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Can anyone save
our marinas?

The e-mailed copy of a letter I received last week wasn't addressed to Santa Claus, but for all the good it will do for the sender, I'm afraid it should have been.

It was, instead, addressed to the President of the United States and it pleaded for his help in getting Hawaii's politicians and bureaucrats to do something about the tragic conditions of our state-run marinas.

Its author was Kevin Baughman who lives aboard a boat with his wife, Pam, in Keehi Lagoon. He had earlier written a similar letter to Gov. Lingle and Peter Young, the head of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, but there had been no reply.

Both letters are somewhat rambling but heartfelt indictments of the current state of Hawaii's Small Boat Harbors and their management practices. And both cover many of the same issues chronicled here and elsewhere for a decade or more.

One of Baughman's complaints is in regard to the state's inconsistency in regulating live-aboards.

Why, he asks, are boat owners only allowed to live aboard in the Ala Wai and Keehi harbors, even though there are no laws or rules that deny that right in other state-run harbors?

He has been told that because it has not been expressly allowed in the state's administrative rules, it is therefore illegal and he will be cited if he attempts to live aboard in Maalaea on Maui, for instance.

Baughman questions whether this sort of prohibition by omission is part of the freedoms he was protecting during his 10 years in the Navy. And, he wonders, wouldn't allowing more live-aboards help alleviate Hawaii's housing shortage?

Another area of concern for Baughman is the deplorable physical conditions in all our state-run marinas.

He notes the state has the constitutional responsibility for cleaning up slums, and with the way the docks are falling apart, if they don't fit the definition of slums, what does?

Shouldn't the state spend general fund revenues on the marinas, rather than funding everything from the meager Boating Special Fund exclusively, he asks? After all, the state spends millions on every other infrastructure that accommodates our growing population.

The fact that most state-run marinas have become slum-like surely contributes to what Baughman depicts as a situation similar to the Indian Territories of the 1800s, where it's said only the outlaws were safe to live.

"Theft is common. I've witnessed drug use and sales -- as well as prostitution -- in the harbor parking lot," he writes. "And this was in the middle of the afternoon."

These people seem to know the city police won't respond to state property unless there is a violent crime and that DLNR enforcement ends at 5 p.m., he adds.

Baughman's letter ends with, "I know there are a lot of bigger issues you have to deal with, but please, can you ask the people who govern this state to reevaluate the situation here?"

How's that for a Christmas wish? I just hope Santa's listening.