Paradise Lost...

[kimo55]

a newspaper article in yesterday's Bulletin...

http://starbulletin.com/2004/09/14/business/story2.html


we read statements that bring to mind that old slogan;
"people unclear on the concept"...

"It's important that all travelers see Hawaii as unspoiled, Kitchen said. "We need to educate people about Hawaii and show them a Hawaii that's pristine."

"Hawaii's marketing messages also need to focus on convincing visitors that Hawaii remains a beautiful, scenic, uncrowded destination despite continued development, he said."

"It's critical that Hawaii establish itself as a destination with a unique sense of place, said Ramsay Taum of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association."

and here's a whopper:
"Marketing a destination is about the experience," Taum said. "What's essential to Hawaii is the art of welcoming strangers."

Duuuh...

A recent survey regarding residents' perception of the Hawaii visitor industry makes obvious many problems inherent in this subject:

About 1,500 people were polled and about half say they support growth of the tourist industry (actually they responded in the slight affirmative to a question in this regard). $25,000 was spent to ask about 1,500 people some general, vague questions which require only an "agree or disagree" option. Then the perception of the poll results are easily warped. Keith Vieira of the tourism authority board is quoted as saying:

"I'm ecstatic: 88 percent of the population believes there should be growth."

What does this mean? Growth of what? And how did he get the idea most of the island's total population support growth from a poll of about 1,500?

What does tourism "growth" mean? More tourists? More hotels? More development?

It's a universal truth. Polls do not really reflect what the public thinks. The poll results can and are massaged and represented to reflect and support any desired conclusion or stance.

This poll will be used to justify the further development of what many say tourists want (regardless of what tourists actually want, since they are not interviewed. And if they are, the results will be massaged again to justify the interests of the status quo).

We can continue to welcome tourists visiting our islands and still not overdevelop the islands.

To back this concept up, here are results from another poll (done for free):

I have been in the Polynesian gifts industry since about 1989 and have talked with the people these polls should address. I have "interviewed" the folks that the various island visitor comittees should be concerned with: the "tourists."

Thousands of visitors I've talked to over the last decade have expressed the sentiment that they have no reason to visit Hawaii anymore, as the state resembles any other resort in a big city.

Hawaii, as they once knew it to be, has been destroyed, or "Californicated." Our beaches, mountains, skies are littered with development.

Look at Waikiki: many complain it has become a monolithic, slightly-open-air concrete temple devoted to the worship of the almighty dollar and the supreme god of consumerism.

The negative effects are painfully obvious to all, with the exception of those blinded by the "redevelopmentality."

For example, look at our traffic -- it has reached critical mass with gridlock even at midday. The H-1 Freeway is crawling along from Kaimuki to Kalihi at 2 p.m.

No one in the tourist or visitor industry wants to acknowledge that visitors want to see Hawaii, but instead are greeted with these problems that we face and live with everyday. There -- I just saved the Hawaii Tourism Authority, The Hawaii Visitor Convention Bureau and the State Department Business Economic Development and Tourism a big chunk of cash. But I am delivering a message not as warmy and fuzzy as the first message delivered through taxpayers' cash via costly pollers.

The message I deliver is a sad one, however. Our islands have a unique quality not shared by any other destination in the world. Hawaii is not Las Vegas, nor is it Wilshire, or Mexico. But we are turning it into just another overdeveloped, overbuilt generic resort and overdeveloped gridlocked "bustling" city indistinguishable from all others, with the opposite effect we are seeking. Tourists are simply staying away in droves because Hawaii is not Hawaii anymore. Rather, they are visiting, in greater numbers, the exotic tropical locales still relatively unspoiled. That actually HAVE acheived that hackneyed phrase: "retain a sense of place"

Talk with any visitor you take around our city: they all comment; "It's so crowded here. ... Too much traffic. Overbuilt. Looks like L.A. You can get this merchandise anywhere else around the world."

But residents don't complain because we have allowed the overdeveloped Hawaii to creep up on us, and ignorance and complacency will be our undoing.

Let's retain that Old Hawaii look where we can and build that up if we need to build anything.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Paradise Lost...

The message I deliver is a sad one, however. Our islands have a unique quality not shared by any other destination in the world. Hawaii is not Las Vegas, nor is it Wilshire, or Mexico. But we are turning it into just another overdeveloped, overbuilt generic resort and overdeveloped gridlocked "bustling" city indistinguishable from all others, with the opposite effect we are seeking. Tourists are simply staying away in droves because Hawaii is not Hawaii anymore. Rather, they are visiting, in greater numbers, the exotic tropical locales still relatively unspoiled. That actually HAVE acheived that hackneyed phrase: "retain a sense of place"

Talk with any visitor you take around our city: they all comment; "It's so crowded here. ... Too much traffic. Overbuilt. Looks like L.A. You can get this merchandise anywhere else around the world."

