State, city should pay for trailhead fixes

I empathize with residents who live near the trail and trailhead of Maunawili Falls Trail (“City orders golf course owner to add hiker parking, facilities,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 30).

The conditions as described are deplorable. However, the responsibility for correcting the situation lies with the property owners — the state and the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting, which approved the conditional use permit for the golf course.

HRT Realty LLC was required to allow access to the trail and has complied with that requirement. To expect it to fund improvements to the trail and trailhead is unreasonable and unfair to its owners, partners and shareholders.

The state and city need to step up, accept their collective responsibilities and fix the problem. Your newspaper did not identify any reason to hold HRT Realty responsible for the situation or its resolution. City Councilman Ikaika Anderson’s efforts to elicit resolution proposals from HRT are misplaced. He should be directing those demands to state and city agencies.

John Kim

Manoa

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Credit card hacked at zoo parking lot

Beware of parking at the Honolulu Zoo parking lot.

Last week my son used a credit card at the zoo paid parking lot. Within 24 hours the card was being used in Italy. Thank goodness the credit card company contacted him.

Susan Morton

Kapahulu

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Lack of enforcement lets some ignore law

I’ve lived in Hawaii for 26 years and have seen my fair share of New Year’s fireworks and participated as well. But when a law was passed to restrict fireworks, I followed the law.

I totally understand the reason for the law. Fingers were getting blown off and rooftops were catching on fire. It makes perfect sense why aerials have been outlawed, but it makes no sense why the law has never been enforced.

Now this year we have one death and one critical injury attributed to illegal fireworks (“Woman killed by fireworks, relative hurt, as year starts,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 2). What good is a law if it’s not enforced? People got their hands on illegal fireworks and the New Year’s Eve sky was littered with aerials.

There is no enforcement and nobody really cares, and it’s been this way for years.

Any time you break the law you are taking a risk. Is this the result of dysfunctional law enforcement or apathy toward that law?

Tina Sasada

Waipahu

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Fireworks a part of Chinese culture

Burning firecracker in Hawaii to celebrate the new year probably began in the 1850s with the arrival of Chinese laborers to work in the sugar plantations.

Their religious belief was that good spirits and bad spirits followed them everywhere all the time, that bad spirits avoided bright lights and loud noises, and that at the beginning of a new year, people would go through a “window.”

To prevent the bad spirit from following them through this window into the new year, firecracker was burned at the proper moment. Through the years, this belief became part of the local culture to celebrate the solar and lunar new year.

Still, for many of us, it is about faith that the firecracker will protect us from harm and bring us good fortune in the next year.

F. See Hook Young

Manoa

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GOP ethics changes about fair treatment

The article, “GOP overhaul of ethics office dropped” (Star-Advertiser, Jan. 4), notes that a proposed Ethics Office change was dropped by the GOP as being antithetical to the Donald Trump promise to “drain the swamp.”

Other media reports cited the change of heart as evidence of a chaotic start to the new Congress and an effort by Republicans to avoid being cited as guilty of conflicts of interests while legislating.

Buried in the Star-Advertiser article and little mentioned in other media was the stated purpose of the change. Under current Ethics Office procedures, anonymous charges can and have been made and announced publicly, putting the legislator charged in the position of having to respond, not knowing the party bringing the charge and without the opportunity to face the complainant — in other words, being denied due process.

Rather than reducing oversight and transparency, the intent of the change was to obtain fair treatment under the law.

Tom Freitas

Hawaii Kai

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Russians biased in favor of Trump

Malachy Grange asked why the Russian hacking, and the subsequent release of Democratic National Committee’s private emails, should be considered tampering with our democracy (“Hacks provided needed information,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Jan. 3).

The reason is that the Russian hackers also hacked the Republican National Committee, but nothing from those hacks was leaked.

By releasing embarrassing emails from the Democrats only, and not balancing it with emails from the Republicans, the Russians clearly wanted to bias American voters against Hillary Clinton.

And that is the definition of a foreign government tampering with our democracy.

Peter Chisteckoff

Mililani Mauka

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Hawaiian hawks can cull green parrots

The endangered ‘alala (Hawaiian crow) is threatened on Hawaii island by the ‘io (Hawaiian hawk).

A lot of money and time and effort have been spent to raise ‘alala in San Diego and re-introduce them to Hawaii. Meanwhile, on Oahu, green parrots are out of control and continually multiplying. The powers that be should bring one or more ‘io to Oahu to cull the parrots.

The movie, “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill,” depicts the parrots in San Francisco and shows that the local birds of prey keep the parrot numbers under control.

Laura M. Fink

Makiki