• Keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i • A plea for trees Keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i “Green acres is the place to be, farm living is the life for me, land sakes I love the country life, keep Manhattan and sell me some ag
• Keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i • A plea for trees
Keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i
“Green acres is the place to be, farm living is the life for me, land sakes I love the country life, keep Manhattan and sell me some ag west side…” Keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i.
Thank you Mr. Bynum and Ms. Kawahara for having a productive public discussion about the future of Kaua‘i at the recent County Council meeting. King Solomon was correct stating, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Local American politics is so predictable, anywhere in America. Especially Kaua‘i. Follow the money. I thank you both for giving Mr. Kaneshiro and the other council members the opportunity to reveal their policy positions regarding sustainable ag versus Green Acres subdivision.
Green Acres is the place to be — these are ag lands converted into smaller micro-parcel subdivisions, whether it takes one year or 75 years, that turn the developers’ reasonable infrastructure development costs into developers’ profits. (More sewage, more schools, more police stations, more traffic, more doctors, more fire protection, more electrical consumption, more estate servants/workers housing needs, etc.)
Twenty acres seems large to the landless, but to anyone educated in ag policies — there is a 400-plus year history in America and my own family has farmed in America for over 300 years — these small lots are the death of sustainable ag. Fifty acres is a tiny farm. One hundred acres is a more likely profitable small ag lot.
Green Acres are not high density crop ag park parcels, which can succeed with smaller parcels if homes in the ag park are forbidden forever. Green Acres are inherently inefficient operations, and they drive up real estate values by becoming estates instead of working profitable farms.
If the council is successful, people like Mr. Kaneshiro will not be real estate developers, and the 20 homes required for four generations will all be ag housing on ag lands subsidized by low property taxes, with no infrastructure benefits for the public. Welcome to Kaua‘i.
Previous letter writers correctly deduce that the chair, Mr. Kaneshiro, the mayor and their allies do not want a public debate on ag density before the elections. They already know what density we will get and where the Green Acres will sprout next. Nor do they want ag density to be debated as a campaign issue. Nor do they care what the public thinks. Housing density determines either the future success of agriculture, or future Green Acres subdivision profits.
Dear letter writers: you don’t “get it.” There is a lifestyle crossroads and half a billion dollars of potential real estate profits over the next couple of generations laying on the table. What’s one square foot of Hanalei worth? Waimea? Westside hill tops? Koke‘e? Do the math.
This isn’t about Mr. Kaneshiro’s ranch. This is about whose turn is it to get rich and ensure their grand children’s wealth and social position. Sixty years ago the plantations decided to dump the troublesome workforce and move the jobs overseas and sell Hawaiian land instead of sugar. It took 30 years to get the federal legislation passed to move the jobs.
By the 1960s tourism and Hollywood were massively promoting the real estate industry. From Here to Eternity. Elvis. King Kong. Pirates. We have a singing mayor and lots of tourism-promotion dollars, a big-budget county movie mogul and lots of movie stars, and no ag. Duh!
This is no accident, but a well orchestrated plan deciding who will reap hundreds of millions of dollars in land speculation profits over the next few generations. The Green Acres concept for Kaua‘i is at least 50 or 60 years old and all this “sustainable ag” blather ruins Green Acres developments replacing sugar.
The inter-family and island-wide community communication networks and the inter-connection of old political alliances, including old wealth plantation money, are still powerful, but today there are many more factions with widely competing interests. Additionally, perhaps a quarter of the population have their own interests and no connection at all to the parallel government.
This is just typical American Chicago/New Jersey style politics. The citizens of Kaua‘i pay attention and discuss among themselves what they see going on. Typical of politics, seldom will you ever hear the truth, much less the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The parties with the most power always influence policy, and today we see a power struggle between various interests over who will determine what happens to the potential mega-wealth waiting to be made selling Kaua‘i bit by bit. Home rule!
Who on Kaua‘i has an American dream of laying the foundation for generations of successful living-wage jobs and ag operations, real productive lives for the children of Kaua‘i? Keep Kaua‘i Kaua‘i, and save your money for the sunny West Side Green Acre lots coming after the elections. Please vote.
Lonnie Sykos, Kapa‘a
A plea for trees
Please be kind to the trees. If you can, let them be. Trees are very important for both our environment and our spirits. I’ve seen and heard about many trees being cut down on Kaua‘i.
Most of the time it is to make room for development, or worse yet, to gain that distant “ocean view.” I personally enjoy looking at trees as much as the ocean.
You know, trees actually sequester CO2 and keeping them alive helps the atmosphere and keeps the planet cooler. If we keep cutting the trees down we are adding to climate-related sea level rise, and that “ocean view” could end up closer than we would like.
Sophia Senter, Lawa‘i
