Ala Moana park must be protected

Ala Moana Beach Park is one of the best "local people" parks in Hawaii. Leave it alone.

It doesn’t need any new facilities, like fancy restaurants, that attract more people and necessitate additional parking.

What it does need is a good irrigation system (to flush out the salt), salt-tolerant grass for the lawns and better maintenance for the ponds and other existing facilities.

This high-use park needs to be protected from development. Keep it for all of us to enjoy.

Ted Green
Kaaawa

We must prepare for major storms

Should a Category 2-5 hurricane strike Hawaii, many homes statewide would not stand and mass casualties are likely.

Even if current shelters hold (many are schools), inadequacies exist given the older homes not retrofitted, that the population has grown and, especially, the need to order coastal areas to evacuate.

During Hurricane Iniki on Kauai, storm cells further intensified the winds in some areas above the 145-miles-per-hour recorded wind speeds.

One solution is for military, state and county buildings to be identified and then opened to serve specific geographic areas with coordinated transportation.

Additionally, the Good Samaritan law should be amended for the private sector to be indemnified from any harm by opening their sturdy structures.

I do not believe the state can afford to build sole-purpose evacuation shelters, but a high-velocity storm is more likely, given global weather factors.

Bob Grossmann
Manoa

Make better use of Kalakaua Avenue

I live in Waikiki and love it. But we can make it better, both as a place to live and a resort destination.

Let’s start by remaking Kalakaua Avenue from Kaiulani Avenue to Kapahulu Avenue. Providing three lanes for vehicles is not the "highest and best use" of prime oceanfront land.

Imagine instead a pedestrian-friendly park setting that’s an extension of Kapiolani Park and encourages our guests to enjoy the beach, rather than risk their lives crossing a major street. Imagine landscaping, benches, kiosks, outdoor cafes, performance spaces and more, that expand the use of Waikiki Beach.

Today’s cars, trucks and trolleys should be routed mauka on Kaiulani Avenue to Kuhio.

Deliveries and hotel access should be moved to the underutilized side streets Uluniu, Liliuokalani, Kealohilani, Ohua and Paoakalani.

Let’s encourage better use of oceanfront Kalakaua Avenue for the benefit of all.

John Baessler
Waikiki

Hawaii should favor quality, not quantity

The most interesting comment on the ZipMobile fiasco was made by Ed Sniffen, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation’s highways division, who said that H-1 was designed in 1970 to carry 70,000 vehicles, but today carries 250,000 vehicles ("It was no joke," Star-Advertiser, April 2).

It is not rocket science. Do the math:350 percent is way over capacity and bad stuff will happen. At what number do we say, "Enough already?"

Let’s focus on quality, not quantity. Do we really need more tourists who will sit in our traffic for hours? Do we really need more housing far from work places? When will we be like California and run out of water? Can we ever recover our overly stressed-out reefs, oceans and mountains?

Many of our problems today are because of wanting "more, more, more." Isn’t it time to try "betta, betta, betta"?

Chris Nakamatsu
Kailua

Samuseva has right stuff for new job

After reading about former University of Hawaii football player Lance Samuseva, it brought back my memories of Lance ("Samuseva poised to join Chow’s staff," Star-Advertiser, Feb. 25; "Elimimian, Samuseva hope to instill warrior mentality," Star-Advertiser, April 5).

Lance was a student at Dole Intermediate in Kalihi. He was a good student and never got into trouble. As Tavita Woodard said, Lance is someone "who eats, breathes and lives football."

Those feelings ring so true to me. When Lance was attending Dole Intermediate, he would bring his football with him to school so that he could play at recess. He would carry that football with a smile.

He loved football so much that he was a waterboy for the Farrington High School varsity football team.

I met Lance and his wife in Aiea after many years. He has grown into a man who is very humble and still has that passion for football that he did when he was younger.

Good luck to Lance in his future endeavors.

Diana Hirohata
Waipahu

Siddhartha had powerful idea

Around the day of the first full moon of April, Buddhists worldwide celebrate Buddhism’s new year.

Around the day of the first full moon of May, the birth, death and enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha are celebrated.

Although both events are celebrated primarily by Buddhists, there is no reason the achievements of this singular person should not be recognized by others.

Siddhartha’s most remarkable accomplishment was his discovery that of the way to the good and peaceful was not by resorting to God, Soul or the Divine, but rather through an unwavering belief that "craving is the cause of suffering" and that "suffering is removed by removing craving."

Buddhism’s objective of removing human suffering certainly accounts for its peaceful history. It is a history where Buddhism has never been spread by conquest or migration, but solely through the spread of its ideas.

Koji Takakuwa
Liliha