Short-term rentals bring income to rural areas

Visitors often are advised not to travel to the Waianae Coast because of high crime.

This falsehood is echoed by some island residents who seldom, if ever, visit the coast or whose memories of it are colored by stories from long ago.

Recently, however, Waianae has seen an influx of visitors, many of whom have enjoyed the area for the first time and are impressed with the friendliness of the people, the beauty of the beaches and the predominant Native Hawaiian culture.

While some labor bosses and politicians oppose short-term rentals such as Airbnb, the Leeward area has seen an uptick in its economy, as new visitors have found affordable rentals and residents are able to pay their mortgages by serving as hosts.

I hope the governor will sign House Bill 1850 and people will support short-term rentals that economically help rural areas like Waianae.

Carol Forsloff

Waianae

Effort to help workers not ‘war on business’

The political cartoon in the May 20 edition was despicable.

The cartoon, titled “The War President,” equates President Barack Obama’s small attempts to give working people a break through administrative rules about the minimum wage and overtime pay with a “war” on U.S. businesses.

Why is it that a swath of conservative thought in this state and in this country considers fair pay for their workers a burden on their bottom line? This is just plain Gordon Gekko-style greed.

Paying one’s workers fairly, making sure they have health benefits and offering paid family leave is good business. These types of benefits are long-term investments in human capital and accrue not only to the individual businesses but to society as a whole.

So please — no more misleading cartoons designed to represent the greedy.

Ann Freed

Mililani

Boards help us keep tabs on elected officials

Is the Honolulu Charter Commission smoking something (“Charter proposal calls for an end to neighborhood boards on Oahu,” Star-Advertiser, May 23)?

Oahu is made up of many diversified and different neighborhoods with residents struggling to maintain their lifestyle with the high cost of living in our island state. We are at the mercy of our elected leaders and have little or no say in the major decisions affecting our very different neighborhoods, many made up of senior citizens.

I have served as vice chair of the Kailua Neighborhood Board and was a member of the Honolulu Downtown Neighborhood Board.

I currently serve on Neighborhood Board No. 12 (Punchbowl/Nuuanu) and also volunteer as co-vice chair of the City and County Board of Parks and Recreation. Keeping tabs on our elected officials is critical, and the neighborhood board system is the only real way to achieve this without incurring an inordinate amount of time and expense of Oahu’s residents.

Bob Vieira

Pauoa Valley

Hooligans swoop in and vandalize lovely bridge

The old bridge at Makiki and Nehoa streets needed to be torn down in order to fix sewer lines.

Little by little, the new bridge was constructed on both sides of the street.

The City and County employees seemingly took great pride in their work. Before completion of the bridge, the employees returned three times to file, paint and repaint, resulting in a bridge to be proud of.

This lasted about a month. Then hooligans came and proved how worthless they are, spray-painting blue paint on one side of the bridge. Well, I painted over the blue paint and now, once again, we have a lovely bridge.

Karyn Abe

Makiki