Waikiki development kills the atmosphere

I recently returned from a bittersweet vacation on Oahu, and have decided to call it quits. Although I truly enjoyed the King Kamehameha celebration, the Pan Pacific festival and wonderful weather, I couldn't help but be saddened by the demolition of hotels between Lewers Street and Beach Walk.

I made a point of asking "locals" their opinion of the renovations and discovered the general consensus to be that of unhappiness. It appears the proposed redevelopment is going to target the affluent, meanwhile displacing hundreds of locals who have lost their jobs.

My budget doesn't allow me to shop at stores such as Gucci, Cartier or Louis Vuitton; nor can I afford the inflated prices associated with the wealthy; therefore, I will no longer be able to afford those much-anticipated vacations in paradise.

As I contemplated the redevelopment, the thought occurred to me that I may be experiencing a small (albeit on a much smaller scale) inkling of how the Hawaiians must have felt during the overthrow of the monarchy. Aloha, Hawaii!

Cigarette butts create damage, expense

Cheers to letter writer Guy Belegaud for suggesting a deposit on cigarette butts (Star-Bulletin, July 26). The proposal suggests a way of practicing aloha aina.

It is discouraging to be unable to fully enjoy our public spaces because of litter -- and cigarette-butt litter is the great bulk of litter. Because butts are made of acetate, a plastic, they take five to 25 years to decompose.

Cigarette butts are costly to clean up. On my campus in upstate New York, 300 work hours are spent each year to clean up the 200,000 butts littered on the ground. By strictly enforcing the litter laws, Plymouth, Penn., found that cutting cigarette-butt litter by 80 percent cut street cleaning costs by half.

Cigarette-butt litter is a threat to the many children and developmentally disabled people who eat butts. Across the country, there are nearly 8,000 reports of toxic exposure to cigarettes among children under six years of age each year.

Cigarette-butt litter is a fire hazard. Dropped cigarettes start fires that are blamed for 1,000 deaths and 3,000 serious injuries each year.

Littering cigarette butts is so much a part of so many smokers' culture that a deposit on cigarette butts is perhaps the only way to address this problem. Smokers would receive their deposits back when they returned their butts, perhaps in a package provided with each cigarette pack or carton. Retailers could be given a financial incentive to act as deposit/ return stations.

I've enjoyed living on Oahu from time to time since 1997. Especially enjoyable is the progressive attitude toward second-hand smoke that comes with aloha toward others. The restrictions on smoking on lanais on the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus is one reason it's always a delight to visit these islands.

Some 'sidewalks' are really bike paths

Two readers recently wrote to complain about bicyclists on sidewalks in Waikiki. I am frequently a pedestrian in Waikiki and also a bicycle rider, and I have a suggestion.

My suggestion is that the two readers, one of whom wrote that as he understands it, "bicycles are permitted on sidewalks in residential areas only and nowhere in Waikiki" (Letters, July 15), make sure they are not walking on a bike path. I'm not talking about the bike lanes that are painted in the street. I'm talking about the paved bike paths that look very much like sidewalks but are clearly marked with signs that say "bike route."

In Waikiki, where the letter writer believes there are no sidewalks where bicycles are permitted, there are bike paths that run down Date Street behind the Ala Wai Canal, then makai from Date down Kapahulu Avenue, then follow Paki Avenue to Kalakaua Avenue where the bike path is downgraded to a bike lane and runs Ewa up Kalakaua almost to the zoo. When I ride my bicycle to the beach I have to dodge pedestrians on this bike path. A few of these pedestrians, like the letter writers, don't know that there are "sidewalks" in Waikiki made for bikes. Most people show aloha and share the path at least, but there are others who, probably because they don't know it is a bike path, feel the bicycle riders are invading their pedestrian territory unlawfully.

Taggers have no other legacy to leave

Humans make wills because they are the smartest of all the animals and know one day they will die. In these wills you would normally find the deceased leaving a legacy. Now, I have not gotten the opinion of all the notorious "taggers" who ruin our walls and our beautiful landscape, but every one I've talked to seemed to agree on why they make graffiti. I thought that since no one has the courage to come out and say anything about his or her writings on the wall, I would try explain.

Most of the people who make graffiti are teenagers or childish grown-ups. They didn't have enough time to draw while they were failing in schools' core classes so they do it on the walls and streets, wasting constructive time for themselves and those who must clean it up. Also, they don't realize that they, too, are subconsciously seeking a will. But without a proper legacy due to age, and wanting to be remembered, they create graffiti, thus claiming what little grasp on a legacy they have and on the difference they wanted to make in the world.

I'm not saying what they're doing is right, but I sure do feel more pity for them than the anger I once bestowed.

Life isn't fair -- and neither are pay scales

If you want to make a lot of money, you have to be popular. You or your product have to be in demand. We all know that. So how come people are still carping about the disparity between the salary of a foreign language professor and that of the football coach at the University of Hawaii (Letters, July 25)?

Coach June Jones is paid more than $800,000 per year. A tenured foreign language professor, on the other hand, is paid about $54,000. If the latter wants more money, she should try to attract 36,000 paying students per lecture (the average attendance at football games) and have her rich fans commit to paying her $400,000 per year (what Jones gets from his supporters).

Life isn't fair. Certainly, the Honolulu Symphony musicians envy rock stars who draw capacity crowds and stratospheric incomes. And writers like me wish their books were bestsellers like J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter." Unfortunately, the demand just isn't there.

The most popular star of them all, of course, is Jesus Christ. Centuries after his death, he still touches the hearts of the masses who, in turn, contribute immense time and treasure in his name.

Meanwhile, the rest of us have to be content with plodding along, doing what we do -- for love, not for money.

Building boom parts Hawaii's residents

In great leaps, a Great Wall of steel, concrete and glass is going up from the Gold Coast of Waikiki to downtown Honolulu. Soon those of us who live on the mauka side of this wall will feel like we are in a fishbowl. No longer will we have the advantage of the soft sea breezes and trade winds. Those air currents will be interrupted by the wall. Where buildings were constructed not capable of air-conditioning installation, instead relying on nature to do it for us, we will swelter, while in your high-rises with air conditioning you will be comfortable using up all the energy that can be supplied. Also, you are stealing away our view of the beautiful ocean.

Are there any environmental studies that can assess the effects of this building boom?

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