Trash collection plan should be fair

Next year, to be fair, Honolulu will stop free trash collection for the remaining townhouse, condo and nonprofit organizations. They will continue free collection for single-family homes. Sounds like a shibai in the name of fairness.

Are property tax bills calculated based on different levels of government service for different categories of homeowners? I guess condo/townhouse owners are actually second-class owners, although we pay Honolulu’s first-class taxes.

Alternatives? First, give individual rubbish cans to each condo/townhouse owner (not realistic for high-rise-unit owners, but the point I’m making is still valid). Then we each put our cans out for collection. Since the city favors the side-loading trucks, let them compare the cost-effectiveness of picking up 10 to 20 individual cans, rather than one dumpster.

Second, taxpayers who will be denied trash collection services (plus those who already pay for private collection) join a class-action lawsuit. If the goal is fairness, shouldn’t government be fair?

James Sharp
Mililani

Canadians won’t return to Waikiki

I just returned from Canada. When I told people I was from Honolulu, I was disappointed to hear from almost everyone who used to travel here regularly that they were never bringing their families back to Waikiki.

The predatory derelicts living, sleeping and hanging out on the streets were shocking to them.

They gather at the corner of Kalakaua and Kapahulu avenues. Hotel managers say that they get complaints daily and that it is not safe to take a cell phone to the beach and leave it unattended. Police said every day they get reports of theft.

Why can’t we proactively post security at these areas of high theft and prevent crimes to begin with? The inmates are definitely running the asylum and damaging our reputation as a safe and fun family experience for local residents and visitors alike. Our government appears not to be able to pass acceptable legislation, fearful of the ACLU contesting it. Time to get with it!

Margaret Murchie
Honolulu

Public should buy ‘Magnum P.I.’ house

Is any state or city entity willing to consider the purchase of the Anderson estate in Waimanalo as a memorial park?

The famous turtle pool is an ancient Hawaiian artifact, and the house and grounds are television icons.

Up to 10 years after the ending of the "Magnum P.I." television show, I ran into Vietnam veterans who came to the beach behind the estate, just to stop and remember their war experience.

One veteran sat on the low wall behind the guesthouse and told me that he lived on the mainland, but came to the turtle pool every year as a memorial to his own time in Southeast Asia.

The sheer beauty of the site, the quiet and the nearby islands all are bound up in the story of a useless war as fought by three colorful characters, one of whom was very tall. With a moustache.

Beverly Kai
Kakaako

West Oahu should be main UH campus

The University of Hawaii should seriously consider moving out of the urban core and look to developing its West Oahu campus.There is an incredible opportunity to build a campus and a college community virtually from scratch.They have the land for it. All they need is a partnership with a private developer.

An on-campus, 35,000- to 40,000-seat multipurpose stadium and athletic complex makes more sense than a 30,000-seat stadium somewhere within the urban core.With an emphasis on attracting out-of-state enrollment and the growing population in West Oahu, the West Oahu campus is ripe for growth.

Hawaii has an opportunity to build a first-class university campus surrounded by a college community with apartments, dorms, shops, restaurants and other amenities. A park-and-ride connection to a rail station also will make commuting to town fast and easy.

Steve Fukunaga
Ewa Beach

Geothermal energy needs more support

Hawaiian Electric Co. continues to rip off the ratepayers with the support of the Legislature and the state Public Utilities Commission.

The best word to use to describe what is happening is the ignorance of far too many people in the system.Some in the Legislature think geothermal power should not be expanded because of fracking.They did not do their homework; otherwise, they would know geothermal drilling does not involve fracking. Do they believe HECO?HECO has been exaggerating issues for years.Geothermal technology is decades old and they have not kept up with technology for the sake of profit.

HECO has almost killed the PV panel industry here. Dr. Steven Chu, U.S. energy secretary from 2009 to 2013 and a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, proved HECO’s reasoning is shibai.Until the grid approaches 20 percent, PV is not a problem.

Monopoly is the operative word.Ratepayers get ripped off, and the PUC and Legislature support it.

David Leatherman
St. Louis Heights

Racial disparity reversed in Hawaii

Matthew Walker rambles on about how he has been mistreated in Hawaii just for his racial background ("Racial tensions rife in Deedy case," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Aug. 7).

I have seen a lot of Caucasians yell "foul" when they come to Hawaii, not because they feel that prejudice is wrong per se, but they deeply resent the fact that the shoe is now on the other foot.

As for Chirstopher Deedy, would he have been as quick to get involved with his gun if it were a couple of Caucasians having an altercation?

David Yasuo Henna
McCully