The almost-extinct scent of journalists–coffee, cigarettes, a hint of cheap cologne–wafted from the fast flicking of notepad pages being inked in shorthand. It was May 24, 2012, and in a packed courtroom the Hawaii Supreme Court oral arguments for Kaleikini v.
Recent decisions–to build a rail from nowhere to nowhere useful, to urbanize prime Hoopili and Koa Ridge farmland, to approve Symphony Towers’ exemption from Kakaako zoning, to allow Kyo-Ya to extend 60 feet into public beach–all amount to another Great Mahele. It will benefit only the big players in real estate, development, energy, communications and political patronage.
On May 12, Time magazine identified “The 20 Best and Worst Cities for Public Transit.” Thanks to TheBus, Honolulu is No. 1 in the nation on the “best” list.
Rather than the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ new chief executive officer, Kamanaopono Crabbe prefers to call himself OHA’s kapouhana (a metaphor for the central posts of a house). “It’s more aligned with how we’re trying to infuse culture into our organizational structure,” he explains during a phone interview.
Our terrible pattern of suburban sprawl recently led to the inglorious distinction of Honolulu being named the most congested city in the United States. The average person in Hawaii now spends 58 hours a year stuck in traffic.
It can’t be comfortable for City employees to appear at hearings as the City’s expert witnesses. They have to parrot the City position, yet not betray their professional integrity.
In April, after three years of Sundays at the Haleiwa Farmers Market (HFM), the State Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a vacate order to owners Pamela Boyar and Annie Suite, who currently rent the space month-to-month. The reason given by DOT for its sudden order was Section 264-101 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes: “Vending from highways is prohibited.” The market occupies a 2.5-acre portion of Kamehameha Highway that has been closed to traffic since the Joseph P.
Mauka to Makai / A recent finding that Honolulu is No. 1 in traffic congestion in the US is being touted by some as proof that the city needs heavy rail.
“I’m having a hard time not swearing right now,” Spike Kane says in his UK accent, all smiles after his first surf session at the second annual Hawaii “They Will Surf Again” event hosted by the Life Rolls On Foundation (LRO). “It just feels so good to be in the water again.” Kane beams.
Into Willie Sabel’s vast and detailed set enter a cast of rippled sweatshirts and oversized shoulder-pads, thanks to Dusty Behner’s sense of color and history, and Lisa Ponce de Leon’s especially-80s hairstyles. A few of the bunch even manage to hold-their-own against the largeness that is the setting of Dividing the Estate, the newest show to hit Manoa Valley Theatre.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.
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.
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.
Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).
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 …
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.
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