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Crime is out of control and rampant in Waikiki: Let’s make it unwelcoming for homeless

March 28, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

The perception is that crime is out of control and rampant in Waikiki. We want to make Waikiki unwelcome and uncomfortable for homeless people.

Crime is not out of control, according to Susan Ballard, Chief Honolulu Police Department.”Waikiki is a safe location for visitors and residents.”

However, the police chief together with Jerry Dolak, president of the Hawaii Hotel Visitors Industry Security Association wants to make sure Waikiki is an unwelcoming and uncomfortable place for the homeless to hang out.

Today the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association Security Conference at the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Honolulu brought security experts and leaders of the Waikiki hotel business together.

“Our Competitive edge is safety and security. One incident can change this,” said Mufi Hannemann, Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association, President & CEO.

The Honolulu Police Department is training officers in communication, conflict resolution, and re-de-escalation. Crisis intervention training (CIT) of the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) officers is to identify individuals in crisis or living with mental disabilities, like many within the homeless community.

The HPD emphasizes building relationships with the community and businesses. They encourage officers to get out of their cars and talk to the community and businesses to facilitate open communication and relationships, this can reduce crimes.

There are groups, not gangs in Waikiki. There is no organized crime, however, there are delinquent juvenile groups from other parts of Oahu.

Most of the discussion this morning was about the homeless problem. Lack of mental health care, the attractiveness to receive handouts the State of Hawaii doesn’t have but most homeless people on the Island of Oahu love is in Waikiki. Tourists do not want to see them, but many feel sorry, but businesses see them as a pest.

Bob Finley, chair of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board felt the hotels are trespassing  “them” and now “they” are on our doorstep at residential condominiums buildings.

Police officers explained how a homeless person could effectively have trespassed, so HPT could arrest such a violator. A member of the audience suggested for the courts to trespass any homeless convicted of such a crime to be no longer allowed in Waikiki altogether. This would slowly clean and isolate the 2-mile long tourist center from those that have no home to go home to.

Justin Philipps, the Homeless Outreach Manager of the Institute for Human Services explained the success of a program to provide transportation for homeless people to leave the State. He explained the homeless person has to pay half of the airline ticket, and we provide the other half.

Jessica Lani Rich, president, Visitor Aloha Society documented two cases where homeless with mental conditions attack tourists, in one case almost killed a visitor who came to attend a wedding and instead ended up in a hospital and is now disabled for the rest of her life.

“Tourism is everyone’s business in this State, even if you don’t live in Waikiki or work directly in this business.”, said Juergen Steinmetz, a long time resident of Hawaii and CEO of the eTN Corporation. “Chasing homeless people from one street to another, not forcing seriously mentally ill people to get treatment is putting our economy and our visitors at risk.

“The State has to find the money needed to help a homeless person and provide a chance to enter society. Tourism stakeholders must push legislators to provide the money and methods to help resolve this issue once and for all. The tourist industry should use its power and profits to push the State to act effectively. Someone has to take ownership of the problem, and it cannot be only well-meaning charities, churches, and other nonprofit organizations.”

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Starbucks Hawaii: Rotten food from the garbage and warm left over coffee

March 20, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Starbucks is not the only one to blame when human decency in America is under attack. Pearlridge Mall on the Island of Oahu is the second largest shopping mall in the State of Hawaii.  It’s far enough from the resort hotels, so visitors taking a bus or renting a car to explore the rest of Oahu don’t really find a lot of desire to visit Pearlridge Mall. This business center remains a very popular place for locals to shop, eat and to get entertained.

Tourism stakeholders love for homeless people to remain on this part of the island. After all, hungry dirty and mentally challenged people are bad for Waikiki, bad for white sandy beaches and terrible for tourism business.

Starbucks is a popular place not only in Waikiki but also in Pearlridge.

This afternoon a well-groomed and well-dressed lady is sitting on a chair outside and by the entrance of Pearl-Ridge Starbucks asking everyone walking by for a Dollar. She is very polite, humbled and obviously desperate.

