• On Lingle’s ‘plan’ On Lingle’s ‘plan’ Re: Front page story on Oct. 16, 2003: “Lingle to Developers…” Now isn’t this special! As if big-scale land developers were not already doing enough damage, we now have a governor brazenly spelling
• On Lingle’s ‘plan’
On Lingle’s ‘plan’
Re: Front page story on Oct. 16, 2003: “Lingle to Developers…”
Now isn’t this special! As if big-scale land developers were not already doing enough damage, we now have a governor brazenly spelling out for them her own plan for “getting what they want”.
Her plan: “put the people in office who already agree with you…” She goes on to say, “once they’re in, you don’t have to go back down there any more to the Legislature because you have elected someone who agrees with you.”
All this time I was naively expecting the governor would work for the Hawaiian people, not for the land developers (who have a proven history of harming the lands and the people of Hawai‘i).
I truly believe that in Hawai‘i, you are either on the side of the Hawaiian people or you are on the side of the developers. It is not possible to be both.
The same article refers to the actions by a Big Island judge that idled a multi-billion-dollar luxury development as a “fiasco”. The real fiasco took place when officials approved such a development in the first place! Gov. Lingle said the judge’s decision “shocked county leaders and the development community.” Then, she seemed puzzled as to why some are suggesting that she is against preserving agricultural land! Perhaps another fiasco was electing a governor who openly offers lessons to developers in how to further destroy the Hawaiian way of life!
Kaua‘i is a very small island, with a special lifestyle that is rapidly being overtaken by greedy developers. These vultures swoop in, do their damage to huge tracts of land, pocket the money and then leave the locals with all the resulting congestion, pollution, infrastructure damages and all the related expenses.
For the life of me, I cannot think of one single benefit that comes from such development – except the huge financial benefits for the developers (who are NOT local people). Any construction jobs are only temporary, and I know of one builder who brought his own crews from California rather then hiring locals.
One final question: When all the Hawaiian lands has been covered with such developments, where can we then go to find a lifestyle similar to the old Hawaiian lifestyle? If such a place exists anywhere on earth, we can be certain when we go there that the developers will be close behind. (And just because developers are wealthy does not mean that they have done anything worthwhile on this earth). Is it possible to recall Gov. Lingle?
Barbara Elmore,
Lihu‘e
