WAIKIKI

VISITOR IS AMAZED AT HOMELESS IN OUR PARKS

I just returned from a 10-day vacation on O'ahu. The news was filled with reports of the huge drop in tourism, citing the usual problems of expensive hotel rooms and airline tickets (all true).

However, the stories conveniently skip another cause. Having traveled extensively across the U.S., I am no stranger to street people and their sidewalk RVs (shopping carts.)

However, I have never seen any city in the United States where city officials allow nearly all public parks to be controlled and permanently occupied by drug users, alcoholics and other lowlifes.

At dusk, they cross Ala Moana Boulevard and take over the bus stops on Pi'ikoi Street next to Ala Moana Center.

Even the Downtown parks are not any place that a family would want to visit.

Wake up, people! Tourists are not going to visit any place where they do not feel safe. City officials have to decide who owns the parks — hard-working taxpayers, or the criminal element?

SUPREME COURT CASE

STATE'S CLAIM TO CEDED LANDS IS DEFICIENT

"Crown lands deeded when Hawai'i was annexed?"

Aue ne ho'i e! Evidently, the Advertiser staff has botched their research by misreporting vital details surrounding the ceded lands appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. They apparently didn't examine the Hawai'i Supreme Court's earlier ruling on this matter.

With a little homework they would plainly see that the state of Hawai'i's claim to clear title of the so-called ceded lands is unquestionably deficient.

Therefore, we have the Supreme Court case at hand. Although there were two major attempts to pass a treaty of annexation of Hawai'i to the U.S., they both failed. There is no treaty of annexation. Just because a resolution is called a treaty of annexation, it doesn't make it one.

If the state of Hawai'i cannot provide documented clear title to these lands, they simply don't own them.

The state of Hawai'i can't declare to own the lands in question just because they want it to be so.

ELECTION 2008

LET'S END STATUS QUO, VOTE 'YES' ON CONCON

Where are all the elected officials who are supposed to be serving the people? Aside from Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona and a few other elected officials, most have been quiet on ConCon.

If the people we voted into office cared about giving our citizens the chance to address long-standing issues facing our families, they would support a Constitutional Convention.

While ConCon opponents are fighting for more of the same, we have a legitimate shot at change.

We want a more accountable education system. We want a more transparent government. We want more affordable healthcare. We want highway funding to go to highways.

Voter turnout has decreased from a high in 1978, when we last had a ConCon, to a low last September when the status quo reigned. It's our choice, and I think it's time we vote for change by voting for a ConCon.

NEIGHBORHOODS

KAHALA'S MCMANSIONS OF GREATER CONCERN

As a residential architect living in the Kahala neighborhood, I must support Lee Cataluna's proposed argument regarding Mr. Genshiro Kawamoto.

The indignation caused by the current state of Mr. Kawamoto's properties might be better served if directed toward the ill-proportioned, environmentally insensitive, anti-social, faux-Mediterranean McMansions that now line the streets of Kahala.

Maybe the City Council should take up that topic. The council could support the local residents who still wish to live in a nurturing and respectful neighborhood by asking the builders, developers, homeowners and, yes, architects who have created these monstrosities to cease and desist.

While all of the structures that Lee Cataluna refers to as "quaint low-slung kama'aina homes" cannot be saved, they can certainly be replaced with sensitively designed homes of similar character.

A sad reality is that the Kahala McMansion will be adversely affecting our quality of life long after Mr. Kawamoto's interest in Hawai'i has faded.

HEADLINES

HOOKED UP TO THE WEB, CLUELESS ABOUT NEWS

"Hey, uncle!" my girlfriend's kid said when he came home last night. "Did you know your Aloha miles are no good?"

He had just come home after dropping off some friends at the airport and noticed that there was no more Aloha. The Aloha Airlines ticket area was closed, and nobody was there.

In this age of electronics, we can find information and news before the paper or radio stations.

He listens to his iPod, MP3, CD, DVD. Constantly receives updates and text messages on his phone. Plays video games, and is always on the Internet.

How could he not know about the demise of Aloha Airlines? The bankruptcies and foreclosures. Headlines screaming and everybody talking about the economy. Us having to look for second jobs or be forced to move. OK, he noticed the increase in gas prices.

They are off in their own little world. It came as no surprise to me that only a few of his friends knew about a ferry that ran interisland, or that those "campers" in Waikiki were not campers.

They were even planning on camping overnight there after partying in Waikiki for Halloween.

I just couldn't fathom how these 16- to 20-year-olds didn't know what was going on around them.

Lord forbid if we had to tell them that a tsunami or hurricane was coming.