High-rises will block good views

Yes, the Hawaii Community Development Authority should "Value Kakaako’s open waterfront" (Star-Advertiser, Our View, Nov. 14), but will it address the actual closing of waterfront uses and view planes by the "at least two dozen residential mixed-use towers" your editorial also mentions?

The desired "lei of green" makai of Ala Moana Boulevard is a thin quarter mile at Kewalo Basin, and just a half mile at Kakaako Regional Park. But those high-rises right across the street will create a 400-foot-high view-blocking wall for everybody but wealthy condo owners with ocean-view apartments, and the few folks lucky enough to find makai parking after Kakaako gains thousands more residents.

No more view of the ocean from Honolulu, no more view of the hills from the ocean. A truly open waterfront can only come from fewer high-rises, and that’s unlikely when developers control the agencies that supposedly protect our resources.

Dan Binkley
Makiki

Military raises cost of housing

I am a retired U.S. Army soldier with two tours in Vietnam, and I agree with Al Frenzel’s comments regarding our military downsizing ("Hawaii and nation would do better if Army reduced its footprint here," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Nov. 16).

The biggest reason we have a high cost of rental housing is the military’s disregard for established regulations concerning personnel E1-E5 residing in the barracks.

Another problem is their contribution to the worst traffic conditions in the U.S., when you have five soldiers renting a house, all in the same unit, and all driving separately to work.

I have written our leaders to recommend they bring our troops home and stop giving trillions of dollars to countries that hate the U.S.

Max N. Calica
Mililani

GOP already backtracking

In the Nov. 4 midterm elections, the Republicans didn’t win the U.S. Senate majority vote by making any progress. They won the majority because of President Barack Obama’s low approval ratings.

That said, the new Republican majority leader, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, promised that there won’t be a government shutdown and that the GOP will work on altering Obamacare.

Now Republicans are threatening a shutdown if Obama issues an executive order to legalize 5 million illegal immigrants or if Obamacare is not suspended or completely overhauled.

This is no more ethical than when Obama promised an immediate closure of Guantanamo Bay upon being elected. Gitmo is not only still open, but not one "detainee" has been released other than an unjustified swap of five high-level terrorists for alleged deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Once elected, politicians take off their masks and do just the opposite of what they promise to the American people.

Han Song
Kaneohe

Congress shirks its responsibility

Congress, with all of its warts, has an essential role in balancing power, even with very well-meaning presidents.

Butas the executive branch grows and becomes entrenched in the daily lives of the people, the legislative branch may become cautious in the application of its principal power of the purse.

To check executive branchoverreach that throws power out of balance, as we may see with immigration reform, the legislative branch can simply choose to not pay for the effort, making it essentially null and void.

But congressional constraints may affect the lives of innumerable bureaucrats (i.e. constituents), and provide cause for vilification in the press.

Congressional inaction in this instance may edge us further away from the unique design of a government that shares power as framed by the founders and enumerated in the Constitution. They knew the inherent risk of one-man-rule, regardless of how benevolent it may appear.

John Hansen
Waipahu

Kokua Line helped hikers

Hooray for June Watanabe’s partial victory at Waialae Iki V ("Driver’s license optional for Wiliwilinui trail access," Star-Advertiser, Kokua Line, Nov. 14).

The complaint letter she cited had languished since April at the mayor’s office, the city’s Corporation Counsel and Department of Planning and Permitting, and the state’s Na Ala Hele trails division.

They sidelined the issues of unfairness, noncompliance and invasion of personal privacy regarding public access to the trail by WIV at its guarded gate on Laukahi Street. Somehow the letter got to Watanabe, she put the pressure on and now the public can hike at Wiliwilinui without handing over a driver’s license to be scanned into WIV’s computers.

While unfortunately the association will continue to scan the licenses of those who don’t know of Watanabe’s success, I wonder if the association will alert people when its system is inevitably hacked.

WIV will be liable for hacker misuse of the licenses in its data storage.

William Reese Liggett
Maunalani Heights

‘Legal’ can be unconstitutional

It is good to see both sides of the story expressed in your coverage of the city’s sweep of the people tenting on Kakaako sidewalks ("Homeless blame ‘Five-0′ for street sweep," Star-Advertiser, Nov. 15).

I have spent some time with those folks and have heard their perspective. It is very different from the city’s perspective.

What the city calls a "cleanup" the tent people consider a raid. What city workers deem as rubbish, the tenters see as their private property.

These raids were going on long before the sit-lie ordinance was passed. Now that it is passed, the city can feel righteous about it. The law is on its side — supposedly.

So maybe we should point out that the city is in gross violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which reads: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated …"

Richard Morse
Makiki

Have students design center

I hope Gov.-elect David Ige and Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui are scouring the Star-Advertiser for all the good suggestions recently submitted: "‘An opportunity to do a better job of planning,’" (Nov. 9) and "Support reforms to cut admin- istrative burdens on doctors," and "Teachers should have larger voice in state education policy" (Nov. 6).

Further, in the same Nov. 6 issue: "$5.2M sought for (Daniel K. Inouye) center’s design."

Want to save $5.2 million? Doesn’t the University of Hawaii have a world-class architecture department? Couldn’t the design be taken on by students as a department-wide project that would provide many of them with thesis projects supervised, of course, by the professors?

Richard C. Stancliff
Makiki