Parking fees at parks would limit access

I write in opposition to City Council Bill 30 CD1 that would start charging parking rates of $1 per hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at Kapiolani, Ala Moana and potentially all parks and beaches throughout Oahu.

This would greatly limit the access of the people of Oahu to our parks and beaches.

It is wrong to make it more expensive to use parks at a time when more physical activity is encouraged to reduce obesity, stress and high health-care costs.

Why make it more difficult to use parks when many among us are already having a tough time in this recession?

The parks and beaches are for all to use regardless of our ability to pay. We pay for parks through our taxes, and it is misguided to generate additional city income at the cost of limiting access.

Peter Whiticar
Diamond Head

Isle highways could use shoulder lanes

It is good to require motorists to slow down when emergency vehicles are stopped on the highway, but to have cars move over one lane may cause more problems when there are only three lanes and two are not to be used. Diverting all traffic to one lane will cause a huge backup.

If I remember correctly, when the H-1 was being built, a shoulder lane was required so vehicles with problems could pull over safely. Now the shoulders are almost nonexistent or so narrow that they are virtually useless. There is not enough space on which to pull over. The shoulder lanes seem to have given way for more lanes. Look for any shoulder lanes and see what we have left.

We should bring back the shoulder lanes, as well as require motorists to slow down for the emergency vehicles stopped on the road.

Richard Kinoshita
Palolo

Van cam would not have averted fatality

Don’t use the deaths of police officers as a reason to bring back the van cams ("Bring back van cams to catch speeders," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Jan. 30).

Use of road flares and proper enforcement probably could have prevented these accidents.

We should have learned the first time around, when we had to buy out the van cam contractor and judges threw out all the cases for improper enforcement, with people being ticketed for going 2-3 mph over the speed limit.

It’s really sad if we have to resort to traffic enforcement fines to run this state, like the tax on beverage containers.

Lloyd Faulkner
Kailua

Teachers justified in rejecting contract

David Shapiro said that teachers negotiate in bad faith ("Teachers have lost respect in drama over labor talks," Star-Advertiser, Volcanic Ash, Jan. 25).

If one looks closer at these issues, one can see that the teachers were fully justified.

When former Gov. Linda Lingle proposed mandatory random drug testing, the union objected because it already had a drug-testing policy based on reasonable suspicion. Also, since Lingle proposed the idea, shouldn’t she have funded it?

Shapiro thought teachers were "maximizing the negative impact on their students" by taking furloughs during instructional time. No one mentions the fact that test scores went up.

Shapiro claims teachers objected to "performance-based pay." Yet how would one evaluate a special education teacher versus one who teaches advanced placement?

Gov. Neil Abercrombie pledged to bulldog ahead whether or not teachers cooperate. Why not let him, without teachers? It’s the perfect time to see how far he will get.

Dan McLaughlin
Kahala

Make decisions mostly at local level

I salute the people of Molokai, as they seem to be leading Hawaii forward.

The important point is not whether tour boats should come to Molokai. The important point is that the people of Molokai should have the right to say no if they want to. Their local knowledge provides the most informed basis for such a decision.

There is an important principle of government, called subsidiarity, which says that central governments should not decide things that can be decided by a more intermediate or local level of government. In other words, as much as possible, decisions should be made by those most affected by the consequences.

Our forebears here called it the ahupuaa system.

Neil Frazer
Kailua

Jeff Apaka evokes glory of his father

Thank you for the wonderful article on Alfred Apaka ("Alfred Apaka’s voice, music brought Hawaii to the world," Star-Advertiser, Rearview Mirror, Jan. 27).

He truly had one of the most heavenly voices I’ve ever heard. I hear him singing at the airport and in stores in Honolulu, but I doubt many people know of him. I first heard of him when my parents brought his records home to California, after a trip to Hawaii in 1954. It was thrilling to hear him sing "A Sleepy Lagoon" or "Beyond the Reef."

In 1997, when my mom heard on the radio that there was a statue of Apaka at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, we went right down there and took her picture with "Alfred."

I regret never having seen him in person. But Jeff Apaka has inherited his father’s glorious voice, and I’m glad to know that I can see him again at the Tapa Room the next time I go to Hawaii.

Charla Martinez
Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.