Thursday, April 15, 2010

Musings: Hopeful

Waialeale showed herself for the first time in days when Koko and I went walking this morning, although the wind, singing in the tree tops, was steadily blowing a new clump of clouds mauka.

We passed a dying animal, which I discerned to be a rat in the dim light of pre-dawn, apparently the victim of poison or a car, rolling and flopping its way toward the safety of the brush. The scene gave me that icky shivery feeling inside, and much as Koko was interested, we did not linger.

Sunrise is not all singing birds and pink skies.

As we walked and a few cars — the regulars — passed, I thought of how Jimmy Trujillo stopped to chat yesterday morning when he saw me walking Koko along the road. We got to talking about current events, and at some point I uttered the words: “I’m still hopeful.”

“That’s what I like about you,” enthused Jimmy. “You still have hope, like we all do, or otherwise, how could we go on?”

I wholeheartedly agreed, then later, in one of those coincidences that keep life interesting, I was reading something and found this quote:

What’s important is promising something to the people, not actually keeping those promises. The people have always lived on hope alone. -- Hermann Broch

I guess that’s because sometimes, amid the drum beats for war and the environmental devastation, the cultural degradation and the economic implosion, the societal unravelings and the human suffering, things do happen to give us cause to believe that the odds aren’t completely stacked against us and justice, occasionally, does prevail.

The most recent of these was the April 6 order signed by Judge Kathleen Watanabe in a shoreline case brought by Kauai attorney Harold Bronstein — one of my few heroes. The order essentially told the state that when it comes to setting shoreline boundaries, it’s doing things wrong.

I wrote about it for the Honolulu Weekly, and you can read the story here:

Watanabe found the state had improperly relied upon cultivated vegetation and current, rather than historical, wave wash data when setting the shoreline for a North Shore Kauai lot now owned by Craig Dobbin.

So now Mr. Dobbin, who is trying to build a house just down the beach from burial ground beneath Joe Brescia’s house, and who has been planting and irrigating naupaka and other vegetation like mad, even to the point of encroaching into the public accessway that runs alongside his lot, will have to start over. [Correction: The plantings and irrigation occured under Joe Brescia's ownership of that lot. But it's continuing to encroach under Dobbin's ownership, and he was trying to use that vegetation for his shoreline. That's why it's important to remove vegetation that has been improperly planted on the public beach.]

His attorney — good old Walton Hong — tried on Tuesday to get the Planning Commission to grant his permits, but to their credit, they said no shoreline certification, no permits. (Would that had taken a similar approach with Brescia — no Burial Treatment Plan, no permits.)

Unfortunately, as Harold notes in the article:

“This is going to happen on a daily basis, and people have gotta push them [BLNR] to interpret the law in the right way,” Bronstein said.

Only yesterday, it turns out, the landscapers were busily re-planting shoreline vegetation that the big winter waves had washed out in front of Wainiha beachfront homes owned by people like Pierce Brosnan and “Coach” star Craig Nelson. It seems pretty clear that if the waves are washing it out, it's on the public beach.

So how much longer will this theft of the public beach go on as the Legislature and the state and the county look the other way?

But hey, I’m hopeful. How else could I go on?

14 comments:

  1. "...and irrigating naupaka and other vegetation like mad, even to the point of encroaching into the public accessway that runs alongside his lot..."
    The Dobbins irrigation system was ripped out over a year ago. It never extended beyond the middle of the lot and was never near the beach. It was only to keep the grassy ground cover in the middle of the lot.
    Chances are the natural rainfall on that side of the island, 30" plus takes care of the abundant growth.

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  2. "...and irrigating naupaka and other vegetation like mad"

    This poster is correct - where do you get your information?

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  3. It was only to keep the grassy ground cover in the middle of the lot.

    Yes, he was irrigating the grass because the ocean was washing in there and turning it brown.

    But I did make a correction in the post to reflect that the plantings occured under Brescia's ownership of that lot.

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  4. You would think, that with all the people crawling around the bushes taking pictures and writing reports there would be photos of sprinklers, people watering and before and after vegetation lines.

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  5. It seems pretty clearthat if the waves are washing it out..it's on the public beach....Have you ever seen the Aliomanu seawall and what it has done to the public beach? Those house wouldn't be there if the seawall wasn't...Which would be appropriate indeed..Roger

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  6. "You would think, that with all the people crawling around the bushes taking pictures and writing reports there would be photos of sprinklers, people watering and before and after vegetation lines."

    There are.

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  7. hope
    beats like
    a heart
    eternal
    pumping and pushing
    like a river
    in flood
    washing over me
    replenishing
    refreshening
    like a spring day
    when the wind
    hints of winter
    and the sun
    shines
    like summer

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  8. hope is the coward's way - playing the waiting game - expecting someone else to do the heavy lifting. Imagine if all only hoped? Hope is a terrible thing.

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  9. "Imagine if all only hoped? Hope is a terrible thing."


    --doom and gloom, lazy and stupid, awesome.

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  10. "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
    -- Robert H. Goddard

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  11. Ok. So I guess there are a few people out there who don't think having a community watchdog benefits their community. What are you supposed to do then? On one hand she's a spy and tattletale...and on the other hand, the Planning Commission relys on and encourages us to do our civic duty by gathering information when people plant, rent, or build illegally.

    I actually admire someone for having the gumption to care about the environment and what we're doing to it. Of course, I work at not do anything illegal, but if I did, I'd probably be paranoid of a community watchdog too.

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  12. "So I guess there are a few people out there who don't think having a community watchdog benefits their community."

    -- obviously a legit point. i guess id point to an example like the koloa comm. assoc. as a group that does keep a lookout on things, and does take reasoned steps when needed as a better "model"


    dwps

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  13. i guess id point to an example like the koloa comm. assoc. as a group that does keep a lookout on things, and does take reasoned steps when needed as a better "model"
    Northshore community members have impressive success at protecting our public beaches. With 2 Supreme Court success and now this impressive ruling by Judge Watanabe, I say a big Mahalo to those that work to protect the Northshore. You rock

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