I’d never been to a Honolulu City Council meeting until a few weeks ago. Features, not politics, was my beat.
We’ve all seen them: huge gouges in our roads that look as if a meteor took a bite out of the asphalt. Potholes.
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Just as destiny is not manifest, the Honolulu rail is not a done deal.
Otto Cake is open. But the door is locked.
In the early 1950s, when architect Patrick Onishi was a youngster, the Waikiki shoreline lay wide open to sunlight and breezes, punctuated by trees, lawns, low-lying wooden houses, sea walls and piers. There were maybe three hotels on the beach: the Moana Surfrider, Royal Hawaiian and Halekulani.
A new kind of electrical meter is coming to Hawaii, one smart enough to engage in two-way communications with the power plant. Utility companies like them because they offer real time reports on consumption, outages and other factors that affect reliability of the grid.
It’s ba-a-a-a-ack! Tax season is here to remind us just how much we made–or didn’t make–last year, and what we pay for procrastinating.
As Hawaii struggles to feed and fuel itself, agricultural lands are becoming increasingly critical. In 2008, the legislature passed a law requiring each county to identify and preserve its choicest farm lands.
As the principals of The Descendants prepare to stroll down Oscar’s red carpet, and the 119th anniversary of Queen Liliuokalani’s overthrow is observed, a major and masterful new book about Hawaii hits the shelves. Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s First Imperial Adventure, is big, scholarly and highly readable.
With the Internet and 24-hour news networks, we have more exposure to more information than in any other time in history. Yet when it comes to environmental issues like global warming and marine plastic pollution, people still seem lost in a cluttered sea of conflicting opinions, scientific reports and urban myths.
What’s it take to win the Honolulu Weekly Fiction Contest? Nothing short of an intriguing, beautifully crafted story with a local edge.
We as a species have always grown old and died, so why is such a time-tested scenario becoming so difficult for our society to address? Today’s average caregiver, according to Colette Browne from the Center on Aging at the University of Hawaii, is a 57 year-old woman who is struggling to provide care to an elder while still working and raising her own children.
For decades Bill Maher has pushed the boundaries of political satire with TV shows like “Politically Incorrect” and his current “Real Time” on HBO. Maher is also a bestselling author, his newest book, The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody but Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.
The Weekly interviewed District 1 city councilman Tom Berg back in July [see “Rail Done Right,” July 6], well before the police were called to a Waipahu Neighborhood Board meeting when he refused to stand down, and an allegedly drunken argument took place with APEC security details. At the time, it was hard not to agree with a lot of what he had to say about the rail project’s misgivings.
Politics / As Sen. Daniel Inouye struggles to keep the Akaka Bill afloat by slipping it into a spending measure drafted by his Appropriations Committee, the state is embarking on a parallel process for Native Hawaiian recognition through Act 195.
Q & A / As co-sponsor of Act 55, which established the Public Land Development Corp. (PLDC), state Sen.
Economics / President Barack Obama brought the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference to its eagerly anticipated–at least for Honolulu residents–close on Sunday, Nov. 13 at Ko Olina.
Q&A / Sitting on a bench outside Kahala Whole Foods, I blurt out a confession to Claire Sullivan: “I usually only eat food like Oreo Cakesters.” Sullivan, the coordinator of purchasing and public affairs for Hawaii’s Whole Foods stores, lets out an easygoing laugh. A graduate of Punahou, the London School of Economics and with a master’s degree in nature, society and environmental policy from Oxford University, she has played an instrumental role in connecting with the 250 local vendors whose products can be found in the Kahala and Kahului Whole Foods.
An international conference takes place Wednesday, Nov. 9, and is designed to bring attention to Pacific Island peoples’ struggle against APEC and globalization.
Food & Agriculture / According to a study done by the Rocky Mountain Institute, beef consumers in the islands eat upwards of 250,000 whole beef cows annually. Hawaii Department of Agriculture reports that all but 11,000 cows come from somewhere else.
“Land that the [Hawaii] Supreme Court said cannot be sold will be up for these long-term leases and sweetheart deals. That seems really immoral to me.” –Marti Townsend The state is creating a new entity to spur private development of public lands through a process that, according to critics, will open the door to sweetheart deals, leaving citizens with little oversight.
Environment / “…pursue energy independence.”–Gov. Neil Abercrombie Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO), Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), and Maui Electric Company (MECO)–all owned by Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.–have come up with a proposal to produce biofuel.
Food and Farming / At the turn of the millennium, while working for the US Census, Kukui Maunakea-Forth saw the poverty of her Nanakuli-Waianae community translated into statistics as her husband, Gary Maunakea-Forth, sent 15-year-olds to McDonald’s for their first jobs through his work at City & County Workforce Development. “Superfluous of how bad the food is, to send someone there when they’re young is like a bullet in the head,” Gary recalls.
Given the city’s crumbling infrastructure and rail controversy, it’s hard to believe anyone would want to be the next mayor of Honolulu. But a few do want the job, including the incumbent, Mayor Peter Carlisle, the former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney who won a 2010 special election to fill the remainder of Mufi Hannemann’s term.
I’d never been to a Honolulu City Council meeting until a few weeks ago. Features, not politics, was my beat.
Victoria Holt Takamine is a kumu hula, a cultural activist and a teacher and has an impeccable pedigree to back up all these titles. Born of an alii family whose kuleana was in Moanalua, she graduated as a hula teacher under the legendary Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake and taught hundreds of students in her own halau (Pua Alii ‘Ilima) and at the University of Hawaii.
On April 25, a state judge dismissed trespassing charges against a Kauai man after finding that he had been exercising traditional native Hawaiian rights hunting wild pigs on private land. Kui Palama, 28, was arrested on Jan.
The city plans to dish out $3.5 million from its Affordable Housing Fund and either purchase or renovate a structure to provide transitional housing for Honolulu’s special needs homeless population. “Our community has invested considerable effort and resources in addressing homelessness,” Mayor Peter Carlisle said in a statement, “but there remains a population whose disabilities or chronic conditions make it difficult for them to participate in traditional shelter programs.” Carlisle is referring to those homeless with mental illnesses, addictions and physical disabilities.
Makaweli Poi faces an uncertain future after its owner, a corporate subsidiary of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) ordered the West Kauai mill to suspend operations May 23. Mona Bernardino, chief operating officer of the corporation, Hiipoi LLC, says the move to shut down Makaweli Poi was prompted mainly by financial concerns.
A resolution adopted by the City Council will solidify an agreement between the City and County of Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Water Resources Research Center (UH-WRRC) to conduct an analysis of impacts from ocean sewer outfalls on the marine environments off of Oahu. The city will pay UH-WRRC as much as $2.5 million for biological and sediment studies in portions between now and June 30, 2017 .
Along with the deep, verdant growth of spring sprouts an unyielding desire to spend more time in the open air. That’s why it should come as no surprise that National Bike Month falls in the sun-drenched time of May.
Of the many letters you publish against rail, how many offer an alternative that won’t send us into further economic demise? Billions of gallons of oil are imported for us from every oil-producing nation on this planet so that we can buy billions of gallons of gasoline.
TheBus is taking a back seat to rail. At the May 3 Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting, an audience member asked city Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka when we could expect the bus route cancellations and changes to be reversed.
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