Old Kmart site has some issues

Good luck to the new vendors at the old Kmart site in Iwilei (“Former Kmart site to house Longs, Ross,” Star-Advertiser, May 4).

I am a consumer who long ago quit shopping at the Iwilei store because of all the homeless Institute for Human Services residents and spillover hanging out in front of the store and cruising the parking lot.

I hope all the new retailers will have added security and a way to keep their shopping carts from being stolen.

I feel badly for folks who have fallen on hard times, and have known the pain of accepting public assistance myself, but I won’t go shopping where I don’t feel safe.

Michel Grotstein

Kaneohe

Many to blame for Trump’s rise

Gravitas had gone missing. Donald Trump is emerging as the Republican Party’s nominee for president.

There is plenty of blame to go around for this phenomenon.

It starts with the Republicans themselves for forgetting that their most important obligation is to the welfare of the nation and not to the single- minded obsession to get rid of President Barack Obama.

When Trump talks about “making America great again,” the bigots get it. It’s not-so-subtle code for pre-Obama.

The media have been complicit. They provided Trump with so much coverage that he didn’t need to advertise.

No interviewer that I remember asked Trump at what point America’s greatness came to a screeching halt.

When did the chest-thumping stop about how great we are?

How did we become so desperate that so many of our fellow citizens came to choose a gasbag and political ignoramus as a nominee for the highest office in the free world?

Sid Rosen

Hawaii Kai

CEO salaries seem unfair

Your readers coming upon the headline, “Isle CEOs’ earnings take a hit” (Star-Advertiser, May 1), might have thought our corporate elite is really suffering.

Instead, we find that the CEO of Bank of Hawaii pulled in a meager $5.2 million last year; the head of Matson, $4.4 million; Hawaiian Airlines, $3.3 million; and Hawaiian Electric, $2.7 million.

Are these folks really entitled to incomes (even without the perks they also receive) that are between 50 and 100 times what the average household in Hawaii makes — especially when most of our citizens are struggling to pay for sharply rising housing, health and education costs?

The middle class is fast eroding both here and elsewhere.

We need to transform the whole way in which we reward people in our economy.

Noel Kent

Manoa

Why can DOT limit lane use?

Does the city Department of Environmental Services tell a family of two seniors that they can put their trash out only once a week because they do not make as much trash as a family of four or six?

Does the city Board of Water Supply tell a young couple with no children that they cannot water their lawns from 7 to 9 p.m. because that is when families with children take baths to get ready to go to school?

Is it because everyone, whether young or old, single or wed, owner or renter, pays for trash pickup and water?

So why does the state Department of Transportation dictate that drivers without anyone else in the cars cannot use certain lanes of the roads that their taxes paid to build?

Carl L. Jacobs

Aiea

Legislators get a pass on ethics

Like the board game, a player can collect a free pass to get out of jail which allows them to collect $200 and continue development of their properties for personal enrichment.

State legislators are “not subject to the conflict-of-interest provisions that govern other state employees” and are “exempt from the provisions of the state’s ‘Fair Treatment’ law, which bars state employees from using their positions to grant anyone an unfair advantage” (“Senate president linked to owner in land deal,” Star-Advertiser, April 24).

Legislators get a free pass on a finely cultivated practice that not only costs taxpayers millions, but would cost any federal, public or private employee their job and, in many cases, lead to criminal charges.

The Legislature should adopt the same code of ethics and laws that govern all state employees.

John Prest

Kaneohe