Mayor Kirk Caldwell took a lot of heat at Monday night’s raucus meeting on the Ala Moana Park master plan (“Ala Moana park users slam plan to scrap makai parking,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 30).

While I admire his tolerant reaction to often-rude protestations of the master plan’s proposal for an elaborate promenade along the beach and elimination of makai parking, the protesters have very valid points.

Most of the master plan is excellent, but these two interconnected elements — the promenade and makai parking elimination — are ill-conceived and obviously not popular. The renovations and upgrades to Ala Moana Regional Park without these two elements will make the park better for the citizens who use it.

Sometimes planners in their enthusiasm try to do too much.

Peter C. Oleson

Waikiki

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Public’s view on projects ignored

Our representatives in government are not doing their jobs.

Kawainui Marsh and now Ala Moana Regional Park have grand plans for some type of development that is not wanted by the public.

We attended meetings and our voices were either ignored or not heard.

I view the representatives’ job as doing just that, doing what their constituency wants — not what they think we want, not what they think we need and not what they think is good for us.

They should be contacting their constituency, not the other way around. That’s their job; they signed up for it. They should do their jobs correctly for the people.

Whiting Hyland

Kailua

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Speak out about racial tensions

Mahalo for the headline and story, “Racist divide in the workplace” (Star-Advertiser, Jan. 28). But the treachery of racism has soiled our land long before any executive fools have been in charge.

Yes, the notion that Hawaii is an aloha-filled bastion of multi-ethnic diversity has chilled race discourse, making us blind to anything that isn’t blatant. The super-hype poured into tourism serves as an open invitation to anyone to come live, and some stay.

So print all the stories. Where was the headline of racism when a judge on Maui degraded every last Hawaiian as non-existent through court order (“Judge cites protester for refusing to speak English,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 25)? It was a tactic of oppression deeply rooted in Hawaii’s very own racist history.

Where are the headlines that push back against the racist slurs unashamedly used on Hawaii airwaves, most recently toward our Micronesian community?

The lack of vigorous race discourse in Hawaii is difficult as it is. Will you please try to keep up?

U‘i Goods

Kaneohe

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Stock market bubble may burst

President Donald Trump and his supporters are constantly touting the stock market’s current high performance as proof that his policies are yielding successful results, when it very well might be a warning of troubling things to come.

Removing regulations designed to curb financial over-enthusiasm and perhaps outright greed is bound to result in a sharp rise in short-term investment, as shareholders rush in to scoop up as much profit as they can.

Given our country’s recent experience due to an absence of financial regulations, it is hard to understand how past lessons can so easily be forgotten. This unprecedented inflation of stock prices could very well burst in a very dramatic fashion, and it is pretty certain that blame will be deflected elsewhere.

Kurt Lemon

Kailua

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Minimum wage needs an increase

Mahalo to state Rep. Sylvia Luke and her colleagues, Reps. Scott Saiki, Matt LoPresti, Aaron Johanson, Chris Lee and Della Au Belatti for introducing House Bill 2294 to raise Hawaii’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.

We urge your readers to join us to contact Luke and their own representatives to convince them to schedule hearings for HB 2294 and support its journey through the legislative process.

Our Legislature needs to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour to help low-income families and work to reduce the number of homeless people in Hawaii.

Greg and Pat Farstrup

Pauoa

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Huge homes hurt quality of life

The continuing methodic destruction of the quality of life as we knew it on our beloved island must be stopped. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Between the rail, Kakaako development, loss of open farmlands, inept and corrupt politicians and so much more, we must stop the demise of privacy, aesthetics and the overburdening of our resources by placing a moratorium on huge homes. There’s something fishy going on if these “monster homes” continue to be given permits.

May reason and good sense prevail, and pray our leaders have the foresight and guts to stop the madness.

Mary J. Culvyhouse

Kaneohe