In an effort to retain public favor and electability, politicians endeavor to shift responsibility for the poor planning of their administrations to those struggling to implement the original plan.
It was well known that Honolulu’s initial rail cost estimates were based on incomplete planning and were significantly understated.
Now, Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Council Chairman Ernie Martin are attempting to shift responsibility from their and past city administrations to the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board and management, which seems to be doing as well as can be expected with an incomplete plan in an environment of constant cost increases.
As former HART Chairman Don Horner pointed out, in politics the focus becomes “shooting the messenger” rather than working together (“Horner no longer on board,” Star-Advertiser, April 12).
This is a clear effort to shift responsibility to current HART management.
Horner, an honest, very capable and experienced executive, chose to depart what appears to be an untenable political sideshow. How sad.
Curtis Lee
Salt Lake
442nd didn’t consist of only nisei soldiers
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was more diverse than “an Army unit composed of second-generation Japanese-American nisei” (“Hawaii gets to say thanks 1 more time,” Star-Advertiser, April 11).
Its ranks included first generation (issei) such as Ichiro Suzuki and Ralph S. Yagi; third generation (sansei) such as Katsumi Hirokane, Arthur Fukuoka, Hiram Doi, Ed Ichiyama and Daniel K. Inouye; Korean-Americans such as John Y. Ko and Young Oak Kim; and 290 Caucasians (212 officers, 78 enlisted men).
Collectively, these groups made up 5 to 10 percent of the unit’s members.
John J. Stephan
Emeritus professor of history
University of Hawaii
Tantalus
Kunia Loa situation emblematic of state
It was an interesting article Sunday on Kunia Loa (“Building boom,” Star-Advertiser, April 10).
A friend of mine recently was on the mainland at a car rental agency when a customer next to him heard he was from Oahu and asked him about a rental he had found on Airbnb: it was at Kunia Loa.
Really — a vacation rental on land that’s supposed to be restricted to agriculture?
The article highlighted a problem with our state that plays like a bad comedy: No one will work on this problem because the state points at the county, which points back at the state as the responsible party.
It’s gotten to where the Star-Advertiser is highlighting almost on a daily basis dysfunctional state or county agencies or organizations that continue to be funded, regardless of how badly they do their job.
Maybe we deserve what we have since we don’t seem to want to change the status quo.
Larry Dove
Waipahu
Convene inquiry into vacation rentals
Once again, peacemaker Peter Adler shows us the way to resolve difficult public policy disputes in our community (“Peter Adler,” Star-Advertiser, Name in the News, April 8).
As he said in relation to his mediator-facilitator role concerning the corporate use of agricultural pesticides on Kauai: “In this case … we are really focused on trying to get factual information, so that it is less about, ‘I say this and you say this,’ and more about joint, mediated inquiry into the facts.”
Our state and county leaders should apply the same standard to the increasingly bitter and angry conflict over the operation of short-term vacation rentals on Oahu. I suggest they immediately convene an islandwide “joint, mediated inquiry into the facts.”
Such an inquiry would help alleviate acrimony between neighbors and friends and lead to a peaceful resolution that we all can live with.
Tom DiGrazia
Kailua
Tourism ruining our neighborhoods
Now is the time to stop tourism from invading our residential neighborhoods. House and Senate bills that encourage tourism to creep into our residential communities must stop.
The areas already zoned for hotels and resorts provide for Oahu’s tourism base.
It is not necessary to also give up our residential communities and their assets to expand this base.
We elect those in our Legislature to understand and protect these values.
What are the lawmakers thinking when they propose bills that give license to illegal activities in our communities?
Mahalo to Larry Bartley and Kathleen Pahinui for their call to action (“Don’t encourage entrenchment of illegal vacation rentals,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, April 11).
We must protect our neighborhoods. Apparently, the Legislature may not.
Bob Hampton
Hawaii Kai
Change law to allow seniors to be together
I re-read the article, “Supporters push for legal change to unite senior couple” (Star-Advertiser, April 6), and it broke my heart.
My husband, a veteran, died a year ago after a year of suffering from Parkinson’s disease. We were married 64 years.
I took care of him at home, getting up every two hours to take him, staggering, to the bathroom, encouraging him all the way as he apologized for wetting the bed: “Don’t worry; look how quickly I can change the linen!”
Finally I had to put him in a nearby care home.
I was told that legally I could not spend nights with him. I cried.
I paid for home care by a wonderful licensed caregiver, and it meant we could still sleep together.
Jim died in my arms.
Please, I beg lawmakers to put themselves in our places and for love’s sake, let us be together until death do us part.
Yoshie Ishiguro Tanabe
Hawaii Kai
