Why does the chicken cross the road in Kauai? To check out the tourists from the Peninsula. At least that’s what it seemed like last week.
The family had headed west to the sun-drenched Garden Island for some rest and revitalization. Kauai was the destination via a five-hour United Airlines flight from SFO.
Once we landed at Lihue, grabbed our luggage and secured a rental car, it was clear that the island is dominated by fowl, specifically chickens. They were everywhere.
Rumor has it they even congregate outside the local KFC. Talk about arrogance. They have few boundaries. They strut and cackle in backyards, on golf courses, near beaches, in parking lots, outside supermarkets, you name it. It’s a rooster’s paradise.
The wild, native version of the birds has cross-bred with domesticated chickens (the ultra-violent 1992 hurricane that ravaged Kauai reportedly let loose countless domesticated fowl who wound up doing what comes naturally with the feral variety) to create a hybrid creature that’s both relatively tame and usually inedible.
So you can put aside any thoughts of obtaining a two-legged dinner right outside your seaside condo. Forget the fowl fricassee.
Most of these critters are said to be so tough they cause the finest chefs to weep at the very thought of frying up a few.
And the males do tend to crow in the morning. They are Kauai’s little alarm clocks. And they tend to sound off well before dawn approaches. Not only are they typically stringy and taste-free, they also have only a limited sense of time.
Bright they are not.
A turning point
As tens of thousands of children, primarily from Central America, cross the border into the U.S. illegally, the howls of shock and frustration continue on all sides of the U.S. political spectrum.
The open-border left views the dire situation as a fine opportunity to solidify its future voting base. The paranoid, xenophobic right sees it as the beginning of the end of the nation as we know it. Folks in the middle don’t know what to think. Some are simply oblivious to the humanitarian crisis.
But, for most of us, the argument remains theoretical. Illegal immigrant minors are not being housed in makeshift shelters in Redwood Shores or Menlo Parko or Half Moon Bay. They aren’t being bused to available emergency facilities in San Bruno. At least not yet.
Think about it for a moment. Let’s say you are the superintendent of the San Bruno Park Elementary School District and, when the 2014-15 school year commences late this summer, you will be suddenly faced with, perhaps, 300 new students, few of whom speak English, some with health problems, many essentially stranded without parents or guardians anywhere nearby. Lots of luck.
Such a challenge would be unprecedented. That depressing scenario isn’t happening in San Mateo County, for now. But can you imagine the outcry, the stunned disbelief at such a prospect, no matter where you might stand on the subject?
That’s when the true nature of the ongoing disaster on the southern border would hit home with a vengeance.
The stark reality of an historic turning point doesn’t become obvious until it walks right through your neighborhood’s front door. That’s when even the obtuse start to pay attention.
Rent control
Still on the general subject of major change, the Burlingame City Council got a fresh taste of what just could become a consistent theme in coming months and years.
Several members of the audience rose to urge the members of that august body to consider the implementation of rent control. Why? Because rents in that town, like so many others along the Peninsula, are rising quickly to the point where, for some people, the skyrocketing rates are beyond their modest means.
The rental market has gone haywire since the high-tech/Internet boom picked up more steam. Blame the success of outfits like Facebook, Google, Apple and the rest for what’s happening.
The demand for local rental housing is at historic levels. But rent control, the artificial tinkering with the free market by government by disallowing property owners to set market-based rents, is extremely controversial and the results are often counter-productive and damaging to the housing stock.
So-called “affordable” housing is one thing; rent control is quite something else again.
John Horgan’s column appears Thursday. You can contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.or by regular mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.
