HCDA exemptions are poor planning

As a new resident of Kakaako, I am extremely concerned about the future plan for this neighborhood.

We never expected to have a 250-foot-tall condo built only 80 feet away, because the Hawaii Community Development Authority’s Mauka Area rules state there needs to be 300 feet between towers.

Now, because of the new "workforce housing rules," we have a proposed 250-foot-tall building, the 803 Waimanu project by MJF Development Corp., going up just 80 feet from our tower and 38 feet from our makai tower. MJF Development is asking for other modifications to the Mauka Area rules as well.

The board of HCDA, some appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, an elected official, should not be allowed to make modifications to the Mauka Area rules without considering the effect on residents of neighboring condominiums. I think it’s time to reel them in a little.

Affordable housing is good but being affordable is no excuse for poor planning. It is not OK to break all the rules to accommodate a few and put money into their greedy hands.

Connie Smyth
Kakaako

Kakaako is becoming a great place to live

For more than three decades, I have lived and worked in Kakaako, and contrary to recent letters — many from those who do not call Kakaako home — what I am seeing out my window is the rebirth of an open, walkable community in which island residents can live, work and play.

Projects like the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine campus demonstrate how planned development can add green space, replacing the "gray space" of aging warehouses and asphalt that canvassed the area for decades.

This revitalization is also creating affordable housing opportunities for young, working families. It’s drawing innovation and entrepreneurship, resulting in a spike in small business activity. Not a month goes by without some new shop, restaurant or community event.

This may be hard to see from letter writers’ distant views in Mililani and Waialae Iki, so I invite them to see this transformation in person. I’m confident they will be warmly welcomed by the many new small businesses that are Kakaako’s future.

Bruce Coppa
Kakaako
Chief of staff, Office of the Governor

Kim had no right to ask about her son

The University of Hawaii has a Student Bill of Rights that prohibits anyone except facultyand administrators from access to information regarding students.

Exceptions include sharing information with parents about the safetyof students and financial matters, but nothing more.

We may never know what was said or implied during theirconversation, but the fact remains that Sen. Donna Mercado Kim had no right to makeinquiries to the UH president about her son’s admission status.

She asked, "Who could Ihave called, nobody?" ("State GOP calls for Kim to face ethics inquiry," Star-Advertiser, May 23).

The obvious answer: her son.

The fact that helied or misled his mother speaks volumes about his character and relationship with his mother and her ability to accept the fact thather son is an adult entitled to succeed or fail without parental micromanagement. This communication could create more litigation because Kim should not have received any information — period.

Ms. Kim calls herself aconcerned mother. I call her a smother.

Debra Miyake
Nuuanu

Hawaii is rough place for doctors to work

The May 22 edition of Medscape .com had an article about the 2013 "Best and Worst Places" to practice medicine, listingHawaii to be among the worst in the United States.

This is no thanks to HMSA’s domination of health insurance reimbursement; the highest malpractice burden in the country, with average of cost of $884,000 per claim (in absence of tort reform); the state taxburden of 10 percent; the lack of an academic university hospital; and the list goes on.

It should be no surprise that the doctor shortage in Hawaii will expand from around 750 currently to nearly 1,500 in the next eight years, as reported by the Star-Advertiser ("Doctor shortage in isles forecast to become worse," April 19).

Unfortunately, efforts to rectify this trend have failed thus far during my lifetime.

With a now increasingly national reputation for being a place hostile to physicians, it will be challenging to convince doctors and health care professionals of my generation to return to practice in the islands.

Dr. Stephen Chun
Dallas, Texas