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In his commentary, “Prepare now for disaster atop pandemic” (Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, July 19), Karl Kim wrote, “know where to evacuate and how to get there” as a hurricane approaches. That misleads readers into thinking there are places to evacuate.
Get it straight. There’s nowhere to go. Some 400,000 people will need shelters. There are only 50 shelters in the whole state. And on Oahu, not even one can withstand a Category 2, 3, 4 or 5. Hurricane Lane, a Cat 5, turned away from Oahu at the last minute in 2018.
The state needs to create shelters by putting hurricane windows and roofs on all cement school buildings now.
Hotels must open ballrooms and hallways to people.
We all need to be creating “hurricane-safe rooms” in our doomed wooden homes. Check out “hurricane-safe rooms” on the internet; $10,000 or less could keep your family alive. Pay the loan over years.
Act now. A Category 5 could strike here this year.
Kioni Dudley
Makakilo
Invest in housing to lift up native people
An audacious investment in affordable housing would help us achieve a more racially equitable society and stabilize our struggling economy. Studies have shown that our Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Already, these communities represent around 10% of our state population, but nearly 40% of the homeless population.
Access to safe and affordable housing leads to positive outcomes, such as improved physical and mental health and increased economic mobility. It also means that families can allocate more of their income toward things like health care, healthy food, transportation, and even savings for college and retirement. We need to make it our utmost priority to address the current housing shortage so that all of our families, especially in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, have access to the same opportunities for better health, safety and economic prosperity.
Daisy Chung
Hawaii Kai
Incentivize hotels to convert into housing
Honolulu has had an affordable housing shortage for years. COVID-19 has caused many hotels to shut down. It’s not clear when, if ever, the number of tourists coming here will rebound to the point where each hotel has enough occupancy to be profitable.
So here we have one problem offering an easy solution to another. Government needs to step up and incentivize hotels to convert to affordable housing — and I don’t mean the ridiculous U.S. Housing and Urban Development definition of affordable. I mean units that at a free-market rate are affordable.
Oahu has more than 30,000 hotel rooms. Surely a few thousand can be converted, making a large dent in the affordable housing gap. This can be done cheaply and most importantly, quickly.
Bryan Mick
Kailua
Hawaiian Air must answer for dire lapse
A man has died and dozens others have been sickened because Hawaiian Airlines conducted a group training on July 10 without social distancing or mandatory masks — and this newspaper demands nothing in the way of an explanation from Hawaiian, just limply repeats its inadequate tribute to its unnecessarily deceased employee (“Flight attendant linked to cluster at Hawaiian Airlines training program dies after testing positive for COVID-19,” Star-Advertiser, July 23).
As a newspaper you must do better. Hawaiian has failed its employees and this community. Hold it responsible. Demand to know how such an egregious violation of public health mandates occurred. Ask it to tell us why we as a community and as potential passengers should trust it.
Restaurants and bars are being closed for violating social distancing. How will we respond to public health violations by major tourism corporations?
Elisa Johnston
Makiki
Outside forces are needed to keep order
This is a comment on the letter, “Trump’s private army needs to be stopped” (Star-Advertiser, July 21). Maybe the writer has not watched the videos taken at the “protests” in mainland cities. The police have not been able to stop the malicious actions of these people.
Police are being hit with frozen water bottles, sharpened pipes and bricks. Some mayors do not allow them to protect themselves. Businesses are being damaged, burned or destroyed.
Do you have a solution to this nonsense? The murder of George Floyd was the responsibility of that stupid cop who killed him. Even his family condemned the violence. If local law enforcement cannot control the situation, then others need to be brought in. Bring in the feds or gorillas or whatever to stop this destruction.
Linda Asato
Waianae
Up ante on tourism for good of Hawaii
Paul Pollitt and Debbie Mission are right — it is high time that Hawaii upped the ante on tourism (“Downsizing tourism?” Insight, July 12).
Places like the Seychelles have been limiting tourism for decades. Why should our beautiful home remain the bargain basement for mainlanders to plunder?
Linda Umstead
Mililani
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