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Water Ways Ray Pendleton |
Still waiting for our
own Marina del ReyIt must be hydrophobia that keeps our state's movers-and-shakers from seeing Hawaii's huge potential in ocean recreation.
How else to explain why a tropical island archipelago like ours has so few boating facilities and they're so poorly maintained?
This came to mind as I was reading an article in the January issue of Sea Magazine about the renovation projects going on at Southern California's Marina del Rey.
It reminded me of a legislative hearing I had attended six years ago, when Rep. Cynthia Thielen asked the head of the Department of Boating and Ocean Recreation, "How do we get a Marina del Rey in Hawaii?"
She was asking because she had recently flown over it on her way into L.A.
Her question went largely unanswered, but I later opined in this column that without some near-revolutionary philosophical changes by the state in marina development and management, we would never see such a facility here.
Marina del Rey was constructed on 800 acres in the early 1960s through a cooperative effort between Los Angeles County, the state of California and the Army Corps of Engineers, with an original capital investment of $36 million.
Public funding financed the creation of the harbor entrance, the main channel, eight mooring basins, the surrounding infrastructure and the public use features.
Then the private sector -- under some 50 long-term, fast land leases -- constructed 20 separate boating facilities with more than 5,000 slips, along with ancillary businesses such as boat yards, dealerships, hardware stores, hotels, restaurants, shops and condos.
It has been said that this combination of public lands and funding, combined with private investment and management, has created L.A. County's most successful revenue-generating project.
So now, because those involved know they must care for this gold-egg-laying goose, according to Sea Magazine, $30 million has been spent to renovate Marina del Rey's seawalls and dredge the main channel.
More millions are being spent to replace the older, wooden docks -- 2,200 to date -- with state-of-the-art concrete docks.
These projects are soon to be followed by a new retail center, a dry-stack boat storage facility, a water taxi shuttle service and new promenades for increased public access.
As Roger Moliere, chief of the Asset Management Division of the L.A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors, is quoted in the article, "It's a labor of love -- and when it is finished, people will think of Marina del Rey as a destination resort."
Hello? Isn't that what Hawaii is supposed to be all about?
But can you think of one Marina del Rey-like facility in our state? Even a scaled-down version?
The privately owned and operated Ko Olina Marina comes about as close as you can find here, but even it is, at present, lacking many of the amenities that would qualify it as comparable.
One day it will be surrounded with ancillary businesses, but they're not a reality yet.
And trying to compare the state-operated marinas such as Oahu's Keehi Lagoon and Ala Wai, or Maui's Lahaina and Maalaea, or the Big Island's Kawaihae and Honokohau is laughable.
Certainly, there's potential in all those locations. But where will we find leaders who don't fear the water around us and rather, look upon it as another solution to Hawaii's quest for a more diversified economy?
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Ray Pendleton is a free-lance writer based in Honolulu.
His column runs Saturdays in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at raypendleton@mac.com.