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Superferry sets off the battle of Kauai
Los Angeles Times ^ | October 9, 2007 | Tomas Alex Tizon

Posted on 10/10/2007 11:17:54 AM PDT by Lorianne

LIHUE, HAWAII -- The woman in the sun hat wants to crack someone in the jaw. It's been a bad day. Actually, for Kaiulani Huff, it's been a bad few decades.

She has watched as her home, the island of Kauai, changed from a wild garden of secret places to -- in her eyes -- an overcrowded amusement park for rich people.

"Welcome to Disneyland," she says one day while driving around the island. "See the natives. Watch us dance the hula. Clog up our roads. Buy up all the good land. And please, help yourselves to our beaches!"

Development on Kauai has been so unrelenting that Huff's sentiment has become widespread among longtime residents, although until recently it was a quiet simmering.

In late August, with the arrival of the Hawaii Superferry, the first inter-island car-carrying ferry, the simmering boiled over. Islanders, in the face of Coast Guard gunboats, formed a floating blockade at the harbor entrance and, after a three-hour standoff, forced the $85-million ferry to turn back to Honolulu. The protest had turned into a citizen uprising.

The crowd represented a motley army of beach bums and businessmen, lawyers and ex-cops, dopers and doctors, and at least one college instructor -- many of whom discovered for the first time that they shared the same concerns. How many tourists and resorts and subdivisions can a little island take?

"The population is saying, 'Enough already,' " says Dennis Chun, 57, who with his surfboard had helped lead the human flotilla.

At the forefront of that protest was Huff, her face covered in war paint, like her Polynesian ancestors going into battle. Unlike her ancestors, she wore a bamboo sun hat.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: ferry; housing; landuse; propertyrights
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To: Lorianne

The opposition to the Superferry is not “local” opposition. Oh yes, you’ll see a token “hawaiian” for flavor in the news but this CAVE (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) action is not locally driven and Green financed.
The EAS study the CAVEs want is for the harbor addition/expansion, not for the users of the harbor. However, the Hawaii State Supreme Court has forced a Maui judge, by unanimous dccision, to require an EAS and that judged has said the Superferry cannot operate until the EAS is complete. This is the same Supreme Court, in a 2-3 decision, that the term “people of Kauai” in the Kauai Charter, does not mean the people but the elected council. Therefore, it is the County Council who has the last say on property taxes, not the people.
The democrat controlled legislature has been requested by the Republican governor to call a special session to settle the “law” in this case. However, the disfunctional legislature, unwilling to upset 5% of the population, has yet to act.


21 posted on 10/10/2007 11:55:12 AM PDT by caisson71
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To: Centurion2000

LOL

I guess ‘cold’ is a personal definition, we go sunbathing at 60F...

As far as IT jobs, I know of several folks who telecommute from the L48 to “work” here. No big business tho.

Come on up and enjoy, in the winter the skiing is super and with very few tourists.


22 posted on 10/10/2007 11:55:51 AM PDT by ASOC (Yeah, well, maybe - but can you *prove* it?)
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To: XeniaSt
She doesn’t look like it to me, I think she is only part Kanaka, part something else.
23 posted on 10/10/2007 11:58:34 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: Lorianne

At first, I thought the article was about Richard Simmons running amok....


24 posted on 10/10/2007 12:01:11 PM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: SIDENET

I snagged 5 acres, 20 years ago. It shows on Google Earth as a rectangle of green in the middle of almost bare earth. From the air, you can’t even see the 2 homes on it. I still live in Florida, not on a golf course.


25 posted on 10/10/2007 12:02:08 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: Lorianne

Sounds like those who recently found ‘paradise’ now want to pull up the draw bridge and fill in the moat.


26 posted on 10/10/2007 12:03:14 PM PDT by AU72
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To: Lorianne

Typical yuppies: They buy where they want then think no one else should be alllowed to move in.

We have that here in Colorado. People have bought in the foothills and thinks no one else should be allowed in.


27 posted on 10/10/2007 12:03:51 PM PDT by CodeToad
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To: I see my hands
They are not your beaches, every beach in the state is public.

I stayed at a hotel in Hana, Maui that seemed to act as if a beautiful local beach was their property. While we were on the beach they had someone coming around to check that we were registered at the hotel. Apparently the hotel does own all the land surrounding the beach.

BTW one of the hotel workers told us that they had previously welcomed Hillary and Chelsea.

28 posted on 10/10/2007 12:05:52 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: Abathar
She doesn’t look like it to me, I think she is only part Kanaka, part something else.

