The mayor’s plans as outlined in a recent Star-Advertiser story, “Efforts ramp up to reduce crime in Waikiki” (Star-Advertiser, Aug. 5), are not addressing the conditions in Waikiki and throughout Honolulu even remotely.
The $350,000 given to a new “Safe and Sound Waikiki,” the so-called public safety program, is a pittance of the funding needed. The police department immediately needs to make an overwhelming and long-term physical presence along the main Waikiki beachfront business corridor. A serious level of no-nonsense enforcement needs to be undertaken now.
Enough with the excuses and failed same old policies. Waikiki is now on life support.
Dave Moskowitz
Waikiki
Don’t vote for Dems who supported sex-ed bill
Hawaii voters, please do not vote in the general election for any incumbent Democratic member of the state House of Representatives who voted in 2022 for House Bill 1697: Relating to sexual health education.
This bill sought to require state Department of Education sexual health education programs to restrict information taught in sex ed curriculum in Hawaii’s schools. This bill requires that sexual health topics only include “positive and accurate representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, other sexual orientations and gender identities.”
Teaching about the not-positive aspects would violate the restrictions, although the not-positive consequences for acting on the teaching would still happen in the students’ lives.
The Democrats in the House passed this bill and luckily the Senate did not hear it — yet. Before you cast your vote, please ask the Democratic House candidate on your ballot how he or she voted on HB 1697. Let’s not give the House members who voted “yes” any more time in office.
James Hochberg
Downtown Honolulu
Blood donations easy and greatly needed
I donated blood at the Blood Bank of Hawaii Bloodmobile in Kaneohe recently because the need is great. It was safe, easy, pleasant and fast. The bloodmobile takes appointments.
When I was 5 years old, it took 36 pints of blood for my open-heart surgery. My blood is a mixture of good-hearted men and women who donated to keep me alive. The need is critical and the people of the Blood Bank of Hawaii are angels. Please think about giving, as life is in the blood and we are all human.
Sandra Z. Armstrong
Kailua
Thiessen gets it wrong on FBI and Trump
Marc Thiessen just loves his Trump (“FBI goes after Trump again, and this time, it has really blundered,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 12). The FBI has made a “catastrophic” mistake, he said.
No, the FBI tried doing it the easy way by asking Donald Trump to return the documents he took from the White House; but Trump, as usual, refused to behave like an adult.
Thiessen also seems to erroneously believe if an investigation doesn’t culminate in conviction that law enforcement has blundered. In a civilized society, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and if there is not enough evidence to convict, you don’t have a case.
It doesn’t mean there isn’t probable cause to investigate and determine if an indictment is necessary. And comparing Hillary Clinton’s emails to Trump’s attempt to overturn our democracy and the resulting Jan. 6 attack on our Capitol clearly shows his fealty to a disgraced leader.
Bret Bashara
Ewa Beach
Expand use of all-way crosswalks in busy areas
Years ago, the intersection of King and Bishop streets was converted into an all-way crosswalk, allowing pedestrians to walk in multiple directions simultaneously while traffic on King and Bishop was stopped.
Now, 20 to 30 years later, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the above, allowing smoother flow of traffic and pedestrians without changing the number of times the traffic light sequence needs to change.
Identical situations may also apply to multiple intersections in busy areas in other areas such as Waikiki and Downtown.
Just imagine what it will be like, 75 to 100 years from today, when the number of people and cars double or triple or more. Will we see more high-rise buildings replacing single-family properties? Less on-street parking or none at all?
Gilbert Horita
Ala Moana
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