Question: Please let people know that Foster Botanical Garden is closing. I’m a frequent visitor and it’s a surprise to me.
Answer: The popular urban oasis is not shutting down permanently, but is scheduled to close for about three months starting Feb. 13 for renovations that will make the 14-acre site more accessible to people with disabilities, according to Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
Foster Botanical Garden, at 180 Vineyard Blvd., is the oldest of the city’s five botanical gardens, with trees dating back to the 1850s. The renovation will include rebuilding the main entrance area with “new pavement, handrails, ramps, and a low-wall seating area”; refurbishing accessible parking stalls and signage; improving pathways throughout the botanical garden and paving them with concrete; renovating comfort stations; replacing a drinking fountain; and adding new accessible plots to the section that contains a community garden, DPR said in a news release Monday.
Although the overall botanical garden will be closed during the renovations, people who already have plots in the community garden section should continue to have access to those plots, DPR said.
Q: When they do get to designing a new license plate, they should make it more like the volcano plates. Those are pretty and Hawaiian.
A: That’s unlikely because of the cost. Speciality organization plates like the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park plate cost about 50% more to produce than a white base plate, and the city isn’t looking to move in that direction for a standard-issue Hawaii plate, the director of Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services said in December.
The volcano plate, which motorists can buy to help support the national park, features a volcano erupting against a multihued sky, with plants in the foreground; color saturates the plate, with only the letters and numbers in white. By contrast, Hawaii’s current standard-issue license plate has a white base with a rainbow arc covering only a portion of the plate; letters and numbers are black. Any new standard plate should have a relatively simple design with strong contrast between the background and letters, the city official said, emphasizing that no change would occur this year.
Q: Regarding the parking meters that aren’t working, is there any risk if I put in my credit card not knowing they were broken?
A: No, according to officials from the city’s Department of Transportation Services. No information would have been transmitted from your card when you swiped it through the meter; the digital system that formerly powered the meters is inoperable.
Q: I thought the minimum wage was supposed to rise Jan. 1. I didn’t get an increase.
A: You were mistaken. Hawaii’s minimum wage rose to $12 an hour on Oct. 1 and will rise incrementally over the next five years, according to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The next increase will be to $14 on Jan. 1, 2024, then to $16 on Jan. 1, 2026, and $18 on Jan. 1, 2028.
Prior to October, Hawaii’s minimum wage had been $10.10 an hour since 2018.
Auwe
All talk about affordable housing, and yet we pay taxes on inflated property values! Where is the relief? The clock is ticking! — Lifelong Oahu resident
Mahalo
Mahalo from a grateful customer at the Mililani Safeway. You were like a secret Santa and paid our bill. We were astounded, touched, and never imagined a stranger would do this for us. What a kind, caring and exemplary man you are! Hopefully we too can be like you. Thanks again! — C.K.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
