Bert Oshiro asked a simple but devastating question regarding how we could let Hawaii become a place for only the very rich, very old or very poor (“Iam Tongi one of many ‘priced out of paradise’,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 30).

In my 30 years connected to this great state, the problems remain the same: homelessness, affordable housing, salaries and the ridiculous love/hate relationship we have with tourism. Worse yet, over the same 30 years, the solutions proposed by our politicians have also remained unchanged. And therein may be the answer to Oshiro’s question: 30 years of the same failed policies voted in by the same people.

The 10 poorest cities in the U.S. have all had Democratic leadership for the last 50 years and the same demographic group is stuck in the inner cities.

Perhaps we need a change in leaders and policies to avoid the Hawaii that Oshiro and others see coming.

Glenn Emanuel

Kakaako

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