Our Honolulu City Council seems to forget that "equal justice for all" is provided for in the Constitution. The Council's proposal to put visitor accommodations (bed & breakfasts) in residential areas will subject some unwary neighbors to the "Russian roulette" approach to equal justice for locating a B&B in a neighborhood.
The Council keeps saying that if putting B&Bs in a particular neighborhood bothers the residents, they can choose not to have it if 51 percent of them object. That's the theory. In practice, however, all of the abutting neighbors to a proposed B&B can object but still suffer a next-door B&B if others, who are up to 300 feet away and won't be affected as much, simply fail to object.
In a land where we provide "due process" and "equity" under law, this helter-skelter approach doesn't seem quite fair.
Gary E. Weller is a resident of Hawaii Kai, Hawaii
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