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I would like to thank City Council members Radiant Cordero and Andria Tupola for voting against Bill 41, which would eliminate 30-day-plus rentals in neighborhoods.
I hope that Council members Augie Tulba and Heidi Tsuneyoshi, who voted “yes with reservations,” as well as a few of the Council members who voted “yes,” will remember that they represent Hawaii’s residents — not the hotel lobby — and have the courage to change their vote to “no” when this bill is again rushed to a full Council vote.
The present ordinance of 30-plus-days rentals is fair. Enforce the present law.
The Council should outlaw short-term whole house rentals. This is something that most people will support. But most do not support doing away with affordable, convenient and much-needed month-to-month rentals. And whether the tenants who stay for 30-plus days are locals, relatives visiting family, new residents or tourists should not matter as long as they are good tenants who stay at a home where the homeowner lives on site and follows the law.
Richard Wainscoat
Kailua
Good time to eliminate tax on food, medicine
With the Legislature in session, inflation at 7% and a large budget surplus projected in 2023, it’s a perfect time for a tax cut. Eliminating the tax on food and medicine would be a good start.
Ken Witek
Ala Wai
We all should support Chang and UH football
Let’s stop all this name-calling and start getting behind our new University of Hawaii football coach, Timmy Chang. No amount of bad-mouthing is going to change the fact that Chang is the head coach.
We all have heard the phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child.” In this instance, it is going to take all of us in this village we call home to raise our football program back to prominence with Chang as our leader. By all of us, I include the leaders at the University of Hawaii and the Legislature, the governor, the mayor, the coaches, the players and just as important, the fans.
We all have to do our part to ensure that our football program returns to the glory days — whether by purchasing a season ticket, donating to the boosters, volunteering your time, pushing through legislation to improve our facilities, increasing the budget — because if one small link in this chain falls apart, the return to prominence will not succeed.
James Fukumoto
Mililani
DAGS schematic looks like failed mega-housing
The graphic on the front page of the Star-Advertiser was jarring (“New visions for Halawa site,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 27). As an urban planner, I am a huge proponent of the community benefits of sensible density in Hawaii, but this is not the way to do it.
The state Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) schematic smacks of the failed 1960s mega- public housing developments such as Pruitt-Igoe and Cabrini Green on the mainland. One would think we had learned our lesson by now.
Dispersed, infill housing, developer incentives for below-market housing, upzoning, and sensible, predictable, expedited regulatory procedures are how we create more affordable housing. Warehousing people in mega- public housing blocks just to meet a numerical housing goal is a relic of the last century, not what Oahu needs for the future.
Jeff Merz
Waikiki
Rendering undermines affordable housing ideas
The state Department of Accounting and General Services’ (DAGS) new vision for Halawa is exactly what we need to turn off everyone regarding possible solutions to affordable housing (“New visions for Halawa site,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 27). Granted, the rendering was probably a simple massing and density study, but it is far from realistic.
Where will you park 20,000 resident cars (assuming one car per unit) and at least another 30,000 cars for the stadium? Where are the driveways and sidewalks leading to each unit, and where are the open and recreational spaces, the lack of which are the major deficiency of upper/middle class condos in Kakaako? Is this what our government thinks our community deserves: a high-rise, anonymous slum you see in China or the projects of New York City?
My 9-year-old grandson could have rendered a nicer, more appealing rendering using Minecraft.
Glenn T. Kimura
Waialae Nui
Halawa rendering looks more like a prison
With no parking, no greenways, no open areas and looking like something out of Legoland, my first reaction to the state Department of Accounting and General Services’ rendering squeezing 53 towers around the new stadium was, “Who drew that?” Certainly not someone with an architectural or urban-planning background.
Then it dawned on me: Someone mistakenly placed the proposed new Halawa correctional facility at the wrong Halawa site! Whew!
DAGS, save your rendering for the April 1 edition.
Orson Moon
Aiea
Commitment to Black woman justice unwise
President Joe Biden is committed to considering only Black females for his Supreme Court nomination to replace Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. This is in keeping with a (regrettable) commitment made by Biden during his presidential campaign.
So, let’s review some facts. One Black currently on the court represents 11% of the court’s nine justices, Blacks make up roughly 14% of the U.S. population. Only one Hispanic on the court and yet Hispanics make up roughly 18% of the U.S. population. Only three women on the court. So women are underrepresented, but consider that roughly one-third of U.S. lawyers and one-third of federal judges across the U.S. are women.
We have diversity in the makeup of the Supreme Court, making Biden’s narrow selection criteria appear racist and misandrist. What about all of the other very qualified individuals of various ethnic backgrounds (of either gender) who automatically will be discounted from consideration?
So what is Biden up to on this issue? Does he really think this will bring Americans together?
Robert Lottie
Kailua
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