Large fines needed to help curb fireworks
The hand-wringing and chest-beating that have occurred as a result of the most recent fireworks-related tragedies is as amusing as it is appalling.
The claims of interfering with cultural traditions is nonsense. There is no tradition of setting off aerial fireworks and homemade flash-bombs for weeks at a time surrounding the new year and July 4. In Puna, the fireworks still continue on a nightly basis.
The state can pass all the laws it wants but without enforcement, nothing will change. I have two suggestions.
First, pass a law with a civic penalty of at least $5,000 for possession and use of illegal fireworks. This would keep the violators out of the criminal court system and make the offenses easier to enforce. Then take the money that would be spent on task forces and instead create a few designated enforcement patrols.
A few large fines in each of our neighborhoods each year would do wonders in decreasing the blatant disregard for our existing laws. Once people realize that there is even a small chance of being prosecuted, we will see a quick decline in the number of offenses and the time periods in which they occur.
But until there is enforcement — enforcement — no amount of pleas and studies will address this problem, which gets increasingly worse every year.
Beth Block
Pahoa
Many reasons for high cost of housing
Mr. Allen Russell’s letter to the editor about the cost of housing on Jan. 1 is full of fiction.
Real estate investors are not the reason why housing costs are out of control in Hawaii. It boils down to supply and demand. There isn’t enough supply to meet the demand.
There are multiple reasons why this is the case. Government bureaucracy, archaic land use policies, and NIMBYs are the real reasons why the supply of housing can’t meet the demand.
There are 4,112,388 acres of land in Hawaii: 49% is designated conservation, 45.8% is in the agriculture district, 4.9% is designated urban, and 0.3% is in the rural district. The initial distribution of land use tightens up the amount of land that is available for development before government bureaucracy and NIMBYs’ actions start to kick in.
The onerous layers of government bureaucracy include overlapping land use reviews on the state and county levels and glacial permitting and environmental review processes. The latter is where the NIMBYs’ actions come into play. They weaponize the environmental laws with the intent to stop most new housing from being developed. These constant obstructions are why a lot of developers throw up their hands and walk away.
Mr. Russell needs to look deeper into this issue. As you can see, it’s not the real estate investors’ fault why the cost of housing is spiraling out of control.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona
What about the ‘notable’ women?
I write regarding the front-page article on Jan. 1, “Notable deaths in 2024.”
They are all men!
Surely, there are some women recently passed who have contributed to Hawaiian culture and history?
Mary Grace Orr
Volcano