Letter to the Editor – 01/01/14

No bus signage

As president of The Outdoor Circle, I represent more than 4,000 active members statewide and a century of legacy in the preservation of our environmental inheritance. We appreciate Larry Price speaking to this ban on outdoor advertising issue. But in his seasoned tongue-in-cheek twist with words, he left some with a misleading understanding of the issue. The Outdoor Circle does not find a blatant breaking of our signs law, or even trying to change it, a laughing matter.

We feel there is only one place for exterior bus ads, and that is under the bus. Further, Mr. Price’s column suggests the onus of enforcing the law should be done by The Outdoor Circle. Although we helped draft the law in 1926, TOC is not responsible for enforcing state or county law. That’s what we pay taxes for.

We have repeatedly tried to engage the city with letters of informed appeal regarding the illegal signage on some Waikiki trolleys.

The thin hair is that vehicles that are solely doing the business of their vehicular sign can advertise legally on the exterior of their vehicles (such as the Polynesian Cultural Center).

We cannot let this flaw in the law become any more blatant than it is. It is time to stand up for our visual landscape now. After all, our beauty is the hand that feeds us. Let’s not slowly chomp it off by eroding the very laws that protect it. Let’s work to better preserve the very part of our aloha spirit that draws everyone to Hawaii – the beauty of our aina.

Alexandra Avery
President,
The Outdoor Circle

Bogus war

Jade Moon’s recent column regarding the “War on Christmas” shed critical light on an increasingly tiresome canard. What war indeed? The war notion appears to be the creation of folks who make a living rallying conservatives to a cause, no matter how bogus. If there is a “War on Christmas,” it is being waged by those who are using the celebration of Christ’s birth as an engine for financial gain.

James B. Young
St. Louis Heights

Merry liberals

What war on Christmas? I find it interesting that two of MidWeek‘s more liberal local writers, Bob Jones and Jade Moon, are big on celebrating a traditional Christmas, even greeting folks with a hearty “Merry Christmas.” Methinks certain conservatives are more interested in controversy than facts.

Grace Lee
Honolulu

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