It is patently ridiculous to insinuate that vacation rentals cause homelessness and the lack of affordable housing.
As pointed out by other readers (“Condos Opens in a new tab highlight rising Opens in a new tabinequality Opens in a new tab,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, April 13), the growing disparities between rich and poor in Hawaii are due mostly to the covert greed of politicians and developers, who have only their own non-transparent interests at heart.
I know people who could become homeless if they are not allowed to share parts of their homes with paying visitors. Keeping up with the cost of living here is a formidable task.
I feel certain that the Save Our Neighborhoods people are not talking about preferring low-income neighbors to vacationers. Those neighborhoods have already razed their affordable housing.
Barbara Mullen
Waimanalo
Moped inspections just a money grab
Our politicians attack a “problem” of a law being ignored by passing another law. Huh?
Yes, they are doing it again with noisy mopeds that have been altered by the owners. Instead of arresting, fining or otherwise dealing with the real offenders of current noise ordinances, politicians would rather pass another law requiring mopeds be inspected annually, with the added benefit to politicians of a new tax of $50 a year.
Never mind that those offenders altering their mopeds will fix them to pass inspection and then change them right back again to enjoy the noise they seem to love. The rest of our law-abiding moped owners get to foot the bill for political stupidity and laziness.
How about we enforce the laws we already have, or is this just about stealing more of our money to fund their pet projects?
John Kavanagh
Salt Lake
Construction costs simply have gone up
With the frequent news focus on the cost overruns in building the rail system, it would be instructive to compare the costs of major building projects now versus what they were when the initial planning and building of the projects began.
Virtually all building and construction costs have increased in the last five years.
A comparison could be made with the initial cost projections and actual costs for building the H-3 freeway.
Tom Braun
Wahiawa
Dems’ poll results can’t be trusted
I witnessed the Democratic preference poll recently and have never seen such a disorganized mess. Is the day before Easter the best time to have a Democratic preference poll? And, there didn’t seem to be any person in charge, and no directions or appropriate signs.
How do we know that Bernie Sanders really got 70 percent of the vote, and Hillary Clinton got 30 percent? So many Democrats were turned away early, and we have no idea which candidate they would have supported.
Stephanie Ohigashi, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, and the Democratic Party on Oahu have a lot to answer for.
Louise Knowlton
Kailua
Sanders should get most superdelegates
The national Democratic Party created an undemocratic system for selecting its presidential nominee. It allows superdelegates to vote their individual preferences that do not represent the will of the Democratic Party membership.
In Hawaii’s recent Democratic presidential preference poll, 70 percent voted for Bernie Sanders and 30 percent voted for Hillary Clinton. There were 25 pledged delegates selected in this process, and the allocation was 17 for Sanders and 8 for Clinton. That was fair.
However, most of Hawaii’s 10 superdelegates have committed to Clinton. Some remain uncommitted.
The combined numbers of pledged delegates and superdelegates are 18 for Sanders and 14 for Clinton, or 56 percent for Sanders and 44 percent for Clinton. That is a perversion of the democratic process.
Hawaii’s superdelegates should reconsider and divide themselves according to the vote at the presidential preference poll, seven for Sanders and three for Clinton.
That would be fair and democratic.
John Kawamoto
Kaimuki
GMO labels can help protect consumers
Henry Miller argued that GMO labeling detracts from more important issues of food quality, safety and value (“False confidence,” Star-Advertiser, April 14). In the same issue, Rachel Bergstein wrote that we cannot beat cancer without addressing its environmental and social causes (“Cancer fighters must address environmental and social causes”).
Many GMOs are designed to withstand high doses of Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate, which was classified in 2015 as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization.
GMO labeling is an important way we can protect ourselves from this probable carcinogen, by allowing us to choose non-GMO foods.
I wish Miller had taken his own advice and examined how Michael Taylor, a former vice president of Monsanto and the Food and Drug Administration’s deputy commissioner in charge of GMO regulation, helped to allow GMOs in our food system without addressing the FDA’s own scientists’ concerns about GMO safety, which are proving to be valid.
Burt Furuta
Pauoa Valley
