OUR TOP ISSUES

There's a strong community consensus to preserve the island lifestyle of the Waianae Coast

1. Development, taking properties out of agriculture or conservation and using it for some sort of development.

It's always been “;keep the country country.”; We are a country community. It has grown, and we do have an influx of new blood, people not from Hawaii, and there's always been a steady stream. There's a sense that we have to remain ag; we have to have these buffers.

We recently revisited our sustainable communities plan. The feeling is to keep growth to a minimum; let's keep this or that area in conservation or ag—there's still a strong consensus to holding that line. That's what one hears here, long and strong.

2. Industrial projects encroaching. These are being pushed further and further out, past Campbell Industrial Park, closer to this area. Is that really positive?

We'd rather see old ag land remain fallow, just left as open space; there's no need to fill it with something that'll cause more pressure on a community, with heavy equipment coming in and out of the community.

3. Concern over becoming the low-income shelter capital of Oahu. The emergency shelter initiative that the governor started here was excellent at first. It started a movement toward allowing people off the beach or off an emergency situation, that then allowed them to transfer into transitional housing and into a normal stream of housing. But with the emergency shelter came two or three more transitional projects, on top of two already existing ones, then next thing, in come more developments for low-income housing. So on top of the four or five low-income housing recently built, there are two or three more in the planning—and that's very disheartening. Everyone needs affordable housing, but it doesn't need to put all in our community. In bad economic times, our property values go down the fastest.

They need to build housing closer to where the jobs are. It's become very saturated. And there are issues that come with that: Infrastructure and roads are at capacity, and where are all our children gong to go to school?

4. Traffic in our community. Ingress and egress flares up as an issue whenever there's some pole that got brought down by an accident, or an old pole that just comes down, affecting traffic. We have one ingress and egress off coastline and community, and if that gets blocked by a water main break or accident, we're sitting in traffic for hours.

5. Military and training issues. There is concern from some about things like not being able to use Kolekole Pass, old munition off our coastline—which we're finally starting to make some headway on—and there's the use of Makua Valley for training. The military is a a large presence in our community, and there has been friction over the years, and we have had to work our way through the issues. This is like two neighbors trying to get along together for 100 years.

6. Education is always a top issue, with most of our schools not making the aptitude tests, all failing with the exception of one school.

SO SPECIAL

True ohana feeling

People have a lot of passion out here, a lot of passion. Perhaps it's a passion for a particular issue, for keeping the community at a certain level, a passion for wanting to preserve and making sure we're doing the best that we can to pass things on to the next generation. It could be education or a knowledge of what we have.

There is a lot of sense of ohana out here. You do find that elsewhere in Hawaii, but you really feel it out here. When there's an issue, people will come out. When people want changes, they will come out. We are all connected out here somehow, we are used to being all related, that sense of togetherness. We all do seem to be bonded by family, or hanai bonds. There is a passion for the country, enjoying the mountains and ocean. When you're out here, everything just melts away.

FACTS & FIGURES

» Waianae in Hawaiian means “;mullet water,”; perhaps due to mullet in the brackish pools once common in the backshore of many beaches there.

From 2000 census:

» The population of 10,506 people included 41.9 percent of two or more races. Of those citing a single race, 27.3 percent were native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 19.4 percent Asian, 9.4 percent white and 0.81 percent African-American; Among all races, 14 percent cited Hispanic roots.

» The area is about 5 square miles; 3.4 square miles of land and 1.7 square miles of water.

» The median family income was $48,145. The median income was $32,328 for males, versus $22,451 for females.