I am deeply disappointed in the City Council’s recent decisions (“City budget ratchets up fees,” Star-Advertiser, June 8).

Increasing the parking meter fees? When is the last time City Council members paid for parking?

Increasing the vehicle weight tax for cars? We are a two-job, two-car family. We need each car to get to work. We are struggling. Now I have to pay more so I can get to work.

For those who can’t afford a car and take the bus, well, they covered that too, didn’t they?

And not closing the loophole for the plastic bag ban? Our state just received national attention for standing with the Paris accord and the Council chose not to do away with all plastic bags? Disgraceful, embarrassing, disheartening. The members of the City Council could have been leaders. They could have been visionaries. They could have been for the people. Instead, they chose the path of greed and destruction. Shame on them.

Amanda Kaahanui

Kaneohe

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City fee increases will hurt Chinatown

We are in a bind financially due to a blatant lack of fiscal accountability and leadership. Now the small business owners of Chinatown are the ones who are being punished (“City budget ratchets up fees,” Star-Advertiser, June 8).

I want to thank our City Council member Carol Fukunaga, who tried to omit Chinatown from the measure, and the other Council members who pushed against Bill 12. We should be promoting economic drivers for Chinatown, not deterring customers from visiting.

James Logue

Chinatown

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Liberals should overreact to Trump

Are liberals overreacing?

President Donald Trump joined North Korea and Nicaragua instead of 193 other countries with a climate change agenda. You see nothing wrong with that?

Trump wants to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a pass for the murders of dissidents in Russia, the invasion of Georgia, Ukraine, Crimea, and for propping up Bashar Assad in Syria, helping him murder women and children. You see nothing wrong with that?

His only accomplishments are rollbacks of President Barack Obama’s positions on clean water, air, Dodd-Frank, etc. You see nothing wrong with that?

It seems like Trump actually obstructed justice, maybe even committed treason. But you see nothing wrong with that?

It really is time to overreact, in Congress, town halls, the streets, everywhere and anywhere. Republicans are trying to give Trump a pass for all this, so yes. Overreact. Shake the hell out of everybody.

Bob Dupuis

Kakaako

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Cal Thomas misleads on acid rain study

Cal Thomas’ column is misleading and misrepresents several actual facts (“The ‘scientific consensus’ has a poor track record,” Star-Advertiser, June 6).

His statement that “after 10 years and $500 million, the national Acid Rain Precipitation Assessment Program study concluded, ‘That acid rain was not damaging forests … caused no measurable health problems’” is a lie. The report concluded the opposite.

We grew up in the devastation caused by acid rain from Midwest power plants burning coal with high sulfur content. Early Environmental Protection Agency regulations did not go far enough to provide adequate safeguards. It took lawsuits against the federal government and power plant companies by eight northeastern states and the province of Ontario to abate power plant discharges.

Documented changes in the environment have since been realized and can still be improved. Note it took a Republican president, George H.W. Bush, to sign into law a cap-and-trade approach to control these sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions.

Joe Ferraro

Terry Surles

Honolulu

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Homeless a crisis in neighborhoods

It’s very distressing to read article after article about the homeless and see very little progress being made. This is not a new problem. It was a crisis 10 years ago and it’s a crisis still. Problems were identified but solutions are slow to be imple- mented, if they are implemented at all.

Unless you live in the area affected, it is hard to appreciate the impact it has on a neighborhood. There seems to be more consideration given to the homeless with “compassionate disruption” than to the residents who live and work in the area.

We are the ones who pay taxes for the upkeep of the streets and parks that we can no longer use because it is overrun with the homeless and their tents, tarps, shopping carts, and even human excrement.

The choice should be a shelter or jail, not chasing them from one park to the next.

They should not be allowed to disrupt a community to the extent that they have.

Paula Gallagher

Makiki