Sidewalk planters gorgeous to behold

What a beautiful sight to behold, looking out from the Honolulu Museum of Art Education Center to see the sidewalk on Beretania Street lined with large planters of blooming hibiscus.

Now the adult education students have live florals to paint from their upstairs windows overlooking Thomas Square Park.

My art mates and I could not suppress a sigh of appreciation for the city officials who finally found an esthetic and fragrant way to greet our students, visitors and patrons of the museum.Let’s extend this delightful project to keep our environment "green" by placing similar planters on the opposite South King Street side as well as the Blaisdell Concert Hall, venue for many cultural events.

Cities like Portland have gorgeous florals in hanging planters lining their main thoroughfares. We have the natural resources to do the same.

Mae Fujii
Hawaii Kai

Bush handled 9/11 aftermath masterfully

As I watched the dedication of the George W. Bush library in Texas, I thought about his major legacy.

That would be the response to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. He masterfully led our country during the first weeks following that devastating attack. And I think, with the Boston Marathon bombings in our recent memory, it reminds us that terrorism has become a threat we cannot forget.

How fitting if this presidential library could include a section devoted to research and study of terrorist techniques and radical groups and cultures, and allow us to recognize that terrorism may come to us in the form of an airplane crashing into a building out of the clear blue sky, or a small home-made bomb made out of a pressure cooker.Both acts cause similar consequences.

Kerstin Lampert
Kapolei

We have enough early education

I think that most people are in favor of early, fun developmental activities for preschool children. I am. I am in favor of social justice and helping children and families out of poverty, also.

However, I am not in favor of the state of Hawaii forcing parents to turn their children over to the government at younger and younger ages. I am not in favor of the state borrowing more money for a new program, creating miles of red tape and allocating much of the money to upper-middle-class bureaucrats, and then nothing ever changing for the poor.

Why would anyone duplicate services that already exist? There are already excellent preschool providers accepting applications, there already is a Head Start program, there already are subsidies (and feel free to increase them, legislators), and these current preschool providers are already licensed and monitored by a state bureaucracy.

It seems to me that whatever resources you want to use for this purpose should go directly to the poor and not into any other hands.

Barbara Ayon
Honolulu

Designated areas for smokers no solution

In response to Alex Linares about the need for designated smoking areas at public beaches and parks on Oahu ("Smokers need designated area," Star-Advertiser, Letters, April 24): Designated smoking areas are not a viable solution to ensure health and wellness for Hawaii’s residents.

The only effective way to protect the public from secondhand smoke is to require public places to be 100 percent smoke-free.

Tobacco smoke from designated smoking areas easily travels to smoking-prohibited areas affecting those around, including keiki and kupuna. Tobacco smoke, when it is concentrated in a designated area, increases the amount of nicotine and harmful chemicals in the air.

City Council Bill 25 — proposing a smoking ban at all public beaches and parks on Oahu — is an important step forward for the health of Hawaii’s residents, visitors, environment and marine life.

There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. The only way to protect the health of Hawaii’s people is to create 100-percent smoke-free environments at parks and beaches where many play, work and spend time with families enjoying our island’s beauty.

Annie Hollis
Public health policy and advocacy director, Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawai‘i

Don’t let state turn open space into blight

Jefferson Elementary School principal Scott K. Parker seems willing to give up the open space that is part of his school ("Leverage value of surplus school lands to improve education," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, April 25).

Fortunately, that lawn over which he can "scan from Diamond Head toward the Ewa end of Waikiki across the campus landscape" is not his to give away. The school was approved as part of a deliberate planning process. We should not allow it to be thwarted by land grabs approved at the state level.

Open space is part of the environment that we and our children should be allowed to enjoy. These spaces are designed to meet very basic human needs and must be protected.

The Public Land Development Corp. was defeated for good reason, and so should its latest clones. House Bill 865 and Senate Bill 237 are the first rumblings of bulldozers coming to replace what is pleasant about Honolulu with urban blight.

Do we want Waikiki to turn into Hong Kong?

Larry Geller
Downtown Honolulu