Return planning for Kakaako to city
The usually passive residents of Kakaako are up in arms over what many perceive as excessive development of their neighborhood. The current focus is on the planned second condominium tower on the site of the former News Building, where I worked for 35 years.
The issue is in the hands of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, and therein lies a problem. This is an unelected arm of the state government that has no business making decisions about the development of Kakaako.
Decades ago the Hawaii Democratic Party leadership, feuding with then Mayor Frank Fasi, decided to take jurisdiction over Kakaako away from the city. Thiswas an arbitrary power grab, denying Honolulu voters the opportunity to participate in development decisions through their elected representatives. It also denied the city the authority to plan for Kakaako in coordination with planning for the rest of the island.
Theremedy is to abolish HCDA and return planning for Kakaako to the city.
Carl H. Zimmerman
Salt Lake
Honolulu needs more high-rises
Gordon Wolfe made two excellent points ("Viewplanes can be fleeting," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 4).
He notes that one’s private viewplane from a high-rise condo is not protected by zoning laws. So unless a developer chooses to purchase air rights from adjoining properties, high-rise dwellers need to understand their views may change.
He also reiterates the need to increase public transit in our urban core so that urban dwellers can forego having to own a car, thus reducing the cost of living and helping the environment.
Like Wolfe, I live in a high-rise condo and I understand my viewplanes may change. I also choose not to own a car, preferring the bus, carpooling and walking, saving thousands of dollars in car expenses and gas a year.
Many more high-rises are coming to urban Honolulu in response to overwhelming consumer demand. These develop- ments are long overdue.
Jeff Merz
Waikiki
Retroactive pay for work not done?
At a time when government must make drastic cuts to expenditures, how is it that we taxpayers must assume the added burden of retroactively paying furloughed federal workers for services not rendered?
Of course, the mandatory furlough is an underserving hardship placed on workers, and extra hours likely will be required to make up the backlog of work. Wouldn’t overtime pay be a more responsible, equitable option for both taxpayers and furloughed federal workers?
Jo Nishiki
Kaimuki
Birth-control pills could control cats
There is a simple solution to the feral cat problem on Oahu:
Allow the Hawaiian Humane Society and the city Department of Parks and Recreation, in coordination with neighborhood boards, to prepare and distribute cat food spiked with birth control pills.
Unfortunately, too many folks who simply dump their unwanted pets will keep this ongoing problem alive. At least the pills could help control the problem. This procedure could also help to check the mongoose and rat infestations and might help our local birds and fauna to recover.
Hanni Hartmann
Hawaii Kai
Editorial dismissive of anti–GMO folks
I resent the continual implication that anyone that is anti-GMO is feeble minded and hysterical.
A Star-Advertiser editorial characterized GMO research as having been "demonized beyond any rational basis" ("Open books on pesticide use," Star-Advertiser, Our View, Sept. 27).
No, it is not irrational to want to know what international corporations are putting into our soil and water.
A Sept. 24 Star-Advertiser article, "Hui warns of prenatal chemical exposure," warned of the dangers of pesticide use resulting in children developing cancer and men becoming sterile.
Further on, you again maligned the anti-GMO stance as "a generic emotional resistance to GMO seed development."
These are the same kind of meaningless phrases used to slant a dialogue in many situations.
And one other phrase I take exception tois "the need for high-yield crops that can help feed the poorest nations."
In itself that is true, but these corporations do not want to feed the world. They want to control the world’s production of food, which is why they are patenting every seed they can and stymying the research on potential dangers.
Judith Pettibone
Makiki
Compromise would facilitate progress
Despite candidate Barack Obama’s 2008 promises of transparent governance, Obamacare’s 2010 takeover of one-seventh of our economy was secretly written and approved entirely along party lines.
Since then, President Obama has refused negotiations to fix Obamacare, despite its many problems. Yet Obama and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid now disingenuously argue that no negotiations on Obamacare will be held "under threat" while refusing to fund other parts of government.
Despite Obama and Reid’s claim that the Republicans are behind the shutdown, the reverse is more accurate.Indeed, all other aspects of government could be fully funded immediately if Reid and Obama would negotiate repairs to Obamacare.
Compromise would also facilitate getting the nation past the critical need to increase the federal debt limit by Oct. 17.
Hawaii U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz know all this. Hawaii voters would be wise to remind them that we know it, too.
Michael P. Rethman
Kaneohe
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