But residents don't complain because we have allowed the overdeveloped Hawaii to creep up on us, and ignorance and complacency will be our undoing.

Let's retain that Old Hawaii look where we can and build that up if we need to build anything.

Uh huh. Kimo, what exactly are you shooting for here? What's an "Old Hawaii look" anyway? Could you give some examples of things that the tourists liked?

As far as the crowded-overbuilt-L.A.-global comments, well, guess what, we've got a million people on 600 square miles (if you don't count the mountains, it's even less area). And we want all our modern conveniences, just like everyone else in the USA. How would you expect the city to look?

I don't mean to be a dupe for the HVCB; in fact I detest the fact that we rely on tourism for our bread and butter and wish we had some other economic model that worked better. But I don't buy the whole "modernity is bad" meme either. We can't go back, we can only go forward.

[kimo55]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Uh huh. Kimo, what exactly are you shooting for here? What's an "Old Hawaii look" anyway? Could you give some examples of things that the tourists liked?

got old home movies of us cruisin round kalakaua late 60's;
got footage of all that people miss, who knew the "Hawaii of old"; 50s and 60's and 70's (that many think shoulda been retained in one manner or anothher)
Ulu mau Village.
Jolly rodger, Don the beachcombers restaurant. The wakikian. all that old polynesian influenced arcitecture that wimberly et al was famous for.
Queens surf.
lava rock retainers/storefronts.., bamboo, thached roof and umbrellas, tikis here and there, the great storefronts along kapiolani and waikiki...
that is what they would not see in any other locale.

As far as the crowded-overbuilt-L.A.-global comments, well, guess what, we've got a million people on 600 square miles

yes. I am aware. and that is one of the many causes and effects i lament.

(if you don't count the mountains, it's even less area). And we want all our modern conveniences, just like everyone else in the USA.

yes. of course, this too, I am aware of. and this too, is one of the many causes and effects i lament.

How would you expect the city to look?

I suppose the suburb of L.A. that it is becoming. Doesn't make it any less of a shame.

I don't mean to be a dupe for the HVCB; in fact I detest the fact that we rely on tourism for our bread and butter and wish we had some other economic model that worked better. But I don't buy the whole "modernity is bad" meme either. We can't go back, we can only go forward.

"we can only go forward."
You aren't by chance boning up for polititianhood are you?
progress is regress.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Paradise Lost...

I think Oregon used to have an unofficial saying that the state was happy to have visitors, but please don't stay.

Obviously we're not going to level Waikiki and go back to swamp, nor are we going to reduce housing stock. I don't even see how you could put a moratorium on housing development (except maybe on high-priced homes), considering the shortages that already exist. It's a muddle.

I keep hearing Hanneman and Bainum talk about roads and potholes, but what about the conditions that cause those things, like larger numbers of people using them?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Paradise Lost...

got old home movies of us cruisin round kalakaua late 60's;
got footage of all that people miss, who knew the "Hawaii of old"; 50s and 60's and 70's (that many think shoulda been retained in one manner or anothher)
Ulu mau Village.
Jolly rodger, Don the beachcombers restaurant. The wakikian. all that old polynesian influenced arcitecture that wimberly et al was famous for.
Queens surf.
lava rock retainers/storefronts.., bamboo, thached roof and umbrellas, tikis here and there, the great storefronts along kapiolani and waikiki...
that is what they would not see in any other locale.

Ah. OK, I see your point. Yes, I miss all that architectural style too. Some of it was kitsch and some of it has been done to death (e.g. Dickey roofs), but dammit, it was ours. You're right, most of the new buildings that have gone up in the last few decades look like they could have been built anywhere, and the architects could have made the extra effort to give them a bit more Hawaiian style.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Obviously we're not going to level Waikiki and go back to swamp, nor are we going to reduce housing stock. I don't even see how you could put a moratorium on housing development (except maybe on high-priced homes), considering the shortages that already exist. It's a muddle.

I keep hearing Hanneman and Bainum talk about roads and potholes, but what about the conditions that cause those things, like larger numbers of people using them?

Overpopulation is the overarching problem that nobody wants to talk about. In another twenty years we'll look like Hong Kong. Eventually we'll run out of buildable land and drinkable fresh water, unless we start climbing the mountains and tunneling under them, and running water desalination plants like the Saudis do.

