Trash pickups will cost more

The city’s decision to take away trash pickup stinks ("Multifamily dwellings will lose city trash pickup next year," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 11).

Council member Ann Kobayashi has been on a crusade to reform trash pickup so that residents pay a monthly fee and bulky item regular pickup requires an appointment. She now wants to stop trash pickup for buildings that have received weekly trash service for as long as workers can remember. 

 This is a foot in the door to finally charge everyone extra for trash pickup. Soon residents will have to pay for weekly trash pickup, trips to their convenience center, trips to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, green waste to Campbell, and bulky item pickups.

Trash pickup is not free. It is paid for with our property taxes.

Pam Smith
Ewa Beach

Housing hurt by vacation rentals

The lack of affordable rental housing is a perennial issue. Renters are vital players in a housing market that too often overlooks them. The long-term rental market is being decimated by illegal vacation rentals. Solutions to this problem are not new, but some have foundered due to lack of political will.

Your editorial says building more "simple dwelling units" will solve the problem ("Facilitate more rental housing," Star-Advertiser, Our View, Aug. 6). Conversely, I propose that it will further degrade our neighborhoods with more vacation rentals to the point that Oahu is just one big tourist destination.

There is a very simple solution. Enforce the laws that already exist. This action would immediately create hundreds of "simple dwelling units."

It is no wonder that our quality of life is being degraded. The leaders are not leading. As the editorial states, elected officials should take heed. Indeed!

Vern Hinsvark
Kailua

Developers control Hawaii

The continued influx of outside money, and the fact that Hawaii is still for sale, is real. How and why our political leaders seem willing to go along with these speculators and developers is the question.

Our political leaders are pulled in different directions by outside money. If this continues, development in the wrong direction will persist.

Sustainability is a word to pacify us while our agricultural lands are sold off at high prices and rezoned.

If we place limits on lands for farming and ranching, and the homes needed to match this type of work, a sustainable future won’t happen. If we continue to allow speculators and giant-city plans to move ahead, we will destroy Hawaii.

Robert Robinson
Waialua

State bungles elections again

More voting pilikia from Scott Nago, the inept chief elections officer. The buck stops with the leader. 

No short memory here. Remember the past election, with delays because polling places ran out of ballots?

Now, being allowed by law 21 days leeway, it’s hurry up and vote. Securing your home, getting basic life services — heck, just getting out of your driveway is more pressing than voting on Friday.

Before the hurricane hit, was it not Nago who said that if the hurricane hits, people will have more important things to do than vote? Which is it? 

This is the kind of stuff that drives the good citizens of Hawaii nei pupule.

Allan Jay
Aiea

Pedestrians cross on red lights

Every day I drive down Ala Moana and Kalakaua in Waikiki and encounter numerous people crossing the streets on red lights — oblivious to the cars coming down the streets. 

Then, when they do acknowledge you, it’s with a look of arrogance as if to say, "Hey, I’m in a crosswalk; you have to stop." 

Is it going to take a tourist not watching the road, looking for his or her hotel and resulting in someone getting seriously injured or killed for this to be stopped? 

Come on, HPD, wise up. 

Bill Fuson 
Ala Moana