Letters for Sunday, February 4, 2018

Banners are islandwide eyesore

Glad to see the owner of the skate shop respond quickly and appropriately to cover up his mural in Kapaa. There is a program called community art.

Now, if all the businesses would respond appropriately and take down those illegal, ugly, tear-drop banners which have spread all over the island, I would be most appreciative. Those banners are not in compliance with the Kauai County Sign Ordinance. Once the first one went up, the whole island decided to follow suit because there was no one to enforce the ordinance.

Please, Kauai businesses, return our beautiful island to the rural nature we all appreciate. I remember when those banners were first used in Southern California back in the ‘70s, mostly by used car lots. Do we really want to look like Southern California?

More and more rectangular banners are also prominently displayed. Those too are in violation of the sign ordinance. Rules are in place for a reason; just because the county lacks the staff to enforce, does not make the action legal.

Kathy Sheffield, Kalaheo

Good job on personalizing issue; be specific when citing studies

Thank you for John Steinhorst’s Jan. 17 article on “Making ends meet.” Thanks to Gilbert Medeiros for allowing his story to represent many on this island who work very hard, often on multiple jobs, just to make enough to get by.

TGI’s way of personalizing struggles around a living wage, standards of living, and what it takes to run a business profitably encourages discussions in politics and commerce that promote our general welfare.

Steinhorst’s striking statistic that “nearly a third of Hawaii families don’t meet self-sufficiency income levels” could have been better sourced. Nearby there was a reference to “the state self-sufficiency study” but not how to access the study. I want to know, for instance, how our beautiful county of Kauai ranks with other Hawaii counties.

So please regularly provide URLs for studies cited in articles, so, for instance, I could have easily clicked to see how, when, and where the information behind that statistic was gathered. And is there a content link to the minimum-wage jump article in the same issue, “More money to spend” or a Chamber of Commerce take to consider?

My main point is, kudos for personalizing issues to address if we want to make living on Kauai possible for our children and grandchildren!

Michael A. Ceurvorst, Lawai