She looks like the girls I knew from Kamehameha Schools to me

29 posted on 10/10/2007 12:06:05 PM PDT by Uri’el-2012 (you shall know that I, YHvH, your Savior, and your Redeemer, am the Elohim of Ya'aqob. Isaiah 60:16)
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To: Lorianne

Another depiction of the “we got ours, ef everyone else” type.


30 posted on 10/10/2007 12:08:50 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
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To: wideawake

One thing about this island is the road system is so limited (and will remain limited) that cars from other islands will choak the island in a terrible manner.

The island has basically one small highway to connect all points. There are a few chords that serve small area but the interior can’t have a higway penetrate it due to the mountainous canyon filled rain forest that gets so much rain and the perimeter highway can’t be made into a full perimeter highway due to the NaPalli Cliffs on the NW side, a national treasure.

I spent two weeks there in the eighties and found it a paradise on earth.


31 posted on 10/10/2007 12:10:33 PM PDT by KC Burke (Men of intemperate minds can never be free...their passions forge their fetters.)
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To: wideawake

Most people don’t realize that Kuaui gets 10,000,000 tourists a year.

I’ve been there 6 times....and the mountians prevent high populations, but the urban areas are just like anywhere else.

There is one road that circumvents the island...and at times the traffic is awful.


32 posted on 10/10/2007 12:10:58 PM PDT by Halgr (Once a Marine, always a Marine - Semper Fi)
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To: Lorianne

Sorry, I thought superfairy was John Edwards.

My bad.


33 posted on 10/10/2007 12:11:13 PM PDT by Eagle Eye (If you agree with Democrats you agree with America's enemies.)
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To: XeniaSt
I've been there a few times, but you sound like you know a lot more about it than I do.

how many natives live there vs. foreigners, do you know?

34 posted on 10/10/2007 12:14:09 PM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: Lorianne

We lived in Hawaii. An extremely socialistic mindset. The natives desperately want haole dollars, and not only from tourists. Seemed that they counted on others in the workplace to do the hard work to provide tax dollars. If it was a good surf day, we didn’t expect a full staff. Natives complained that they were losing their culture (which they were, sadly), but it seems that was the tradeoff they were willing to make in exchange for the almighty dollar. Can’t have it both ways.

I love Hawaii and would return in a heartbeat if DH was so inclined — which he isn’t. It IS a stunningly beautiful place. The aesthetic changes HAVE been terrible from the ‘70s when I first visited until now; it IS way too crowded, industrialized, etc. Fie on the fat old men in their teeny-tiny Speedos! I miss the slower pace that used to be. But you can say that about almost any place in America. People call it “progress”; I’m not sure I agree. But we all have to suck it up.


35 posted on 10/10/2007 12:15:38 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: wideminded
There are no private beaches in Hawaii. All resort hotel beaches are public. If a private individual owns beach front property "his" beach is public. The island of Niihau is owned by one man and is a private island. Niihau's beaches are public.

36 posted on 10/10/2007 12:15:46 PM PDT by I see my hands (_8(|)
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To: XeniaSt

I was referring to this picture when I first posted it, there are quite a few non-natives there I think.

37 posted on 10/10/2007 12:18:35 PM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: XeniaSt

The other picture is full of Ha’oles...


38 posted on 10/10/2007 12:24:35 PM PDT by dakine
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To: Halgr
My wife hails from an exotic island paradise in New Jersey known as Long Beach Island.

It gets probably more than 10 million discrete tourist trips per year.

It is 18 miles long and 0.5 miles wide, there is only one road from the mainland and there is only one road that goes from end to end of the island. Probably 3 of the 9 square miles are curfewed or private beaches.

In January it has a population of 8,000 and on summer weekends it has a population of about 125-150,000.

This crazy painted hag should count her blessings.

39 posted on 10/10/2007 12:26:05 PM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that so many self-proclaimed "Constitutionalists" know so little about the Constitution?)
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To: wideawake; SWAMPSNIPER
Apparently, none of these luddites have ever been to Maine, or Bermuda. If you haven't got the dough, Joe, you can make it off the tourists and still keep your isl;and as pristine and pure as you wish, you merely have to figure out how.

I have to tell you, my favorite island is actually Miolokai, and every "native" I have met there is as dumb as box of rocks with a surly attitude on top of the no-smarts.

When the Hawaiian Isklands were first discovered, the Beach was Royal Property and woe betide any lowly commoner that wanted to hang around and surf. A commoner was not allowed to even look at a nobleman, but had to throw himself to the ground and lie there motionless until the august personage passed.

40 posted on 10/10/2007 12:27:24 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk ( Teddy K's 'Immigration Reform Act' of 1965. ¡Grácias, Borracho!)
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