Blaisdell Center serves all Oahu

Renovating the Blaisdell Center is not just a Kakaako issue.

I lived in Washington, D.C., when the Kennedy Center complex was being planned with public money. Great plans were made for a real "community" center that would include all residents of the area, who would have access via the new Metro system.

However, it quickly became an upper-middle-class center for the nearby D.C. suburbs, with the "poor folk" priced out, or scheduled out.

A new Blaisdell Center would be great for the new high-rise Kakaako community. But don’t kid yourself: The target residents for these new communities is upper-middle retiring mainland and Japanese buyers.

Right now, we have room for expos, mixed martial arts fights, graduations, concerts and lots of very different, and very local, events.

If the Blaisdell is going to continue serving the many Oahu neighborhoods that it now does, it needs flexible space and lots and lots of parking. Like it has now.

Jim Poorbaugh
Moiliili

Seat belt law wastes resources

I don’t care much for the new seat belt law (or the old one, for that matter). Minors should be required to wear seat belts, and drivers should ensure that they do.Beyond that, we are all adults, and should be allowed to make our own choices.The job of police should not be to protect us from ourselves. If you don’t want to wear a seat belt, don’t.

However …

If you choose not to wear a seat belt, and get injured in an accident, regardless of who was at fault, no insurance company should have to pay any of your medical bills.The same goes for motorcycle helmets.

Oh, by the way, I always wear a seat belt. I just don’t need, or want, the police to waste their time and taxpayers’ money reminding me to take responsibility for my own actions.

Tracey K. Scott
Wahiawa

Seat belt law just the beginning

Our legislators’ actions lack consistency. They have enacted a new law that requires all vehicle passengers, front and back seats, to wear seat belts. This is well and good.

On the other hand, they allow passengers to ride in the beds of pickup trucks with no restraints, and they do not require motorcyclists to wear helmets. It is obvious to me that these two conditions are much more hazardous and prone to fatalities than riding without a seat belt in the back seat of a car.

James S. Nakasone
Mililani Mauka

Monsanto ad ignores issues

Here’s a string of events:

» May 12, a front-page article says Monsanto is leasing 30 acres from the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to plant genetically modified organism (GMO) crops; annual rent, $2,351.

» Same week, from an Associated Press article, we learn farmers in India are protesting the necessity to buy seeds from Monsanto rather than save seeds from their own crops.

» May 23, Monsanto runs a full-page advertisement touting how genetically engineered (GE) crops will "promote greater sustainability in agriculture."

No mention in the ad of the creation of superweeds resistant to GE seeds, the pollen drift from GMO crops to non-GMO crops, or the slow takeover of precious local agricultural land resulting in a lack of biodiversity and economic dependence on a multi-nation- al corporation.

Read Melissa Gilbert’s May 1 article in Nature: "Case Studies: A Hard Look at GMO Crops" (it can be found online). Please join the discussion.

The loss of land is the loss of food is the loss of culture and place.

Libby Yee
Manoa

Texas not much of a paradise

I shall miss Jim Henshaw when he moves to Texas ("Hawaii great but Texas beckons," Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 22). His letters were always entertaining.

But let’s not forget that, according to The Dallas Morning News, Texas ranks 50th among the states in the percentage of its population 25 or older with a high school diploma; per capita spending on mental health; the percentage of non-elderly women with health insurance; the percentage of pregnant women who receive prenatal care; and share of its workforce — 76 percent — covered by workers compensation.

It is No. 1 in executions, share of its population that lacks health insurance, and five categories of air pollution — nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, mercury emissions, volatile organic compounds and particulates.

And sadly, we also know that in Texas, you are free to build a school right next to an exploding fertilizer plant.

Ian Fleet
Manoa

Mall should revise its plan

You can’t publish all the letters you must be receiving about Barnes & Noble leaving Kahala Mall, and there are many who won’t bother to write because they might think it is a lost cause — but it cannot be!

Our neighbors meet there to exchange greetings and information about what we are reading and want to read.The staff is friendly and helpful, and the store has something for everyone.

I urge Kahala Mall to please revise its plan and keep our beloved bookstore. We, and our children, need this opportunity for culture in a safe, familiar place.

Ginger Kolonick
Hawaii Kai

Mall’s decision surely financial

Penelope Cardoza should have spent a little more time in the Business section of the Kahala Barnes & Noble ("Bookstore at mall is point of pride," Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 25).

Decisions regarding its staying or leaving were made on a purely financial basis, no doubt.

She also misinterprets its role in the community. It is there to sell Top 10 fiction, calendars and magazines. It is not a library.

Michael O’Hara
Kaneohe

Obamacare will deter physicians

Thank you for publishing the opinion expressed by Robert E. Moffit ("Will the Affordable Care Act have a negative effect on doctors?" Star-Advertiser, May 20), which reported what the majority of doctors feel about "Obamacare."

The new health care law will negatively affect the doctor-patient relationship with the creation ofadministrative controls provided by the Independent Payment Advisory Board, an appointed board of non-physicians. Failure to address steeply rising drug/technology costs and the absence of tort reform to decrease necessity to practice defensive medicine were important omissions in the new law.

Despite the chronic issue of underpayment by Medi-care, this organization now requires physicians to utilize electronic records, adding to the costs of providing care. Furthermore, the requirement to utilize more complicated insurance coding by 2014 will encourage many doctors, opposing the new bureaucracy, to retire early.

These factors add up to the elements of an impending perfect storm for medical care in this country.

Dr. Malcolm R. Ing
Nuuanu