As a state of the USA, we have zero ability to control our own borders with respect to population growth. (One of the points in favor of independent nationhood, although probably not a compelling one.)

[kimo55]

Re: Paradise Lost...

I keep hearing Hanneman and Bainum talk about roads and potholes, but what about the conditions that cause those things, like larger numbers of people using them?

exactly. why the bandaids and the shortsightedness?
oh, rite. they are polititians. they say what the simpleminded want to hear.

tackle the fact they use substandard materials thand the cheapest paving methods.
Put a moratorium on building anywhere a developer wants a 36 story condo and maybe emergency vehicles can get thru. maybe we wont have gridlock. possibly our infrastructure wont be taxes so much. could be we may have enuff water for most people.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Sorry for the rambling but I found Paradise:

I miss that old styling also. Remember the old Honolulu International Airport where you could stand on the observation level outside and feel the blast from the 707's engine exhaust? Or the water/lava fountain that greeted you as you entered the airport. It actually had a landscaped entryway, now it's just a freeway offramp into a security checkpoint, how sad. When I travel to Molokai, their passenger terminal reminds me of the simpler times in Honolulu at the interisland terminals. Lava walls and lush ti leaves were the mainstay at the gates.

I remember cruzing Waiks, yep two way traffic down Kalakaua in front of McInerny's with their massive lava and glass walls that greeted tourists and Kamaina.

We cannot stop progress however we can influence it in our architectual design. Buildings need to take advantage of our environment with natural cooling and lighting. It's facade should embrace the land as it did decades ago by incorporating design elements with material of the area. As gawdy as it looked, Tiki Bars blended in with the environmelt with it's simplicity, it is what I believe to be Hawaii's first underground bars with asphalt or sand floors and basic seating.

Growing up in the 60's reminds me of single-wall TNG, glass louvered, pitch and gravel ranch-style tract homes. These homes had a lot of louvered windows that allowed a nice tradewind breeze to cool the house. Today's Gentry/Schuler homes have windows that slide only halfway allowing lots of sunlight but half the wind. And with Zero-property boundry lines, there is very little yardspace for the wind to drop down into your yard and into your home.

With all the roadways being built more concrete and asphalt is replacing grassland. To see how hot things are on the roads try going mauka up Punahou about 2pm on a hot day. As you pass Pee Wee drive turn off your car's AC and roll down the windows and feel the heat. As you pass by Central Union and pass under the shade of the Banyan trees the temperature noticable drops, as you pass Kapiolani Medical center you are literally under a canopy of trees and the temperature is very comfortable there.

The lack of heat in the area helps cool that localized area. If more of our roadways were shaded with trees, the cooling effect in our urban cores would help negate the need of intensive artifical cooling. And when the land stays cool don't you think that has an effect on our weather never mind our stress levels.

From the air as you look down over our highrise communities and business districts, you see square rooftops cluttered with massive AC units. These buildings' rooftops occupy the same footprint of their foundations where flora once grew. Why can't the rooftops have greenery planted to reclaim the vegetation the building took away from the land? With all the condensation water from the cooling towers of the AC units there should be plenty of irrigation water to feed these plants.

Here on the Big Island, catchment systems are the norm. When I was living in Manoa I used to see water pouring out of the downspout and flooding the streets. This water then emptied into our oceans. What a waste. Living here opened my eyes to this waste. I don't understand why I never bought a small catchment tank (90-gallon plastic rainbarrels) to catch the rain and on those water restriction days use that water to wash my car or my parched lawn. With the proper filteration you can actually drink the water. As a matter of fact filtered rainwater is safer than Oahu's utility water system. Your water bill will go down as your sewer fees.

Oahu needs to consider going to catchment systems to help reduce it's dependence on dwindling water supplies.

With all of our natural resources available (lots of sunshine for photovoltaic power systems) our prevailing winds and our mauka rains, why can't we build homes and buildings to capture it. These design elements should help bring back the look of yesteryear so we can find paradise again, instead of relying on technology which lost it in the first place. The FHB building in Downtown Honolulu is the perfect example of bad architecture where you have these massive mirrored glass panels that cannot open, radiating heat downward or across to the next building. Century Center on the corner of Kalakaua and Kapiolani is another example of that. Drive Kokohead in the afternoon when the setting sun reflects off those mirrored panels. You can feel the heat as well as see the glare hitting your face as you drive home.

