Lee Cataluna’s recent column is easy to understand from a financial or emotional point of view, but entirely ignores the legal side of the issue (“Quote puts motivation for vacation rentals into perspective,” Star-Advertiser, April 4).

Hawaii’s 514B Condo Property Act is the law for the operation of condos according to the association’s declaration, by-laws and house rules. Strict compliance with these documents is mandatory, and should the documents demand that units could not be put to short-term use, then it is not how a buyer can pay for the purchase of a piece of paradise.

It is simply a matter of law as to how the units are to be used. I am not a lawyer, but I believe that, should a restriction of this kind be in the declaration or by-laws, it would require a vote of the owners to change it.

Robert Paddock

Hawaii Kai

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Support city’s new climate change office

The city’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency is a scrappy, can-do startup of a city agency.

And thank goodness for its creative, get-it-done attitude. Every community on Oahu is threatened by the rapidly changing climate.

We all need this vital agency. I urge the City Council to fully fund the agency this week by approving Bill 15. With full funding, the city will dramatically multiply the climate change budget with private grants from the Rockefeller Foundation/100 Resilient Cities partnership and others.

Let’s keep moving forward in the fight against climate change by voting for Bill 15 Wednesday.

Patrick Williams

Downtown Honolulu

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Akaka believed in ‘art of the possible’

As a longtime advocate for active and retired federal employees, I had the honor and pleasure to meet with U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka in his office in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

In spite of the weather, upon entering his office, one felt as if one was home again in the islands. It did not matter which party was in control. Sen. Akaka lived the concept of “politics as the art of the possible” rather than the blood sport it is today.

He knew that “‘a ‘ohe hana nui ke alu ‘ia” (no task is too big when done together by all) and “‘a ‘ohe lokomaika‘i nele i ka pana‘i” (no kind deed has ever lacked its reward).

He will be missed.

John Priolo

National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association

Pearl City

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Grateful for Akaka’s hospitality in D.C.

We visited U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka during cherry blossom time in Washington, D.C., and were welcomed by his staff and himself. It seemed like we were visiting a friend’s home in Hawaii.

Sen. Akaka then had one of his staff members take us to the Capitol rotunda. We were so grateful for his hospitality in Washington, D.C., and also appreciated his personal couch located in his office, on which he insisted that our daughter could sleep and be cared for so my wife and I could visit the Capitol Building.

He was the epitome of a great person representing our homeland and people. There is much more to be said of this person and of our visit with him, but this letter allows for only a limited amount of words.

Aloha and thank you very, very, much, Sen. Akaka. We will miss you.

Bob Choi

Kaimuki

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Sunscreens harming Hawaiian traditions

In the course of posing a grave threat to the reef system, sunscreen chemicals are wiping out cultural traditions of Native Hawaiians.

According to Ke Ola magazine, in testimony before the Maui County Council in 2017, a subsistence fisherwoman said, “The limu tastes like sunscreen. I’m a hunter, fisher, diver; I depend on the aina, I depend on the resources, and I have to go far now. I used to be able to walk 10 minutes from my house and collect opihi (limpets), opae (shrimp), different types of limu and ogo (seaweed). I can’t do that anymore, it’s not good to eat.”

Recently, a man was swept to sea and drowned while harvesting opihi. The numbers of opihi have diminished so much that one must go to even riskier places to find them.

It saddens me that the legacy of imperialism continues to inflict harm to the Native Hawaiian culture. I hope that our Legislature passes Senate Bill 2571 to ban the sale of SPF products containing oxybenzone and octinoxate as a step toward remedying this social injustice.

Dee Fulton

Holualoa, Hawaii island

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Youth demonstrate good citizenship

The young people of not only the U.S. but the world are taking a stand on something that doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights.

To organize and stand up for what you believe in is amazing and admirable. The Bill of Rights, organized labor, and other important rights for people were achieved through peaceful demonstrations like the “March for Our Lives” and “Never Again.”

Thank you for your citizenship. And I wish others would follow your example.

Lance Miyake

Honolulu

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More women should report abuse at once

I am going to say what some of our society is thinking. I am by no means a misogynist. But when a woman is verbally or physically harassed at work, why wait to report it? Report it to a higher supervisor, the police, or to the males in your family. Report it that day. Don’t wait years and decades before saying something.

A woman’s dignity and self-respect should overcome any fear of pushback. Every woman or family member I know would not wait; they would come to one of their male friends in the family to have a “talk” with the offender.

If the woman does not report it ASAP, then she is also culpable if he does it to another woman. When one woman reports it, then many others come out.

Greg Fernandez

Ewa Beach