HONOLULU — Hawaii’s communities that survived the demise of plantations by transforming into tourist destinations are struggling as the coronavirus pandemic keeps away visitors.
The newly formed Paia Community Association estimates 40% of the Maui town’s 71 shops and restaurants are either temporarily or permanently shuttered in the community on the island’s north shore, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday.
Health restrictions including a 14-day mandatory quarantine for visitors arriving from outside the state have crippled the tourism industry that accounts for about 25% of Hawaii’s economy.
The Paia economy that previously relied on the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. had already moved toward boutiques, restaurants and galleries when the company’s mill closed in 2000.
Without visitors and shoppers clogging Paia’s sidewalks, streets and parking lots, vagrants have become more prevalent, residents and business owners said.
In Koloa on Kauai, where Hawaii’s first large-scale sugar plantation was established in 1835, The Beall Corp. owns Old Koloa Town, a collection of historic plantation-era buildings.
A handful of Old Koloa Town’s 19 shops and restaurants have closed and the company is working with tenants on rent relief.
“Ninety-five percent of our projects rely on tourism, and I don’t see there being any replacement of that. We’re more or less in a hold-your-breath situation until tourism returns,” President Cory Beall said.
Jerry Vigil, owner of Emperor’s Emporium at Old Koloa Town, said his shop rang up $55,000 in sales of clothing and other items in July 2019. Last month’s total was $1,900.
There is no formal business association in Koloa, where the local sugar plantation closed in 1996. Such a group would not make a difference at the moment, Vigil said.
“There’s little to be done as long as there are no tourists,” he said.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.
That is terrible. Many lives ruined. This did not have to happen. If the governor had listened to others instead of playing king many options were available. Shouldn’t the legislature been more involved?
Well J.D., as terrible as economic depravation can be, it comes down to each person’s capability to rationally choose the economic hit – which can be long term, but “transient”, to the medical hit, which can be mild, or “terminal”. Some seem to forgo the terminal consequences and lash out at the political choice to defend the population from casualties, while others have stated that lives lost are not worth the economic costs of safety. Is a comfortable economic life worth the loss of another’s life? I believe most wars that have been fought are over such considerations. And that brings the question, is a pandemic killing our planet, or is the species killing itself and the planet over a predilection of war found in the human species? We might find it a blessing of the experience to return to the natural behavior of Aloha and Respect of ourselves and others for our very survival. Or, we may find that we exterminate our species and much of the world by taking value of economics to its extent beyond the value of life itself.
More people have died in car accidents. We should ban all motorized vehicles.
When people test positive for covid-19 the doctors response is stay home and treat it like the flu.
My mother was born and raised in Koloa. Our family has visited Kauai every year for the past 20 years. But this year, on top of the disaster that is the pandemic, we mainland “tourists” have been vilified on social media by residents eager to blame us for all that is wrong with Kauai. And while there is definitely room for blame, I find myself looking for other places to visit once this pandemic is over. So much for the Aloha spirit.