We all deserve right to privacy

Regarding Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, I don’t think the issue is about celebrity status.No photographers or paparazzi should have the right to take pictures within a person’s private domain. This includes the police. There is already case law that prohibits the police; why can’t the paparazzi follow the same guidelines?

What you do within the confines of your residence should be off limits. The walls should extend from the ground to infinity. Paparazzi have been trespassing on my friend’s property to take pictures of Tyler.

Surely you wouldn’t want pictures ofyour wife and daughters exposed either. We all deserve to be protected.

Lloyd Faulkner
Kailua

Do more to help improve Waikiki

I agree with comments made by Walt and Jeri Cundiff regarding improvements for visitors to Waikiki ("Waikiki nice but could be better," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Feb. 16).

Other ideas include:

» Make the public portable restrooms more attractive looking, rather than a construction-site look. And remove them from the police department area.

» Ban all outside sleeping of more than four hours on public benches on the beach side. Waikiki has been lucky in that there has not been a widespread rise in tuberculosis and other transmittable diseases due to unhealthful conditions.

» Impose a public service tax on all Waikiki businesses as a means of hiring additional staff or services to keep outside benches and park tables clean, including bus stops.

» Make park benches and tables temporary or mobile — all tables and benches are picked up at 9 p.m. and redeposited at 7 a.m.

» Provide those sleeping on park benches and picnic tables with information on where to get services and why sleeping as they do can only spread diseases.

Gerald Whitaker
Vancouver, Wash.

Homelessness will hurt tourism

I fear that very little will be done about the homeless on Honolulu streets until those in power realize real losses in the visitor industry. As a recent magazine cover stated, "It’s Tourism, Stupid."

As more and more homeless individuals, many of them mentally ill or voluntarily rootless, clog our parks and sidewalks, the problem will sooner or later affect the main engine of our economy and hurt all of us.

Our economic and political leaders are avoiding finding solutions, whatever they may be, at their own peril and to the detriment of us all.

Stanley Oswalt
Kalihi

Unions exempt from secret vote

I read with interest David Shapiro’s column in which he stated, "The Legislature could start changing the perception (that Hawaii has a reputation for not taking elections seriously) with reforms that demonstrate real commitment to our right to vote in privacy and without intimidation or bureaucratic barriers" ("All-mail voting might work but it needs fraud insurance," Star-Advertiser, Volcanic Ash, Feb. 20).

Where was Shapiro when our Legislature passed "card check," which allows unions to enter a business, ask for an open, not private, vote for unionization of the business, and the employees and business must comply? Our legislators do not want a "vote in privacy and without intimidation" and have openly voted in the past against this very basic principle of our democracy. On purpose, the Legislature has not included and does not want the "missing element for strong and proactive enforcement" in the mailed ballots that you call for.

So what is new?

Gary R. Johnson
Kaneohe

Have inspectors work weekends

I’m happy to hear that the state is going after illegal food vendors ("State leaps on illegal food vendors," Star-Advertiser, Feb. 17).

But here is the real problem: "We have had no overtime approvals for seven years," said Peter Oshiro, manager of the Health Department’s Environmental Health Program, so "these guys have flourished."

Why are the state’s policies and procedures so rigid? Why can’t state managers think creatively? How about changing food inspector work hours to include weekends and evenings?

Glenn Young
Wilhelmina Rise