Right in front of the Starbucks entrance is a not so well dressed local homeless man searching through the garbage can Starbucks customers fill up. After checking 3 or 4 thrown away cups, he gets lucky and finds some leftover coffee to drink and even a once delicious frappuccino drink with some whipped cream left. The coffee may be lukewarm, but no complaints here.

It’s 3 pm now, and the obviously hungry homeless man found a container with leftover breakfast, someone threw away hours before. It appears to be hash browns and eggs. The man tried to eat it but had to spit it out. Apparently, it was already bad.

Welcome to the State of Hawaii, welcome to where America needs to be great again urgently. This is a part of the Aloha State today in midst of a homeless emergency.

As long as homeless people stay away from Waikiki and the tourist beaches the world is ok. It enables hotels and resorts to charge $500 = $1000.00 for a room night, pay minimum wages to staff, and later wire all the profits to their mainland-based headquarters.

Laws and city ordinances give the police power to make it illegal to remain on beaches at night, sleep in cars or on public land. Homeless are turned into vagabonds having to move their shopping cards belonging constantly. They have no friends, they feel no Aloha.

On the other hand, tourism Business is good.

Unfortunately, minimum wages are not living wages and cannot buy a roof over someone’s head in Hawaii.

Hotels sometimes donate to the food bank or to other charity, but overall the attitude remains, “It’s not the problem of the Hawaii tourist industry to take care of the homeless and drug users.”

The State is wasting billions for a rail system that has been in the making for years. There is no money to fix the thousands of potholes everywhere on the island, and there certainly is no money to seriously address the homeless problem.

In 2015 homeless people had a solution: Get naked! 

WRONG, it’s everyone’s problem. It includes Starbucks of course.
Tourism is everyone’s business in a place like Hawaii, where this is the number one money earner and business. Where is the Aloha Hawaii is so famous for?

www.starbucks.com

 

Travel News | eTurboNews

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LGBT Hawaii supports Lesbian Tourist and today’s U.S. Supreme Court Ruling

March 19, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

LGBT Hawaii thanked lesbian couple Diane Cervelli and Taeko Bufford from California for standing up for what is decent and right. “It makes a difference to all our LGBT visitors and for the travel and tourism industry and for our State as a whole. We welcome LGBT visitors with open arms”,  said Scott Foster of LGBT Hawaii.

LGBT Hawaii issued a statement today applauding today’s ruling by the US Supreme Court that rejected the appeal of a Hawaii Bed and Breakfast owner who denied renting a room to a lesbian couple.

Their decision upholds an earlier Hawaiian State court ruling that found the Aloha Bed & Breakfast in Hawaii Kai violated Hawaii’s anti-discrimination law by denying the couple a room because of the owner’s religious beliefs. B&B owner Phyllis Young had admitted during the Hawaii court proceedings that she turned the women away because she believed that LGBT relationships were “detestable” and “defiled the land.”

California couple Diane Cervelli and Taeko Bufford were represented by Lambda Legal, a nonprofit LGBTQ rights organization.

Scott Foster of LGBT Hawaii said: There is no room for discrimination in Hawaii. Hawaii is an open and tolerant rainbow society ruled by the spirit of Aloha. We welcome every visitor, regardless where they are from, and regardless of their sexual orientation. We’re pleased with the decision of both the Hawaii and U.S. Supreme Court.

Here is what happened: In 2007 a Lesbian couple Diane Cervilli and Taeko Bufford visited the Aloha State of Hawaii and booked a room at the Aloha Bed & Breakfast in Honolulu.

The owner of the B&B Phyllis Young refused to rent a room to the couple claiming a conflict with her religious belief.  The couple went to court and a Hawaii State court ruled that Young ran afoul of Hawaii’s public accommodation law, which among other things bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Young took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The highest court in the United States handed a defeat on Monday to a bed and breakfast owner in Hawaii who turned away the lesbian couple. Litigation will now continue to determine what penalty Young might face.

SOURCE: www.lgbthawaii.com 

Travel News | eTurboNews

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