In an interesting twist, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle in her second innaugural address came out squarely against major development at Turtle Bay and surrounding beaches. This fit in with her argument that should Hawaii continue to rely on land development to fuel the economy it will end up as an economic backwater. Sad but true. And I, likewise, think any additional development at Turtle Bay would be counter productive. As Lingle points out, existing hotels already cannot fill their job roles and fewer and fewer state residents want to go into low-end service jobs. So why create more of them and turn one of the few undeveloped swathes of Oahu into a condo-laden tourist trap? People talk about how we stymie the economy by not allowing for sufficient development but last time I checked Honolulu is full of sub-standard, single story retail blocks that could easily be razed and turned into work/live/shop three-story buildings with little or no effort. This would probably produce more good jobs overall but I haven't heard anyone talk about this. Perhaps my language is strong but Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hanneman is making a big, big mistake in supporting this project. All we really have right now is our beaches and our natural beauty. We're fooling ourselves if we say otherwise. The true question should be -- does Hanneman want to turn the north shore into Waikiki? Because that's apparently where its headed.

Related Posts: Kawela Bay, Turtle Bay on Sale

—Alex, 12/05/06