Living on the Big Island has it's limitations, however paradise is alive and well here as well, that's why I moved away from Honolulu (born and raised there, my home for over 40-years) as sad as I felt when I took that one-way flight to Hilo, I realized Honolulu has changed and isn't what I feel comfortable with anymore. My children felt the stress of Oahu and I felt this isn't a good place for my kids to grow up surrounded by this as their childhood memories? Here in Kea'au, we have a million-dollar Oahu home for 1/4 the price on 40,000 sq feet of land and no direct neighbors. They can run and play without bothering anyone, they have places to venture like my hana-butta days in old Honolulu. Kea'au reminds me of the simpler times. In neighboring Pahoa town Mom and Pop stores abound because the community is small enough to appreciate these stores.

You want paradise, move away from Honolulu. Get out to the neighboring communities such as Waimanalo or the Waianae Coast or North shore, anywhere but Central Oahu. But if you really want to feel unconnected from the stress of Oahu, try the neighbor islands. The Big Island/Kea'au area represents the best bargain for the buck with home prices still drastically lower than Honolulu or anywhere else in the state and lots and lots of space, breathing room to raise your family in a healthy environment and more importantly, PARADISE FOUND!

[Miulang]

Re: Paradise Lost...

exactly. why the bandaids and the shortsightedness?
oh, rite. they are polititians. they say what the simpleminded want to hear.

tackle the fact they use substandard materials thand the cheapest paving methods.
Put a moratorium on building anywhere a developer wants a 36 story condo and maybe emergency vehicles can get thru. maybe we wont have gridlock. possibly our infrastructure wont be taxes so much. could be we may have enuff water for most people.

I was just lamenting that exact same thing with a coworker of mine as we stood in front of the photocopying machine this morning.

Why is it that history is destined to repeat itself in Hawaii as it has all over the Mainland????We've seen all of this crap up here. We know what it will do to your 'aina, to your people if you continue to be mainland wannabes.

I am extremely frustrated that you guys (as a community) are going to have to make the same mistakes and learn the same lessons that we've learned up here. I was hoping you guys would be more creative and foresightful than the leaders have been up here.

Bruddah Iz did a song called "Hawaii '78" (I think) that bemoans all the modern development that has occurred in Hawaii. He posits the question: what would the ali'is say if they saw their lands being overrun by condominiums and railroad tracks?

Think, people! You still have time to turn things around. Don't just sit back and maintain the status quo. If you want a better quality of life, then you have to work for it. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!

Miulang

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Paradise Lost...

I agree with Craig on the architectural / house design stuff, but I have to say that I'm a townie through and through. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Kea'au, it's way too country for me.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Glen believe it or not, I was a townie too. Born and raised in Waialae Nui, the furthest west I ever lived was Manoa Valley. I grew up at 5123 Kilauea Avenue just above Wilson Elementary School. I graduated at Kalani High School in 1978. Waikiki was my Friday and Saturday night thing with all the clubs. I worked in town too in Kakaako, I drive BMW's my wife drives a Minivan. My kids went to private school (Kamehameha). I couldn't live without seeing the Sunday flyers for CompUSA or Circuit City. Ala Moana foodcourt was our Saturday evening family outing as well as Sunset on the Beach. We had family passes to the Honolulu Zoo, Sea Life park and the Water Park. My kids played soccer at that park below Waialae Iki IV ridge. I'm 100% Japanese so that says it all!

I was the typical Townie, thank God I married a girl that grad from Wahiawa. It was tremendously hard for me to leave the city I grew up and embraced for 44 years but Honolulu has lost it's appeal to me and became a danger for my children. I miss my friends and my job but I look at my kids everyday and their content looks on their faces tell me I did the right thing and that's all that matters to me, my family.

I got caught up in the gotta advance my career attitude in the business like structure of Honolulu. I call it the "Starbucks Mentality" where How you looked was more important than How you felt. I felt like crap in Honolulu trying to push that envelope of success. So did my kids. My wife Brenda grounds me to the simpler ways to appreciate life like good health.

They say it's easier for someone from the city to assimilate into the country lifestyle than the other way around, simply because going from fast to slow is easier than gearing up and trying to maintain a faster lifestyle than you are used to. You go from stressed to bliss. So as scary as the move seemed to me, I can't imagine why I didn't do this YEARS AGO when I almost killed myself because of the stress of the big city. I was 20-something in the 80's and was the typical Yuppie, fast cars, fast women, flashy clothes, spend spend spend. I had an AMEX Platinum card (no limits, free 1st class upgrades to the Concorde), a BoH Gold Card ($10K spending limit) Carte Blanche Card, Diners Card you name it I had it and it was always the best. I had standing reservations at the most prestegious restaurants and complimentary lifetime membership cards to all the clubs in town.

