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This Week in Review
November 09, 2006
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1
Tourist arrivals in Hawai`i are nearly at last year's record-breaking numbers, Pacific Business News tells us, though my glee is tempered somewhat by the Seabury Hall Philosophy Club
debate on "Truth and Authenticity in Marketing Aloha" I attended this
evening. Expecting a spirited defense of showy, touristy public
relations, I instead found a panel of marketing specialists who spoke
candidly of how efforts to sell Hawai`i for fun and profit could ruin
the island if not moderated. After calling marketing "a game of
reshuffling cliches," noted and talented writer Paul Wood—who's
lived in Hawai`i 30 years—actually apologized for making a living
selling Hawai`i to tourists. He regretted playing a role in the general
reduction of the Hawaiian people to the status of "decor." Then Ka`anapali Beach Hotel General Manager Mike White
jumped in by noting that recent tourist-related land development trends
are irresponsible from a tax-policy perspective. "We've allowed too
many timeshares, condos and million-dollar homes," he said. "We're in
the process of cutting off our future cash flow [in the name of]
short-term profits. At the state tax level, timeshares generate 30
percent of what a hotel does." But it was Wood's candor and sympathy
that really stole the show. "Hawaiian people are disenfranchised from
the profits [of tourist marketing] and dwindling in our own time," Wood
said at one point. "How is that pono?" Later he noted that Hawaiians
make up just nine percent of the population as a whole but 41 percent
of our prisoners. "Have you noticed that most Hawaiian people are
hiding out?" he asked. "They've been beaten down. They're not healthy.
The truth is we glorify the Hawaiian people for creating this culture
but they are our niggers. I'm sorry, but they are our niggers."
THURSDAY, Nov. 2
Enough about bringing more tourists here—what about the fact that middle-income people who already live here have to bring in tenants if they're going to make their stratospheric mortgage payments? Today's Maui News doesn't exactly offer hope that a solution's on its way. In the County Council chambers, members—including Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Charmaine Tavares—are pushing a Workforce Housing Ordinance
that would require 40 to 50 percent of residential projects to sell for
"affordable" prices. But upstairs, feeling the pain of land developers
who say the policy is draconian and the concern from two bank-employed
economists worried that such requirements will result in less
affordably priced housing, Mayor Alan Arakawa—who
is running for reelection against Tavares—is threatening to veto the
bill while he lobbies the real estate community to back him up. And, of
course, all this is taking place less than a week before the big
election that will either return Arakawa to office or eliminate his
authority all together. Isn't politics fun?
FRIDAY, Nov. 3
At least a couple dozen people were lined up in front of the Kalana O Maui Building
in Wailuku this morning as I drove in to work, all holding "Affordable
Housing" signs and waving at passing cars. They were there to show
their support for the Workforce Housing Ordinance, which was on the
County Council's agenda for a second and final reading. Of course, it
was the very last item on the agenda, behind such important items as
indemnifying Liquor Control Director Franklyn Silva and Deputy Director Wayne Pagan
from personal liability in the big booze cruise lawsuit (see "LC
Director Silva Sued!, Nov. 2, 2006) and approving more money for
outside counsel in the Jack Williams/firefighter
union lawsuit (see "Round Two," Oct. 5, 2006). But when the council
finally got around to the bill Arakawa has pledged to veto, they
approved it by a vote of eight to zero (Dain Kane
was excused). Arakawa's sure to veto it, but since it just takes four
council votes to override a veto, it's probably a safe bet that the
bill is law.
SATURDAY, Nov. 4
Those poor, poor developers.
SUNDAY, Nov. 5
Ironically, on the same day a friend who has to drive regularly from
South Maui to Lahaina tells me that the county and state shouldn't pave
one more inch of asphalt until they can figure out how to make sure our
existing roads and streets don't turn into a quagmire during
rainstorms, the state Department of Transportation announces that it's paying $48 million to Honolulu-based Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. so it can build the mighty Lahaina Bypass road. Oh wait, minibypass road. Turns out this is just a temp fix—like the Paia minibypass road
that floods out every time it rains—that will run a mile from
Lahainaluna Road to Keawe Street. Hawaiian Dredging, which has already
built Oahu's Aloha Stadium, Ala Moana Center and the H1 and H2
freeways, will start work at the end of the year and must finish the
project in just 750 days. Now if you think giving a construction firm
slightly more than two years to pave a mile of road is a bit much, then
you obviously haven't lived on Maui for very long. Besides, such a
torturous schedule fits in beautifully with both the bypass history and
Hawaiian Dredging's own corporate ownership. See, in 2002, the firm
became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese construction giant Kajima,
and Kajima knows all about torture. In 2000, after decades of
complaining, the company finally agreed to pay $4.6 million in
reparations for the enslavement, beating, torture and sometimes killing
of a thousand Chinese prisoners at a copper mine in Hanaoka, Japan.
MONDAY, Nov. 6
Great news for all you Dante's Cove fans out there! Today's online Pacific Business News says that Regent Entertainment,
which produces the cable miniseries, is going to take advantage of
Hawai`i's lucrative tax breaks for movie companies and film more
episodes here! For those few of you who've never heard of Dante's Cove, here's a synopsis straight from Regent: "Fleeing an unhappy home life, Kevin is excited about moving in with his lover, Toby, at a beachside apartment complex, the Hotel Dante.
However, the young tenants of the old hotel soon suspect that its
supernatural and sinister past may be alive and well. Lesbian goth
Van, party girl Amber, and slacker Cory
are among those who attempt to solve the mystery as the door has been
opened to a world of evil forces that wreak havoc in the hip beach
town." Really, does TV get any better than that?
TUESDAY, Nov. 7
Still counting.
Anthony Pignataro totally knew the
election was going to turn out that way but didn't want to say anything
and spoil everyone's fun. MTW