Thursday, May 14, 2009

Musings: This Is Not Good

Another day dawned with no rain in sight, and the grass in Hanalei, of all places, is already starting to turn brown. And summer is still officially five weeks away. This is not good.

As I drove up to the North Shore yesterday, I heard a guest on KKCR talking about how Kauai is the wettest spot on Earth, which may be debatable. But even if it’s true, the reference is solely to Waialeale, not the entire island, so it creates a false sense of abundance.

In truth, water remains a dwindling and precious commodity on Kauai, like ag land. So I was a bit concerned when farmer Jerry told me that former Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura has proposed holding off on the enforcement of transient vacation rentals (TVRs) on ag lands until the important ag land study is completed. It seems rather ludicrous to back off after the County Council went through the laborious process of drafting a TVR ordinance that specifically precludes their use on ag land.

As Jerry noted, it gives folks the idea that only the lands deemed “important” will be worth saving, which then puts all the other ag lands up for grabs. And if we’re ever going to achieve anything close to self-sufficiency in food, we’ll need all the ag land we can get. Such an approach also fails to help those who IMHO are the only ones who should have a TVR on ag land — the true farmers who could use the income boost from a rental to help them keep farming.

Meanwhile, Joe Brescia is trying to add another vacation rental to the burgeoning North Shore mix. Construction quietly resumed on his oceanfront house yesterday as workers began installing brackets atop the concrete pilings that are atop the burials.


Work has been shut down since last fall, well before the Burial Council rejected the burial treatment plan. No new plan has yet been developed, and when I checked in with Nancy McMahon at the state Historic Preservation Division, she didn’t know when it might be ready. Nor could she tell me what Hawaiian groups had been consulted, as was ordered by the courts.

Although Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Watanabe last year would not approve an injunction stopping construction, she did advise Brescia’s attorneys that if he continued work on the project, it would be at his own risk because the Burial Council ultimately might decide to relocate the burials that were covered in cement without the Council’s approval.

Apparently now he’s willing to risk it. Maybe it’s because the construction business has fallen so badly that he can get guys to work on it for less than he would have had to pay a year ago. But if it does get completed, and that’s still an open question, I’m not sure how he’ll be able to get approval to use it as a vacation rental. He can’t grandfather in that use like so many of the other houses in the neighborhood. And surely he’s not going to live there……

On my way up there to see what was happening, I picked up a friend who was born and raised in Hanalei and is not at all political. As we turned into the neighborhood, his jaw tightened and his face took on a scowl.

“You haven’t been here in a while, have you?” I asked.

“No,” he said, “because when I see this, it just pisses me off and then all I want to do is instigate. So I just stay away.”

In this way, locals are subtly pushed out of the places they've always frequented. Because going to the beach and getting pissed off is not good.

The changes that have recently occurred there — and are still occurring, with construction under way on several lots — are dramatic. Aside from the massive houses that line the shoreline — some of them two deep — the once largely deserted beach is now occupied by sunscreen-slathered tourists with their beach umbrellas and teak lounge chairs. At the access path stood one of the guys who had formed a consortium of investors to build many of the vacation rentals along an incredibly beautiful stretch of sand that he, in his arrogance, has renamed “Banana Beach.” Sigh.

Kaiulani Huff is still camping out up there, on the beach side of Brescia’s lot, her little encampment standing in stark contrast to the luxurious houses going up on all sides.


This one, the former Billie Jean King property, is being developed by an Australian vacation home consortium. They were kind enough to install the septic system on the makai side of the house, right above the reef. This is not good. But this is what's becoming the norm on too many North Shore beaches.

34 comments:

  1. the photo additions to the entry are good; it adds much

    "because the Burial Council ultimately might decide to relocate the burials that were covered in cement without the Council’s approval"

    -- i thought the BC "rulings / recommendations" were just advisory, and that was part of the problem?

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  2. How come Kaiulani gets to stake out and take over a chunk of public beach for herself? Talk about denying access.

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  3. Only three more lots on the beach left.

