Now we have a law that limits the operation of legitimate businesses such as tour buses, limousines and commercial vehicles in several Waimanalo beach parks (“Law restricts tour vehicles at Waimanalo beach parks,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 17).
At the same time, homeless encampments and their associated trash, drug activity and mess blight the same beach parks. Legitimate businesses get the thumbs down and homeless encampments are apparently exempt from any legal standard.
The city and state should be trying to find ways to better accommodate the businesses, instead of restricting them, because they pay taxes that support all parks.
David Christopher
Hawaii Kai
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Don’t let motorists cheat red-light cams
Your front-page article, (“Red-light cameras bill advances” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 16), resounded when a concerned citizen for public safety was quoted as saying, “It (running red lights) is just epidemic. … The objective is to stop the behavior.”
Our legislators should remember another behavior that must be combatted when writing the bill for passage: Motorists invariably will attempt to defeat the cameras, by blurring their vehicle plates using opaque glass or tinting their windshields, as occurred in the 2002 van camera experience.
Consequently, language must be in the proposed bill to prohibit such practices, and ordinances enforced when vehicles are altered in such manner.
It was very dismaying back then to see drivers maneuvering to counter the cameras, which were intended to promote safe driving habits and safeguard the community.
Myron Nomura
Pearl City
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Search for DOE chief a waste of money
What a typical waste of money (“Iowa firm to aid in search for state schools chief,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 19).
Hiring an executive search firm in Iowa to find a replacement for Department of Education Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi is completely unnecessary. There are undoubtedly many qualified people in the bloated DOE bureaucracy who could be promoted from within — without hiring a replacement for the vacated position — instead of hiring some malihini who doesn’t know mauka from makai or how to pronounce Ewa.
The Board of Education should know better. Look at the large turnover of teachers hired from the mainland. Also, the University of Hawaii apparently has learned from several embarrassing debacles, at huge taxpayer expense, that it is better to hire locally, as it did with the very commendable replacement for women’s volleyball coach Dave Shoji.
Mark Webster
Waialae-Kahala
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Find a better way to pay teachers more
I strongly oppose House Bill 180/Senate Bill 686 and House Bill 182/Senate Bill 683. I implore the Legislature to find an alternate way to pay for funding our education system.
I believe our teachers deserve higher pay, and that higher pay increases teacher retention. However, increasing the property tax on residential “investment properties” is not the answer because the effect will directly negate any perceived benefit. The bill will increase severely costs for teachers who rent, and thus leave them in the same position they are currently in.
We are a struggling middle-class family renting to another struggling middle-class family. We will have to ask our tenants to foot the $366-a-month tax increase. And the same financial decision will be made by every landlord who charges more than $1,500 per month.
Don’t believe for a minute this won’t hurt locals. It will.
Ivan Hurlburt
Fort Shafter
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Allow gambling instead of tax hikes
With all the demands for increased revenue via increased taxes on Hawaii’s citizens, to pay for rail, road repairs, airport renovations, University of Hawaii facilities, housing the homeless, increasing mental health services and so on, why are our elected officials so silent about legalizing gambling in Hawaii?
A lottery may help the state financially. What about off-shore gambling, gambling on Office of Hawaiian Affairs land, or other options? It doesn’t have to be full-blown casinos as in Las Vegas. Our citizens are running to Las Vegas to spend their locally earned income there. Why not keep that revenue here, and tax legalized gambling?
There’s illegal gambling here as it is. Legalize it and collect revenue. Do other states with a lottery have such an enormous increase in crime?
Norma Pang
Ewa Beach
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Use Twitter to make your voice heard
Make your voice heard.
Whether you think President Donald Trump is doing a good or bad job, you can make your voice heard through tweeting.
Don’t be intimidated by technology if you’re older (like me). It’s not hard to set up or use. You quickly can send a message to practically anyone — Trump, members of his staff, a reporter, even all the members of Congress — in one easy tweet. Just google “tweet _____” and you will find the person’s Twitter name.
One voice, plus another, and another, could make a tidal wave of a voice.
Lynn Goya
Mililani
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Sex-worker bill would protect rights
I have worked in the sex industry for 19 years, in several states and countries including Hawaii.
I am co-founder of a national organization advocating for human and labor rights of sex workers. House Bill 1533 would make me safer by decriminalizing the consensual exchange of sex for money between adults.
It does not legalize rape, force or coercion. It eliminates the ability of police to extort sex from me. It makes it safer for me to report assault or theft to authorities without fear that they will arrest me.
Please support my human rights by supporting HB 1533.
Kimberlee Cline
Sacramento, Calif.