Crews try to upright tilting home
A construction crew swarmed over the remains of the end of Weke Road at Black Pot Beach Park on Friday, working against time to stabilize one house that survived the April flood disaster only to be nearly swept away when last week’s torrential rains hit and a temporary roadway failed.
Airbnb’s silence raises more questions
The email that dropped into my inbox late last week was innocuous enough. It announced a “webinar” on housing people displaced by disasters. But then, it turned out that the sponsor of the webinar was Airbnb.com. To me, that refocused the entire discussion.
Be sure to vote – and know what candidates stand for
The clock ticks on the most consequential county election Kauai has ever staged. The primary is Saturday. Regular registration ends this afternoon at 4 p.m., but you can register at your assigned polling place and still vote between when the polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.
Are you ready?
Kauai residents with their eyes on the horizon for a hurricane are reasonably prepared, but fall short on complying with new state guidelines for the amount of nonperishable food and water they should have on hand.
Starwood denies purchase
Uncertainty surrounded the future of the St. Regis Princeville Resort after weekend media reports said it had been purchased by a Miami-based hotel investment company, but the companydenied on Monday that it had done so.
St. Regis sale near
The large California public employee pension plan that owns the St. Regis Princeville Resort and Makai Golf Club is in negotiations to sell the property to a buyer identified only as prominent hotel operator and investment firm.
Haena repairs to begin soon
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has let contracts totaling more than $2.9 million for repairs and new construction at Haena State Park that will set in motion a long-term plan to substantially redo facilities in the Ke‘e Beach area. At least four contracts have been awarded. All went to local firms.
Draft plan reduces convoys
The state Department of Transportation has circulated a draft plan to reduce the number of convoy runs to escort residents of the Haena-Wainiha area over the closed portion of Kuhio Highway and told community leaders the highway may close completely on weekends for six to nine weeks.
Kauai to kick off vote-by-mail
Gov. David Ige has signed into law a historic bill making Hawaii the fourth state in the country to switch to a universal vote-by-mail elections system — a process that will start with the 2020 election.
We need to protect Kauai’s brand before it’s too late
The head of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, George Szigeti, has been gently ousted in what is an unmistakable acknowledgment that the agency’s only strategy — best summarized as “more” — is weakening the state’s overall appeal amid concerns about over-saturation of visitors. In other words, Hawaii has found out how much is too much.
Reducing threat to monk seals not easy, but critical
I want to be clear about two things. First, I’m a smitten cat person and have been since about 1980 when the first one of these conniving, deliberative creatures plotted to find her way into my heart.
Narrowing the field of candidates
The crowded field in this year’s local elections might warrant asking for anyone who is NOT running for County Council to raise his or her hand.
Urgent care center opens
A new urgent care clinic has opened in Princeville, bringing medical resources to the North Shore that community leaders have sought for nearly a decade to counter the risks and inconveniences of long drives to the hospital or calling 911 for an ambulance that might not arrive for 30 to 60 minutes.
Opportunity to improve North Shore is upon us
The Friday hearing at which the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources gave the penultimate approval to the new Haena State Park Master Plan started more than a little ragged around the edges, though a certain amount of that was for political show.
Zuckerberg’s Moloaa plans show relatively modest home, 16-bay garage complex
Facebook entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg’s “agricultural” compound, under construction in Moloaa, will be a large complex with a comparatively modest, 6,100-square-foot, two-bedroom residence high above the shoreline.
Disaster worsens rental housing, labor pool woes; can General Plan help?
J.P. Gordon is the chef at the Kilauea Bistro, a thriving North Shore eatery that attracts a consistent mix of locals and tourists for lunch and dinner.
Navigating the worst-case ‘new normal’
Two announcements within a couple days of one another may have given people from Hanalei to Kee Beach — and all over the island, really — a glimmer of hope that normalcy is just around the corner.
Record-setting rainfall rattles nerves – and it’s not over yet
From Moloaa to Princeville on Sunday, residents emerged from sleepless nights with some of the heaviest rain on record on Kauai and thunder so intense it shook houses as badly as a severe earthquake. Ironically, I’d spent Saturday in a Kauai Fire Department training session in Lihue as a member of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
Campagna challenges for Congress seat
Sherry Alu Campagna sat at a table in the middle of Ha Coffee Bar in Lihue, one of the few places on the island with anything approaching creds as a political hangout. She was on island from her home on Oahu recently, on one of her first visits to Kauai after announcing her campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the August Democratic primary.
Pothole problem a perpetual pain
After last week’s rains, the number of people on Kauai who are not aware we have a serious pothole problem has dropped to approximately 13, all of whom did not leave their homes during the last seven days.