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  4. Thatʻs a big misconception that the Burial Council is ʻonly advisoryʻ.

    The fact is: the Burial Council is probably one of the most powerful entities of all.

    TO: May 14, 2009 11:05 AM

    Was your access to the beach denied by Kaiulani? Or are you just whining...from another island? This is a subject you donʻt want to start messing with. And ot ask it shows your lack of knowledge about Hawaiiʻs laws. And Iʻm not even referring to sovereignty.

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  5. If I get mad that Kaiulani has taken over a piece of public beach property for her personal use, can I take over a piece of beach property in protest? Hmmmm. Not a bad idea at that.

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  6. My uncle used to say, "Dimbulbs shine brightest right before they burn out."

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  7. Thatʻs a big misconception that the Burial Council is ʻonly advisoryʻ.

    The fact is: the Burial Council is probably one of the most powerful entities of all.


    Wrong. The burial councils' duties are purely advisory. It has practically no power to do anything substantial. It is the DLNR that has the power to approve preservation or mitigation plans.

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  8. You are wrong about that but I wonʻt elaborate. Thereʻs too much information let loose for the wrong individuals to subvert.

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  9. "If I get mad that Kaiulani has taken over a piece of public beach property for her personal use, can I take over a piece of beach property in protest? Hmmmm. Not a bad idea at that."

    You can certainly give it a go. None of us are stopping your trivial pursuit.

    I do know what will happen to you though. And youʻre not going to like it.

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  10. New septic system on the Makai side of the King house? Isn't there some kind of shoreline setback law? Just wondering....

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  11. You are wrong about that but I wonʻt elaborate. Thereʻs too much information let loose for the wrong individuals to subvert.

    Oooh, mysterious. Actually it's not that mysterious. It's not like it's the secret rights of the Freemasons or the Skull and Bones. You see, the powers of burial councils are clearly and not very mysteriously spelled out in very publicly available state law and they're not written in disappearing ink or jew blood or anything.

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  12. "I do know what will happen to you though. And youʻre not going to like it."

    You'd get one unstable Hawaiian chick all up in your grill.

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  13. it's tough to get unstable hawaiian chicks out of your grill, especially when the sun dries them out. worse than bugs...

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  14. "You'd get one unstable Hawaiian chick all up in your grill."

    -- that was pretty funny

    but cave, that person is largely "off limits" on this blog. though you can ID by name and location guys accused by third party hearsay of HRS violations (ie that man who kicked that kid off the river bank near his house)

    anyways, its prob wise to let that lady be; letting the beach tent protest play out seems the right move. local gov has better things to do

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  15. That person is "largely off".

    I corrected your sentence.

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  16. The burial council mandate seems pretty clear because it's written in the law. The problem may be that the burial council itself doesn't know its powers or what it's supposed to do.

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  17. That doesn't change the fact that their duties are purely advisory. They get to decide to leave the burials or move them. After that it's out of their hands. If they decided to leave them, those burials could get built over. They can "advise" on how to deal with them, but they don't have the power to say what can or can't be built.

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  18. "The problem may be that the burial council itself doesn't know its powers or what it's supposed to do."
    You would think that after 10+ years on the council and working through how many cases they would know what their powers were.

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  19. I imagine a burial council member would tell whoever is ignorantly saying they don't know their powers to go jump in the lake. There are people who give their time and energy serving the community, and then there are people who sit around complaining about them on blogs.

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  20. I'm a "sit around complaining kind of guy", but that's just who I am, and these problems don't impact me...but I love to throw my 2 cents in where it's not (or marginally) wanted. I've got lots of time on my hands.

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  21. "There are people who give their time and energy serving the community, and then there are people who sit around complaining about them on blogs."

    Which is really just another way to say that people who don't do the work don't have a voice to complain about the people who do.

    It's like saying if you don't design cars, you can't complain about their safety. If you're not a stockbroker, you can't complain about Wall Street swindles. If you don't work for Congress, you can't complain about government.

