for updating a transgender youth’s name in state school records can be “overwhelming.”Cory Lum/Civil Beat Other schools like Farrington High — distinguished in the community for graduating Janet Mock, a well-known author, speaker and transgender advocate — have been ahead of the curve when it comes to acknowledging transgender youths. The Kalihi high school has installed a unisex bathroom for at least the past five years, and despite the divided colors of graduation gowns for seniors (boys wear maroon and girls wear white), the school doesn’t raise a stink if a teen expresses a certain preference. “If a transgender youth — from boy to girl — wants to use a white gown, we don’t make a big deal out of it,” said Farrington principal Al Carganilla. Need For Greater Training Rumler, the clinical director at The Lavender Center, recalls the approval of the 2016 DOE guidelines. It’s clear in her mind because the clinic was asked to provide training to central administrative staff in the Hawaii education department on LGBT issues. Following the presentation, she expected there to be further engagement from the DOE. “(After the presentation), they said ‘great, we’ll contact you with a follow up.’” Rumler paused. “Crickets. I never heard back from them.” In the three years since the guidelines were handed down, the situation around LGBT bullying has remained at status quo, she said. “I’m not sure if (a lack of adequate training) has made anything worse, but it has not made anything better,” she said. “Our hope (with such training) was that the subtle ways of bullying — the bullying outside the school — would then have an effective way to be addressed.” She noted that the suicide attempt rate among transgender individuals alone warrants much more proactive measures: nationally, 1 in 2 transgender or gender non-conforming people will attempt suicide, compared with 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population, according to the Williams Institute. The need for greater training was recently articulated in testimony to the BOE ahead of its Sept. 6 meeting by Robert Bidwell, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine physician in Hawaii. During more than three decades of clinical practice in Hawaii, he wrote, he’s observed that kids facing gender identity and gender expression issues “are among the most likely to experience discrimination, bullying and harassment in our schools.” Bidwell added that a statement from a 1992 report to the Legislature by the Hawaii Gay and Lesbian Teen Task Force indicating Hawaii’s schools are “dangerous places for youths” who are LGBT, with teachers ignoring the behavior or even participating in it, is “as true today as it was 26 years ago.” As the state education department tackles bullying by focusing on revisions of student misconduct guidelines, advocates say more needs to be done on a statewide level. “Any prevention you do has huge payoffs in reducing trauma, reducing negative impact on individual students,” Rumler said. “We know that education and awareness are part of that reducing of fear, that fear of ‘the other.\'” The post Protections For Transgender Kids Still Spotty Inside Schools appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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