Development marches onward

Sunday’s editorial, "Move faster on ag lands protection" (Our View, Star-Advertiser), is a welcome and reasoned word to the readers, but reflects the apparent lack of passion on Oahu to determine conformity with stated policies for agricultural sustainability.

It felt like the proverbial Nero fiddling while Rome/ Oahu burns ag lands with the fire of development.

The recent Land Use Commission approvals of the Ho‘opili and Koa Ridge developments is the conflagration. If we the people lack the fire in the belly to say no to building on prime ag lands, then the development elephant will go where it will, and the well-intentioned reasoning of the rider will have little effect on where we go.

Daniel Benedict
Waialua

Hawaii not ready for food crisis

Roughly 90 percent of the food we eat in Hawaii is imported, and the world’s supply and demand determines the cost.

Half the world’s population lives in countries where water tables are falling. Irrigation for agriculture makes up 70 percent of the world’s water use, and water shortages will inevitably mean food shortages.

Aquifers are being depleted in some 20 countries, including China, India and the United States — these three countries together produce half the world’s grain.

The United Nations estimates the world’s population will grow to 9 billion by 2050, which will require 70 percent more food production. But issues such as loss and degradation of farmlands, destructive weather events and rising sea levels are already affecting food supplies.

The world’s population just broke the 7 billion mark. Where does that leave Hawaii, sitting in the middle of the Pacific?

Lisa Asagi and Dan Nakasone
Co-founders, She Grows Food, Wahiawa

Ho‘opili will help with food supply

As a Ho‘opili supporter, I take responsibility for ensuring that our children will have a safe, healthy home.

Critics have attempted to draw a division between Hawaiian values and changes to the land, but this division alienates those seeking change for the good of their families. I, too, feel a commitment to my community, and Ho‘opili brings changes necessary for a secure future.

Ho‘opili critics say Hawaii imports 90 percent of our food. If our current methods of farming produce only 10 percent of what we eat, why do we continue trying to unlock a door with a key that clearly doesn’t fit? We cannot continue to overburden a few farmers with full responsibility for producing all of the island’s food.

Agriculture and development are not mutually exclusive. Ho‘opili is inviting small farmers into its community and is calling on the untapped potential of its community members by encouraging residents to farm their own small gardens.

Through Ho‘opili, we draw nearer to the goal of food sustainability.

Sidney Higa
Makakilo

‘Occupy’ tents shameful game

Question: Why is it that our politicians, whom we elect to supposedly represent us and our needs, can’t enact a law to rid us of the deplorable situation at Thomas Square?

Are our lawmakers incapable of enacting laws that these individuals are unable to circumvent?

This cat-and-mouse game has persisted long enough! After all, is it not shameful that a handful of disgruntled individuals have been able to outsmart our elected officials? Shame!

Stu Gross
Kakaako

Protesters clever to get around law

Thanks to Kokua Line, I now have some idea as to what the pup tents along the Thomas Square sidewalk are about, i.e., who they are and what they hope to achieve ("Occupy protesters outwit city on stored property law," Star-Advertiser, June 25).

Driving through the intersection of Beretania Street and Ward Avenue, I’ve not found it possible to read the signs very well. However, now I get it!

They’re very clever people, who have figured out how to circumvent the law, and have achieved a way to pass on this ethic to our young people.

Theone Vredenburg
Makiki

Makua ruling hurts taxpayers

We veterans of foreign wars are disappointed with the court’s order on military training in Makua Valley because it means more unnecessary family separations for our soldiers, and millions in additional taxpayers’ dollars to move weapons, helicopters, supplies, support personnel, etc., to off-island training areas.

Live firing in Makua Valley from ships, planes and ground were especially intense during WWII, which would leave the average person to believe anything of significance in the valley was destroyed.

However, because of insistence by these activists that a dried-up water hole and river bed, a 3-foot-diameter rock and a hole in the ground were culturally significant, the Army had to spend about $1 million to make accesses safe.

There are more, similar sites about to cost taxpayers millions more.This has to be stopped.

Additionally, we’ve been eating seafood from Makua for decades and know of no one getting sick.

Bill Punini Prescott
Nanakuli

Public ignored about bus routes

Mahalo to the real culprit, the rail, for cockroaching funds from TheBus and causing the elimination of the "B" bus — the only bus that runs on Kalakaua Avenue.

The locals and the tourists will not mind the inconvenience, nor the elderly and others who are challenged when walking from Kuhio Avenue to Kalakaua — it’s great exercise. The hotel workers from Kalihi are elated that their express service to Waikiki is pau.

Apparently the informational meetings by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, Oahu Transit Services, the Department of Transportation Services, etc., are merely pro forma.

The public is speaking to the wind as TheBus schedule changes are written in concrete.

Why wasn’t the "B" bus route modified from a Zoom Express to a more realistic schedule based on ridership needs?

Auwe.

The voices of the public again fall on deaf ears.

Lela M. Hubbard
Aiea

Electric mo-peds don’t make noise

I totally agree with the gentleman who wrote "Mo-ped noise needs to be controlled" (Star-Advertiser, Letters, June 19).

This is a source of noise in our Hawaii Kai neighborhood from as early as 5 a.m. until after midnight.

Weshould take some lessons from the Chinese.During our visit to Beijing in February, we saw all kinds of mo-peds at alltimes of day and night, and no noise; they were electric — just one of the many initiatives to control pollution in China.

Maybe we should consider electric mo-peds here in Hawaii — to not only combat the noise, but to save on fuel consumption.

Electrice Cara
Honolulu