Hawaii lacks 2-party system

I am in absolute disagreement with the position posited by Chuck Prentiss about nonpartisan voting ("Party positions lost in nonpartisan vote," Star-Advertiser, Letters, July 9).

With the national Republican Party focused on taking away women’s rights and minority voting rights, and the local Democratic Party in power for more than 60 years and most recently reflecting the dictates of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, a nonpartisan candidate, pretty-faced or not, may be a breath of fresh air.

Besides which, the local Democratic candidates are mostly the same old tired faces. The Republicans, with a couple of exceptions, cannot even turn out serious, respectable candidates. Basically the two-party system does not exist in Hawaii.

Paul Tyksinski
Kailua

Follow original plan for Kakaako

As the frenetic pace of development increases in Kakaako, I wonder at the new density represented by more than 30 new high-rises in the urban core.

These monoliths will obscure not only makai views, but the mauka and sky views, too. The "Hawaii Five-0" site was just demolished, and a new sign proudly heralds the construction of more than 625 new units.

We Kakaako tenants know that water mains break in the area frequently, and wonder what infrastructure will support this massive development. Developers take the money and run, leaving taxpayers to pay not only the costs associated with new sewers and streets, but to absorb the loss of aesthetic intangibles. And threats that developing within existing regulations will deny affordable housing to the working class ring hollow in light of revelations that lower-income buyers have been bribed or otherwise "assisted" to purchase otherwise unaffordable units.

Height restrictions in place when the master plan was adopted undoubtedly anticipated the resulting density and impact on infrastructure. Therefore requests for variances should be summarily denied to ensure that exceptions don’t overcome the rules.

Mary A. Wilkowski
Punchbowl

Window-tint law needs enforcing

I agree with Dan Weyant’s recent lettercomplaining about the lax enforcement of the window-tint law ("Tinted windows of cars too dark," Star-Advertiser, July 10).

The law was passed after the Honolulu Police Department expressed a concern about officers approaching a vehicle with dark window tints. The person in the car could have a gun and the officer wouldn’t see it because of the dark tint.

HPD bought light meters for use in enforcing the law. The fine for excessively dark tints applies to each window, so the total can be hundreds of dollars.

The police should be enforcing the law, as people have gotten the idea that it isn’t going to be enforced and get the dark tint put on their vehicles. This creates contempt for the law.

Clint Abe
Kailua

Trial coverage too sensationalist

The Sunday front-page spread of the Christopher Deedy murder trial, with one-half page devoted to Deedy’s face, was nothing but blatant sensationalism ("Video, witness to play key roles," Star-Advertiser, July 7).

Additional front page splashes with photos on July 9 and July 10 appeared to be setting the stage for future exaggerated coverage.

In addition, the July 9 article pointed out that the conflict was being framed as "between a mainland federal agent and a local," suggesting that the "mainland federal agent", i.e., a haole, and a "local," i.e., a part-Hawaiian, automatically makes this a racial trial.Already signwavers are comparing this to the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman trial.

Isn’t this a shameful state of affairs that, especially here in Hawaii, skin color convicts before a fair trial?

I hope your newspaper rethinks this recent coverage and reports fairly.

A better front-page story would have been the Page B6 headline: "Isles named nation’s worst business state" (Star-Advertiser, July 10). Now, that is news to be researched and reported.

Diane D. Ackerson
Hawaii Kai