Economics
APEC, All Pau
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.
Features
Q&A
The Whole Story
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.
What Should We Know, What Should We Do?
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
It’s what’s for dinner
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.
No Man’s Land
“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
New Day. Bio-Massive Bills.
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.
Environment
Hitch Hiking
Environment / Invasive species pose the single biggest threat to Hawaii’s general health, economy and natural environment, according to the National Wildlife Research Center. And the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) is our front line of defense against them.
Food and Farming
Science of Symbiosis
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.
Science
Mauna Kea–Sacred Summit or Cash Cow?
Science / To Hawaiians, the top of Mauna Kea is the pinnacle of prayer, where Papa and Wakea meet. The world’s tallest mountain, at 13,769 feet, is also the only tropical alpine desert in the world.
Outside
Getting High
Outside / When people think of being outdoors in Hawaii, they typically picture being at the beach. In the world of rock climbing, Hawaii has never really been well known; moreover, most of our sharp, volcanic rock is assumed by most mainland climbers to be less-than-climbable.
Green
Spending Money to Stay Uncomfortable?
Green / Saunders Hall at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has been home to multiple environmental projects, including a solar energy test bed. It’s hard to believe that until five years ago the building was doing more harm than good.
Health
Body, Ink-orporated
Health / In the state of Hawaii, it’s illegal for anyone other than a licensed professional, working in a professional studio, to work as a tattoo artist. There are potential health risks involved, and tattooing is an especially easy way to transmit communicable diseases–like hepatitis, HIV, HPV and tuberculosis–when proper health guidelines aren’t followed.
Development
Unstoppable Growth
Development / With new developments happening all over the place–and a couple of controversial ones looming menacingly on the horizon–Oahu residents have to ask themselves: What is the limit to growth on Oahu? According to the 2010 census, 953,207 people currently reside in Honolulu County–up 8.8 percent from the year 2000.
Development
My City of Ruins
Development / It seems a shame that verdant squares of fenced-off, overgrown plots remain untouched, languishing in terra-purgatory. Who owns that huge lot on Dillingham Boulevard and Colburn Street, the plot on King Street and Poha Lane or Kapiolani Boulevard and Hauoli Street?
Community
Island Sweeps
Community / On May 17, 2011, Gov. Neil Abercrombie released his 90-Day Plan on Homelessness in Hawaii: A (surprisingly short) manifesto consisting of nine objectives “designed to provide visible, measurable and significant relief that will benefit persons who are chronically homeless.” The 90-day mark is fast approaching, as is APEC 2011.
Community
It Takes a Neighborhood
Community / Prostitution has been a part of life in Downtown Honolulu for many years. Hookamakama was the Hawaiian term referring to sailors seeking amorous ladies during their ship stops in the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Community
Shrinking Groceries?
Community / Customers these days are paying more for groceries. We all know that.
Green
Safe For Whom?
Hawai‘i Farmers Union United, HB 667 / Local farmers met with Governor Abercrombie at his office last week to talk about food safety and the future of small farms. While recent federal reform of food safety regulations has made exceptions for some farmers, many here in Hawaii say that a bill passed out of the Hawaii legislature last month–HB 667–advantages big agribusiness over small farms and will put some families out of business.
Community
Take, Leave…Whatevas
HI-5, Eating in Public / Eating In Public–the organization that’s taken on the public HI-5 recycling challenge on Oahu–provides cheap and efficient handmade, wire mesh recycling cages throughout the Island. Their signs are familiar to most of us: HI-5.
Safety
The Customer is Always Right?
Hawai'i Housekeepers / On June 16, 2011, a Kihei man received a life sentence for the March 12 unprovoked multiple stabbing of a 62-year-old hotel housekeeper who was cleaning his room at the WorldMark Resort in Kihei, Maui. According to MauiTime, the victim was left paralyzed and has had to re-learn how to speak, how to walk and how to sit up.
Legal
End of Hilo’s Holy War?
Rev. Roger Christie / With a new attorney and a delayed trial date, Hilo’s marijuana minister plans to challenge the basis of the government’s case by calling into question the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) current, allegedly disingenuous, classification of marijuana. Facing anywhere from five to 40 years in federal prison for crimes relating to the distribution of marijuana, Rev.
Environment
Plastic Patrol
International Surf Day / Even when campaigns fail and change seems impossible, activists like those with the Surfrider Foundation stay optimistic enough to eventually overcome the hurdles. With about 300 chapters worldwide–from Oahu to Japan–and four chapters in Hawaii alone, the group is celebrating International Surf Day on June 20th, an event started in 2002 by Matt McClain, the marketing and communications director of the Surfrider Foundation Headquarters in California.
Opinion
Eating Statistics
Opinion / Childhood obesity statistics have caught the attention of every aspect of our nation. Currently, between 16 and 33 percent of children and adolescents are obese.
Mauka to Makai
From Farm to Fork
Mauka to Makai / Imagine: It’s Saturday morning. You take the kids and head down to your local farmers market to pick up your weekly box of fruits, vegetables, taro and sweet potatoes from your ahupuaa co-op.
Mending the Mortgage Mess
On a rainy January morning in downtown Honolulu, a small group of dejected homeowners met in a coffeehouse to commiserate with each other about the impending foreclosures on their family homes. Each blamed large, deceptive Mainland mortgage lenders for a variety of dishonest actions–and in some cases outright fraud–for the “wrongful” loss of their homes.
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.
