As a longtime boat owner and Ala Wai Harbor user, I have an idea triggered by recent articles (“Hearing canceled over Ala Wai harbor parking,” Star-Advertiser, Nov. 9; and “Rally, hearing set over Ala Wai harbor parking,” Nov. 7).

Without a current major construction project in Waikiki, I see very little evidence of hotel and construction workers moving vehicles to evade towing, as suggested in the Nov. 9 article. I’m at the harbor almost daily, and most vehicles belong to surfers, beach-goers, canoe paddlers and boat owners.

My suggestion for the harbor is to work toward fixing a system that truly is broken — and that is the process by which derelict and abandoned vessels are allowed to be condemned and chained to docks, sometimes for years. Not only are there empty slips in the harbor, but dozens of chained- up boats with posted warning signs. Neither empty slips needing repair nor those occupied by derelict boats are producing needed revenue for our state.

Have the state Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation and the Land Department work together to change the notoriously inefficient process by which vessels are removed upon nonpayment of fees and other problems. The Ala Wai Harbor deserves to have rows of filled slips with well-kept boats; it has been ignored for too long.

David White

Manoa

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