Aloha, Gil, and each and every one of you who are working so diligently towards Keeping the North Shore Country, for your wonderful information about the issue.
Mahalo!
Back in the 80's (1986?) when Kuilima was pushing for the development to continue along the coast and into Kawela Bay I was one of the warriors who fought the severe problem. We picketed Kuilima over and over again along the highway, and also at the entrance to the hotel. We went to all of the hearings held in Kahuku at the School's auditorium and elsewhere. We were in a very small minority..........
Kuilima brought in busload after busload of plantation workers from not only Kahuku plantation but the surrounding plantations. Of course, they were stressing the need for jobs! What a joke!
Our family even invited the City Council members at that time to our home at Kawela so that they could see..... firsthand..... what we were trying to defend.
It was a hard battle, but at least we stopped what
they were planning to do out there........we fought for rights-of-way to the beaches, in particular Kawela Bay, but also at the hotel. We fought for public parking and shower factilities, etc. We fought to
stop them from wanting to develop right along the beaches.........we asked for setbacks; and we stressed the the danger of destroying the green turtles along the oceans there.
The City Council came along with a unilateral agreement of some kind...........I can't recall the details right now. Anyway, it delayed the project, and although other sorts of developer-minded people came along........nothing materialized.
Actually, some of us fought to stop the building of the hotel.....the Kuilima...... now the Turtle Bay resort!! That's how far we went back in those days. We fought the fact that development there would destroy our reefs..........in many many ways, including the run-off from the golf course facilities and the hotel, and the entire facility. We lost that one................... But we can't lose this one!
Many thanks for what you are doing. I only wish I was your ages. I'm mid-way in my seventies, but I really feel about forty-five!!!! Ha, ha. Quite honestly, I don't see how I can get out there for the November program. I still live in Makiki, and driving that way in the eveningtime is not too good for me these days.
As a young person growing up in Makiki we made thousands and thousnds of trips to Kawela during our lifetimes, starting with one of my grandmothers and my parents and my siblings, and cousins, and friends.
My grandmother and my parents and my elder siblings went out on the train, bringing along food and water from Honolulu. We stayed at one of my aunty's homes there...........and later, to our delight, we were
able to lease a lot in the bay and my Dad and Brother built our house there. We always shared our home with family and friends, and others with whom we became adquainted along the way. We surfed, canoed, and
fished, and played in the ocean. And we went to Church on Sundays at St. Roch's.
