Letters: Council’s sprinkler ordinance ill-informed; China builds 250 miles of rail for $5.6 billion; HPD helps Nuuanu on community policing

I am not running for office, so I can speak freely.

I believe that the City Council acted recklessly when it passed the sprinkler legislation a few years ago (“Oahu condo owners struggle to comply with fire safety ordinance,” Star-Advertiser, June 30). The Council did not have all necessary facts to allow it to impose such draconian requirements. But it needs to be done before the Council forces me into bankruptcy.

This question needs to be asked and answered: When will all homes be required to have fire sprinkler systems installed?

What is fair here?

Susan J. Chamberlain

Salt Lake

China builds 250 miles of rail for $5.6 billion

For $5.6 billion, China has built a 250-mile high-speed rail line connecting Tibetan capital Lhasa with the city of Nyingchi, featuring 47 tunnels and 121 bridges — which account for 75% of the whole route. As reported by CNN, China solved a serious technical challenge in constructing one of the world’s highest rail lines, at 9,000 feet elevation, including nine stations — all done for $5.6 billion!

While their nonunion workers are paid less, that does not explain why our train costs 20 times more per mile than theirs. Where did our $12 billion go? How many pockets were lined with cash in our fiasco?

Our train folly is perhaps the most expensive per-mile above-ground line ever constructed. We need a forensic audit and federal investigation.

Dennis Callan

Punchbowl

HPD helps Nuuanu on community policing

The front-page article, “Citizens and police join forces amid tourism’s return” (Star-Advertiser, June 27), reflected positive steps taken toward public safety.

However, there was one glaring statement that was not quite true. The article said that Waikiki is the first police district to resume community policing since the start of the pandemic.

Under the guidance of the Honolulu Police Department’s District 5 Community Policing Team, the Nuuanu-Bates Neighborhood Patrol has been walking weekly (except for inclement weather and during the mandatory “stay-at-home order” in late March 2020 through September 2020).

We resumed our walks — masked and socially distanced — in October 2020. We are grateful to the HPD’s Community Policing Team for its help and support to our community since we started our patrols in August 2005.

Liana L. Benn

Neighborhood patrol coordinator for Nuuanu Avenue and Bates Street

Nuuanu

Close Lanikai to visitors during sewer work

Necessary sewer work is being done in Lanikai. This should mean residents and their invited workers/guests should be the only vehicles traveling the one-lane loop until this work is finished.

Other residential neighborhoods are closed to all but local traffic while similar work is done. But presumably, because this is a beachside community with a popular hiking trail, that hasn’t happened here.

For residents to be able to leave home for an appointment, a business meeting or to pick up kids from school, we have to allow an extra hour (yes, HOUR) just to get out of Lanikai which, for me, is about 1 mile.

We understand that visitors want access, but we, too, want access — to the rest of the island.

Nancy Sandell

Kailua

Use carbon-offset fees to encourage clean energy

Thank you for shining a light on what we might like to ignore: air travel, tourism and climate change (“Air travel by visitors to Hawaii major factor in global warming,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, June 29).

A state “green fee” might discourage some tourists, but there are better, more direct ways to minimize the damage caused by air travel. Airlines could be required to add a “planet protection fee” for passengers going to Hawaii.

Those fees would then go to reliable carbon offset nonprofits who invest the fees in a great variety of offset projects. The good companies require third-party independent verification. Projects may include new wind/solar installations, protection of forests, even electrification of truck stops (so truckers don’t run their diesel engines all night).

How high should the fees be? Carbonfund.org estimates carbon- neutral travel at $8 per 1,000 miles. One would think that those waxing rhapsodic over the beautiful forests and beaches of Hawaii would be willing to pony up to do their share.

Jan Freed

Los Angeles

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