Surf the Sites
High tide or low in Hawaii, you can always surf the web. We’ve been treading the waters from Blogger to WordPress, bookmarking our favorites along the way.
Island Wise
See the Flora
The beach is lovely this time of year, but it’s not the only way to spend quality outdoor time. As the days get warmer, here are some favorite places and ways to cultivate your greener side.
What Moms Like
Yes, it’s the thought that counts, but let’s face it, a good gift helps. Here are some homegrown or make-your-own ideas for when May 12 comes around.
96817
I live in 96817. This zip code covers luxuriant Nu’uanu, lofty Alewa Heights, the crown jewel of Kapalama, Kamehehameha Schools and industrialized Kalihi.
Love for Sale
The season begs for bouquets and lei–May Day, Mother’s Day, prom, graduation, Father’s Day. Eh, but.
Inside Their Closets
We all have our favorite places to shop, but who better to ask for tips than local designers and boutique owners? After all, these style mavens create wearable art, sift through estate sales and even head to other cities all in the name of fashion.
Art Walk: Off the Beaten Path
From an ex-phone-booth gallery to an art pop-up in a salon shop, Honolulu continues to surprise us by bringing creativity to the most unexpected places. We scoured downtown, explored Kaimuki and checked out Kakaako.
Retreat Yo Self
Summer is right around the corner, but instead of sending the kids to camp, why not invest in your own creative fulfillment? Inspiration drips from every corner of our island atmosphere, and the following adult retreats and conventions will teach you how to tap into it for yourself.
Sing It, Champ
Trying to pick a karaoke bar in Honolulu is like trying to pick the best Michael Bolton song to sing when you get there. Since Honolulu boasts more than 40 places to be a diva, we asked our favorite singers to help us narrow it down.
East Side Cruisin’
Hawaii Kai’s not just for bounty hunters and deep pockets–beyond the mansions of Portlock lies a community of chefs, surfers, small-business owners and Zumba enthusiasts living the good life. And by good, we don’t mean stinkin’ rich (unless it’s in a wealth-of-the-soul kind of way).
Thrift Town: An Appraisal
There is an assortment of vintage and consignment stores in Honolulu, but a thrift store is in its own category. These typically sell second-hand goods to raise money for a charity.
Ctrl + Alt + Coffee
Iced Toddy, $3.50 Sometimes an especially acidic iced coffee gives its drinker a cramped stomach. Morning drinkers, you know what I’m talking about.
This Thing’s On
For a while, local comedy was all crickets. It wasn’t that jokes fell flat; there was nowhere to tell them.
Roughing It
Any townie knows it’s hard to wipe off the residue of city stress. Hawaii’s parks are our respite.
Storied Haunts
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii estimates that 10,000 people filled the streets last weekend in celebration of the Lunar New Year of the Snake, but it’s hard to be sure. There were so many red shirts you’d think you were at a Target employee convention protected by Teamsters.
The McCandless Building, 925 Bethel St.
Harry Livingston Kerr designed this domineering Richardsonian Romanesque-style edifice out of stones from the Kapalama and Moiliili quarries for the McCandless brothers. James McCandless, with brothers Lincoln and John, built a bloated fortune digging artesian wells around Oahu to make water available to the arid Leeward sugar plantations.
Melchers Building, 51 Merchant St.
Built with coral rock in 1854 but since covered with layers of stucco, the nondescript Melchers Building is the oldest commercial structure in Honolulu. The two-story space 400 feet from the ocean was originally the law offices of Gustavs Melcher and Reiners.
The Friend, 926 Bethel St.
In 1837, Reverend John Diell established the Oahu Bethel Church, a spot of worship for the thousands of seamen who visited Honolulu in 1840–1870. The 1886 fire destroyed the original flat, and George Lucas erected a two-story building the following year.
Mendonça Building, 1109 Maunakea St.
Joseph Mendonça started life in Honolulu at 16 and learned carpentry and masonry as a construction worker, but established himself as a businessman after investing in small properties around Chinatown. Mendonça eventually built the brick building that bears his name in 1901, one of the scorched area’s first new structures after the fire of 1900.
Royal Saloon, 2 Merchant St.
Walter Peacock built the Royal Saloon on the lower side of Nuuanu Avenue, a grog strip known amongst sailors as “Fid street”–a fid is a nautical tool Webster defines as a “stout bar of wood or metal.” Except during Prohibition when the saloon was a furniture store, the hotel has been a dependable spot for swill. During the mid-19th century, Honolulu harbor would see a sharp increase in ship traffic, and seamen, merchants, captains and just about every other type of gentleman would stop at the hotel, as did King Kalakaua and Robert Louis Stevenson.
