Cheap housing within reach

We have all these people without homes to live in. We have an ever-greater demand for affordable housing. We have a governor, a mayor, state legislators and a City Council who talk, year after year, of the severe need for affordable housing.

But it never happens, even while solutions are staring them in the face: shipping-container housing, tiny housing, dorm-style housing, Hawaiian village-style housing or safe zones for placement of cabin-like housing, to name just a few.

Instead, they only talk about expensive "Housing First" and then claim, once again, that there just isn’t the funding for it.

This is political malpractice. It’s time to get out of that box. The status quo is no longer acceptable. Let’s get to work.

No more excuses. There’s no more time to waste.

Pedestrians face unsafe roads

Frank Tabrah’s best advice to pedestrians in crosswalks is to "check each lane for possible traffic before stepping into it" ("Pedestrians take crosswalk safety for granted," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Feb. 9).

While paying attention is a good idea, his advice isn’t likely to save lives anytime soon. Despite decades of repeated warnings to road users to travel with care, roadway fatalities in this state have remained stubbornly high. There will always be citizens who are blase about their safety — and columns in the newspaper won’t change that.

A better solution is to acknowledge that many of our roadways are designed in ways that are hazardous to pedestrians.

There are many examples of roads in this city that force pedestrians to cross multiple lanes of high-speed traffic without the benefit of a traffic light.

Instead of focusing blame on pedestrians, we need to take a good look at our streets and ask how we can design them to be safer.

Pedestrians must be more careful

I think we need to take another look at how we are educating our citizens on pedestrian safety.

We seem to be advocating that the pedestrian has the absolute right to cross in a marked crosswalk.

I agree that pedestrians should have the right of way, but I also believe that it is the pedestrians’ responsibility for their own safety. We seem to have

gotten to the point where people cross the street without regard to the oncoming traffic.

I have seen people step off the curb into a crosswalk without looking for traffic. Although they do have the right of way, in any confrontation between a car and a crosser, the car will win.

I was taught to look both ways, and cross when it was safe to do so. This still should apply.

Ask Bruno Mars to help out UH

Stan Sheriff Arena manager Rich Sheriff and concert promoter Tom Moffatt should get together to schedule the fourth Bruno Mars concert at the Stan Sheriff Arena.

Tickets should be sold the old-fashioned way, by standing in line, with a four-ticket limit.

I’m sure Bruno Mars would love to help the University of Hawaii after the Stevie Wonder blunder.

Giraffe killing was horrific

When I saw a picture of the murdered giraffe Marius from the Copenhagen Zoo, I was truly horrified ("Zoo’s killing of giraffe draws wave of protests," Star-Advertiser, Feb. 10). I couldn’t believe what I read.

Per zoo spokesman Tobias Steinbaek Bro and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), Marius was euthanized because there were too many giraffes with genes of his kind in their zoo, and the zoo did not want him to in-breed with the other giraffes.

The zoo turned down opportunities to sell Marius or transfer him to another zoo. Marius was shot with a bolt pistol, dissected and fed to the lions. This slaughter was showcased in front of a huge turnout of families and children.

The genetics of Steinbaek Bro and the members of the EAZA must be truly different than mine, because I would never so much as think of doing such a thing.

Governor hasn’t proven his case

The governor in his recent TV announcements expressed the need for preschools as a way to deal with the problem of students, he has claimed, who are one to two years behind when starting school — a claim he has yet to support with information about what they’re behind in or why our kindergarten schools aren’t able to provide our kids with the skills they need.

Is it the school’s curriculum, method of instruction, teacher qualification, etc.?

And wouldn’t fixing the problem(s) make more sense than spending millions on something that may not work?

If the governor is serious about improving student success in learning, then I suggest he work with the teachers union in finding a solution to the high teacher turnover rate in disadvantaged area schools.

Until the state and teachers union find a solution, the approximately 40 percent yearly student dropout in these schools will continue regardless of preschool education.

Make surfing a Division I sport

Except for women’s volleyball, University of Hawaii-Manoa athletics have been hemorrhaging cash. To reward such a history of waste with more waste is not good education.

Let’s find athletics close to home that can inspire our native kids to do something really well and generate some big money.

Surfing should be an NCAA Division 1 sport. It would be likely embraced by thousands of young people here, plus by surfers from the West Coast, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Polynesia and East Asia, all of whom now enjoy the sport and are good at it.

Dozens of universities in the Pacific would climb aboard this big wave of a gift from Hawaii to the world.

Is this not an idea whose time has come?

Let’s stop hemorrhaging cash at UH.

Seeger always raised our spirits

I was saddened when I read that folk singer Pete Seeger had died at the age of 94. Despite the often bad news of each day, I was always comforted that Pete would sing us a song that raised our spirits and caused us to renew our faith in the human race.

A World War II vet, Pete deplored war and spent most of his life reminding us that every person had a right to a level playing field. Pete didn’t scold; he inspired and encouraged.

I had the honor of seeing Pete Seeger in concert many years ago and regret that I won’t have another chance see him perform one more time.