City Council Bill 51, introduced by Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, would create a program “aimed at promoting visitor awareness and on-island behaviors that are as environmentally responsible and culturally sensitive as possible.”

It’s a good step, but far from sufficient. Certainly, tourists can overwhelm our favorite beaches, trails, parking and roads.

But visitors account for only a small portion of the ongoing environmental damage and trashing of Hawaii’s landscape. Tourists, generally, do not discard tires, old appliances, furniture and derelict cars along our roadsides. They do not spray graffiti on our walls and buildings, vandalize our park bathrooms, or destroy our beaches and parklands by driving off-road vehicles and dirt bikes on them.

It is not the tourists who have soiled Chinatown, Waikiki and the slopes of Diamond Head with garbage and human waste. The City Council and the Legislature must pass enabling legislation and fund additional security staffing to patrol and enforce the law and maintain a sufficient presence to prevent vandalism, dumping and squatting in our neighborhoods, parks and monuments.

Garnett Howard

Ewa Beach

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