    It's another of those bogus arguments that really says "you don't deserve a voice."

    Funny how that's exactly what the Hawaiians have been hearing for generations.

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  22. Dawson, you're so full of it. The burial council is loaded with Hawaiians!

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  23. Dawson publishes an articulate argument. Thank you.

    The burial council is SUPPOSED to be loaded with Hawaiians..and it is. However, the argument is whether they know their duties or not. In this case, it is evident that they do not. Hopefully this will be rectified and the Council will take some responsibility, for once, for their decisions. Enough blame game, let's put them on record and hear their ideas, as intended.

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  24. Yes, the burial councils are supposed to be loaded with Hawaiians. But Dawson is so busy regurgitating his ethnic studies cant about the voicelessness of Hawaiians that he entirely misses that point.

    How is it so evident they don't know their (purely advisory) duties?

    Again, I imagine a burial council member would tell you who are ignorantly saying they don't know their powers to go jump in the lake. There are people who give their time and energy serving the community, and then there are people who sit around complaining about them on blogs.

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  25. The ethnic makeup of the Burial Council currently is irrelevant.

    The proof is a thousand tons of concrete squatting on the bones of Hawaiian ancestors, while the council created to protect them floats in ethical limbo, devoid of power and purpose -- lacking the passion that could even kindle a candle for the dead.

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  26. "There are people who give their time and energy serving the community, and then there are people who sit around complaining about them on blogs."

    There are people who don't make a move without the permission of the political system that pulls their strings, and there are people who sit around on blogs defending them.

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  27. Daw:"the council created to protect them floats in ethical limbo, devoid of power and purpose"

    Well, not completely devoid of purpose. It has an advisory role. That was the whole point of this argument, to counter some ding-a-ling who imagined the burial councils wield some secret stash of power.

    Daw: "There are people who don't make a move without the permission of the political system that pulls their strings"

    Blah blah blah. Again, I'm sure burial council members would give you the big FU. They struggled emotionally under their lack of power to act. They knew the limitations of their powers and suffered emotionally because of it. So FU.

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  28. "They struggled emotionally under their lack of power to act. They knew the limitations of their powers and suffered emotionally because of it."

    Don't worry. The political power of Joe, the real estate industry, the tourist industry and state & local government is enough to buy plenty of pain for everyone.


    "I'm sure burial council members would give you the big FU."

    I'm sure Burial Council members don't give FU -- big or otherwise -- to anyone.

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  29. "lacking the passion that could even kindle a candle for the dead."

    THATʻS THE PROBLEM WITH THE BURIAL COUNCIL: THE MEMBERS. CLUELESS AND DONʻT CARE.

    THEYʻVE BEEN TOLD HOW MUCH POWER THEY REALLY HAVE BUT THEY ARE TIMID. SCARED TO STAND UP TO THE WHITE MAN. NEED SOME MORE PROACTIVE INDIVIDUALS.

    WELL, LIKE IT OR NOT, KAIULANI IS NOT SCARED.

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  30. "Again, I'm sure burial council members would give you the big FU."

    NO, I DONʻT THINK SO BECAUSE THATʻS A HAOLE THING.

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  31. Ok here's a question for the bozoid who imagines the burial councils have all this secret power, what do you think it is they can do?

    Oh, nothing because it's a secret? Ya, well, just can the stupidity then.

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  32. YEH ITʻS A SECRET.

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  33. They must have forgot where they hid the secret, then, because they are doing nothing.

    Unless....THAT'S THE SECRET!!!....They elect to wait for Pele the Pono to give Bresca the "bono".

    Of course, doing nothing, or highly ineffectual things, isn't such a secret to hawaiians, after all...

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  34. The new septic systems are not the problem. It's all the old ones in that neighborhood with cesspools. The cesspools don't seperate out the solids into fiberglass holding tanks that can be pumped out. The cesspools drain everything straight down to the sandstone layer where it moves in a horizontal pattern out to the ocean.
    All the new houses keep their crap on their property.

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