And I gave up all of that because all of that almost killed me. I had a quarter-million dollars to use as a down payment in Honolulu to buy a half million dollar home because I didn't want a mortgage over $2,000 for the rest of my life.

Kea'au told me I could have twice better of a home there for what I could afford at half the price. I bought my home in cash and I still have money in the bank and investments to cover my simpler lifestyle and retirement with the money I saved. My wife works because she wants to, I don't because I don't have to. NO MORTGAGE IN A CUSTOM BUILT HOME equivalent to a $1M home in East Oahu and I'm retired and living stress free at age 44!

I tell my friends they can do the same instead of focusing on a $500,000 to $1,000,000 home in Honolulu and working until they drop dead to pay the mortage, they can buy a $250,000 home here in Kea'au and with the money saved, retire early! And when they see my home, they're flabbergasted that I could get this much BLING BLING for the cost of a 2-bedroom condo in Honolulu and retire early enough to enjoy my life.

If I had stayed in Honolulu, I'd still be working in town and living in West Oahu fighting the traffic both ways facing the sun as well. Our lives would have been leave the home at 5am and getting back after 7pm. My kids would be eating breakfast in our minivan at Kakaako park because we had to leave early enough to avoid the traffic. Don't believe me, go to Kakaako state park around 7:30ish. You'll see a group of cars with kids eating breakfast in them and they aren't homeless, they live out west. They may as well be homeless because they spend the majority of their lives in transit and only sleep in their new home.

I would be working dawn to dusk to pay for our mortgage and not appreciating our new home because I'd be working too hard to pay for it. My kids couldn't play outside because the strip of a backyard is too narrow to throw a football in much less hit the neighbors wall because of the zero-property limitations, so we'd have to drive out away from our new home to a park to play. So when do you enjoy that home? Only when you sleep. This is good living?

Moving from the city to the country is easier than you think Glen and once here you'd be asking yourself why oh why didn't you do it earlier.



Simpler life, simpler place, extremely comfortable home with curb appeal, no mortgage, retired early, this is paradise found indeed.

[kimo55]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Why is it that history is destined to repeat itself in Hawaii as it has all over the Mainland????We've seen all of this crap up here. We know what it will do to your 'aina, to your people if you continue to be mainland wannabes....
,clip>
Miulang

well said, Miulang, unfortunately, most who read this will stand there with their starfux coffee, wearing their j-lo glasses going;
"huh!?"
contemplating the frequent trips to Slam's Club/Sprawlmart...
and remain clueless and apathetic...

[pzarquon]

Re: Paradise Lost...

Craig? You're my hero.

Seriously. I was born and raised in Honolulu. I only lived in Hilo for 18 months. But those 18 months were the closest thing to peace and contentedness I've ever felt. And that was before the full-time job, the wife, the three kids...

I believe what you write about Kakaako Park. Hell, when I went to UH Manoa, the Mililani commute meant leaving at 5:45 a.m., stealing a street parking spot at 6:15 a.m., and sleeping in my car until my 9:30 class. It's insane. I'm back in Mililani now, and it's nice (compared to a cramped Makiki apartment), but that 5:30 a.m. departure every day is rough. Leaving work "early" doesn't exactly spare me the afternoon rush hour, either.

To be sure, I'm stuck in the rat race (too much debt to pay off!), and I do love my city amenities (in Hilo, we had "Schindler's List" for two days, and "Blank Check" for two months)... but I have no doubt I'd have no problems adjusting if and when I escape. Heck, ever since my kids were born, "career advancement" means nothing to me. I can't remember the last time I aspired to professional success. Just providing for and spending time with my family are all that matters.

Save a spot on the Big Island for me!

[kimo55]

Re: Paradise Lost...

I agree with Craig on the architectural / house design stuff, but I have to say that I'm a townie through and through. You couldn't pay me enough to live in Kea'au, it's way too country for me.

I love the tropics and Polynesia in general and of course, my home, Hawaii. Can't get enuff of the country.
Was raised in laie, kailua, lanikai, haleiwa, then Honolulu.
So I am a townie and a counrtyie
Love aspects of both.

[kimo55]

Re: Paradise Lost...

So as scary as the move seemed to me, I can't imagine why I didn't do this YEARS AGO when I almost killed myself because of the stress of the big city.

Wait...
"the big city" as in Honolulu?!

man, you definitely don't wanna go to el lay.