Billy Kenoi sets a bad example

What is wrong with people?First, taking money from a charter school, then from a transitional housing project.

Now the mayor of Hawaii County, Billy Kenoi. What kind of a leader uses a credit card for $892 when it was not to be used for personal use? If you want to go to a hostess bar, that is your prerogative, but real men use their own money.

He didn’t make a reimbursement for three months.Either Kenoi doesn’t have a credit card or enough of his own money to cover the outrageous bill.

If I used an employer’s credit card to take a group of friends out to happy hour and ran up an $800 bill, I could fully expect to be fired the next morning.

A leader leads by example.What kind of example does this set for his community and state?

Kenoi should resign.

Frankie Quinabo
Makiki

Oahu streets missing signs

During a recent visit to Honolulu from Hawaii island, while trying to find our way around in this hectic traffic environment, we were seriously hindered in our efforts by the lack of street signage.

Even when street signs were present, they were often small, on only one corner of the intersection, and generally quite difficult to see, especially while driving in heavy traffic.

We have been to Honolulu many times and still struggle to get around. I can only imagine how difficult it is for visitors from elsewhere.

Honolulu is a top tourist destination and a world-class city — it should get some appropriate street signage.

Laura Buck
Kurtistown, Hawaii island

Residents pay, tourists use

The article, "County targets illegal rentals" (Star-Advertiser, March 29) tells how Kauai is tackling its vacation rentals by owner and Airbnb problems.

Why isn’t Oahu identifying its many vacation rentals? Why are we not sending out zoning-compliance notices?

Residents pay the taxes and for the infrastructure these visitors use. The longtime residents are the ones who live there. They are invested, not the tourists.

Other countries and other states control their vacation rentals with zoning and licensing. What’s so difficult about this? There are monies to be collected to improve existinginfrastructure.

I have lived and paid taxes in my neighborhood for 47 years. I have seen a transformation of a once-quiet neighborhood to a mostly vacation rentals neighborhood. The majority of these vacation rentals are non-permit.I have seen a rapid increase in tourists using beach accesses that once were set aside for tract residents.

Our once quiet and pristine beaches are now being infiltrated with commercial businesses and tourists.

Mary Jo Morrow
Kailua

Homes aren’t ‘affordable’

The Hawaii Housing Finance & Development Corp. (HHFDC) guidelines allow that "affordable" housing is something costing $426,000, purchased by a single person making $80,520 a year ("South Korean developer has big plans for Kapiolani," Star-Advertiser, March 30).

By promising these "affordable" units, the developer will in turn get exemptions from zoning rules and be allowed to build higher and bigger (which means more people per square foot) than current rules allow.

Can the people of Hawaii really afford any more of this?

Kathy Leong
Niu Valley

Audit of rail won’t help much

So an audit of the rail system will help guide policy ("Audit of rail would help guide policy," Star-Advertiser, Our View, March 29). But what good will it do?

An audit will cost more money, and it might find a few subcontractors billed a few dollars more than they were supposed to. But in the end, all the audit will show is that the rail project is way over budget.

The voters approved a project that was originally budgeted at $3.1 billion, with the federal government picking up one third of the cost. Now it’s projected to top $6 billion, or even $7 billion, with the federal government still picking up only $1 billion. At what point do our elected officials say, enough is enough?

This project needs to stop wherever $5.1 billion will take it.

Wim Blees
Mililani

Return to rail at ground level

I was surprised to read that Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s options to offset increased rail costs were limited to continue building as planned and extending the general excise tax surcharge, raising property taxes or stop building altogether. Why not return to rail’s original concept of a ground-level rail system?

Pursuing this option would require converting some existing roads to exclusive rail use, and would also require fencing and installation of railroad crossings. But those consider- ations would be more than offset by greatly reduced costs by not building an elevated system, which will only blight Honolulu’s unique natural beauty and be a major problem to maintain in the future.

Philip Valenti
Kaneohe

Support deal for Turtle Bay

Even though Maui is my home, I grew up on Oahu and have fond memories of time spent on the North Shore, enjoying the pristine waters and uncluttered open space of this most amazing playground.

The open spaces of the North Shore are a reminder of what Hawaii used to be like.I supportthe effort to preserve the 665 coastal acres from Kahuku Point to Kawela Bay. As a board member for The Trust for Public Land, I stand in solidarity with thecommunity’s efforts to preserve the area’s natural state and cultural significance through the conservation easement deal.

I have confidence that our state’s leaders will continue to work together and seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity tosave one of Oahu’s last untouched stretches of paradise.This is a now-or-never moment.Please make it happen.

Mike Spalding
Kula, Maui

Rooftop solar is here to stay

If the powers-that-be at Hawaiian Electric Co. ignore the column, "Utilities can’t win their war against rooftop solar panels" (Star-Advertiser, Froma Harrop, March 28), it will be proof they have no concern for the environment or the ratepayers.

Solar energy is here to stay. The "war" utilities are waging all across the country against solar panels is ridiculous. Any citizen has a perfect right to use solar panels without onerous unjustified fees and delayed permits. As the column says, "You can’t stop the march of solar power anymore than you can stop the sun from rising."

The Koch brothers don’t own the sun, which explains why they are so opposed to solar panels. Solar is pollution-free and that means free of lung disease caused by coal, free of a catastrophic nuclear accident, free of earthquakes caused by fracking. Solar and safe are synonymous.

Marilyn Kennedy
Manoa