The Perry Block, corner of Nuuanu Avenue and Hotel Street
The Perry Block, built by Jason Perry’s widow, Anna, after he died, was one of the few buildings to survive the 17-day-long fire of 1900, as it was also one of the few made out of brick at the time. Perry assigned through his will that Ms.
Kamehameha V Post Office, 46 Merchant St.
The Kingdom of Hawaii organized its own postal system in 1851, and under the pressure of Postmaster General A.P. Brickwood, King Kamehameha V authorized an office built out of concrete blocks and iron bars, then an experimental construction method in Europe and unheard of in Hawaii.
A Merrie Band of 50
When kumu hula, singer and musician Robert Cazimero was asked to participate in the 50th annual Merrie Monarch Festival in April, he was a little hesitant–he generally competes only every 10 years, and swept the awards in 1995–until he heard they wanted his halau for hoike night. The hoike, one of Merrie Monarch’s most treasured moments, is held on Wednesday of Merrie Monarch week and never televised.
Listen Up
Boogie’s Blues
Listen Up / The Islands have always hosted more jazz than blues, dating back to the 1920s, when the genre first spread across the world and Louis Armstrong and the other greats played Chinatown clubs. (Check out Satchmo and Andy Iona on the 1928 album Jazz Goes Hawaiian.) Blues however, has simmered on the backburner of the local scene, only growing stronger recently.
WALK IT OFF
Gastronomer’s Guide to the Galaxy
WALK IT OFF / In a short matter of time, Oahu’s food scene got serious. The explosion of restaurants, pop-ups, food carts and farmers’ markets prove that a more sensitive culinary consciousness has finally reached the mainstream.
This week
Derelict Downtown
For as long as we can remember, Chinatown has been notorious for drugs, homelessness and filthy streets. Some claim nothing has changed–and that it never will.
Sweet Ride
Bicyclists have long been overlooked by four-wheel riders on Honolulu’s congested streets. In the gleaming, armored pecking order of the road, cyclists are too often dismissed as lane hogs, hand-signaling nuisances and unfortunates who can’t afford cars.
Hoopili miss
The fate of some 1,525 acres of land at Hoopili in ‘Ewa may have been decided last Wednesday in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The decision might have gone differently, but the appellant attorneys’ strategy seemed to collapse as Judge Rhonda Nishimura picked it apart based on technical errors.
Housing First $
Last Thursday, May 9, the Caldwell administration revealed its action plan for solving Honolulu’s homeless problem. But at the City Council’s budget meeting the same day, Budget chair Ann Kobayashi wanted to know where the money for “Housing First” (see Cover Story, pg.
Do it Wright
The Mayor Wright Housing project has been slated for major redevelopment by the Hawaii State Housing Authority (HSHA); requests for qualifications will be going out to developers in three to six months. Nonprofit group Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) wants to make sure the project’s tenants have a say in the redevelopment process, which could include major renovations or a total rebuild.
Street Disconnect
The Honolulu City Council held a special Committee on Transportation meeting on Tuesday, May 7, to go over its Complete Streets initiative with input from the department directors of Design and Construction (DDC), Planning and Permitting (DPP) and Transportation Services (DTS). At prior meetings, including the Moiliili workshop, community members pressed the idea of combining Complete Streets with Caldwell’s repaving projects, which Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and some councilmembers have said makes sense.
Stopping Growth
Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.
Get it together
In your Diary of May 8 (“End of the 27th)” you reported on SB 1214, passed by the Legislature. In their nimble way, the Legislature tacked the wheel boot prohibition on a bill that was intended to abolish the Commission on Transportation.
Look both ways
On Friday, May 3, at 3:45 p.m., I was driving town bound through the Wilson tunnel on the Likelike. I was parallel to another car, and there were several other cars following closely behind me.
Thank you!
Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).
Truth be told
When the biofuel guys say that costs are “confidential” (“Big-foot Biofuel,” May 8), I reply that since I am the one who is going to end up paying the cost, I have a right to know. Frankly, when everybody tries to hide the costs, I smell rat …
Nature’s beauty
The Foster Botanical Garden never ceases to inspire for an urban setting it is like a step back in time (“See the Flora,” May 8). If Koko Crater Botanical Garden contains the world’s largest plumeria collection as suggested, it may be thanks in part to the Prussian born Dr.
