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Changing Hawaii
IS anyone else's forehead frozen into a frown over Governor Cayetano's intent to close the Ala Wai Golf Course so it can become a huge public park in Waikiki? Personally, my face is all scrunched up like when I'm eating lemon peel. Illogical plans for
Ala Wai Golf CourseWhat was Cayetano thinking? Does he realize the torrent of ideas that will start flooding in once he changes the designated use of the most popular municipal golf course in the world?
Sure enough, they came. Suggestions by well-meaning folks who believe that, instead of or in addition to a small park on the Ala Wai course, we should build:
Must government fiddle with absolutely everything, everywhere, every time?A 60,000-seat football stadium "under the shadow of Diamond Head" to take advantage of the "fan base and easy commute." (Not when there are only 10-12 home games in the UH Warriors season, two or three annual bowl games, and a bunch of high school jousts that don't even fill half of 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium.)
The Ala Wai is a centrally located, well-maintained, easy-to-play home course to junior golfers, retirees, occasional hackers and tourists. It's always busy and making big bucks for the city.
Now here comes an illogical leader who says there's no money for raises for all state workers, or pressing obligations like improved public education and much-needed social services.
Yet there's moolah to redevelop the Ala Wai into a park; hire additional groundskeepers, maintenance workers and security personnel; and build an estimated $10- to 12-million replacement course on Sand Island? Could we, pretty please, officially get out of the recession first?
ANOTHER head-scratcher to ponder: The governor makes his edict to shut down the golf course then announces that he and his chum, newly re-elected Mayor Harris, are going to assemble a "visioning team" to discuss what should be plopped on the site.
Isn't the democratic process supposed to go like this: Visioning team -- made up of community and neighborhood leaders, business people, residents, and an elected official or two -- tells governor and mayor what usage it would suggest for a parcel of public land, not the other way around?
But here's the maddening clincher: Cayetano made this announcement about the need to preserve green space, not at a meeting of the Outdoor Circle or Sierra Club, but at a gathering of the Japan-Hawaii Economic Council.
The key word in the above association is "economic" -- as in making money, development, building and construction, and lucrative business deals. Now what does that tell you about what's really in store for this precious plot?
Pass the lemon peel.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
dchang@starbulletin.com, or by fax at 523-7863.