Great article Denby. The HTA budget needs to be reduced, and monies brought in through tourism needs to go to the local communities and State park systems. Everywhere on Oahu is being over visited. We need to fix our infrastructure and parks. Let's take some of that HTA money for that!!
And, locals can't afford to live here not just because of vacation rentals, it's because everyone wants to live here and real estate agents are telling mainlanders they can recoup their purchase costs fast by cutting up their new house into separate units. They are buying a business model, not just a second home. Stop just blaming vacation rentals. There are a lot of reasons people can't afford to live here - we live in paradise, military housing allowances increase rental prices,  people are making condos out of their houses to lure more people from the mainland.  We encourage tourists to come, and then they want to live here. We need to stop encouraging more tourists! Let's take care of what we have.