Hawaii needs a new vision. The current vision, crafted with statehood, has begun to fade. And as with all things that begin to deteriorate, it now brings more harm than good to the people it hoped to support.
In the late 1950s, Hawaii sought to expand the plantation economy to include high-end tourism as a way to make Hawaii and its population thrive. It hoped to create opportunities for citizens to move from the limitations of plantation labor forces to new jobs created by a tourism industry.
It was a brilliant idea for the time and worked well for approximately 30 years. Because it worked well, Hawaii drifted into creative complacency. While the world exploded with new ideas and technology, Hawaii considered them but never made a dedicated effort to move beyond the borders of a tourist-based economy. Since we had no real will to look for new opportunities, we put all of our money, energy and effort into a single economic force, Tourism with a capital T.
Over time, the downside of tourism became not only obvious, but problematic. Jobs were created but in large part they did not pay much better than the plantation jobs they replaced. The oligarchy of the old plantation society was replaced with a new version populated by the tourist industry. Money for infrastructure went first to areas designated for tourism. Roads became clogged with tour buses; housing was no longer built for local citizens, but as second homes for the wealthier tourist. Over time, more and more resources were directed not toward people who called Hawaii home, but to those who used it for intermittent recreation.
In the 1990s, local leaders began to see that tourism growth was having a negative effect on a large portion of the local population. In a Sunday edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, one leader set out his vision of the future for Hawaii. The Hawaii of the future, he said, would no longer be a place for everyone. Instead, it would be available for those wealthy enough to afford it and a small population of those needed to serve their needs.
The unstated message was that the local population had three choices. If they could afford the new economy, they could stay. If they wanted to work in the service sector, they could stay. Everyone else could leave. It was clear from this article, that for this person, the ever-growing needs of tourism were more critical than the needs of the local community.
The limited vision of the plantation economy was now fully replaced by the limited vision of the tourist economy. Hawaii is a place of resilient people. They have adapted time and again to new situations and new leadership. It’s time to test that leadership again. Instead of letting tourism take over at every opportunity (for instance, the issues now facing Kailua), it’s time to rein in the beast. It’s time to set strong limits on how the industry can grow. It’s time to focus resources on residents, not tourists. It is time to rethink the future.
For me and my family, the time may have passed. After living most of our lives in Hawaii, my husband, myself and two of our three children left. Hawaii remains in our hearts, but it no longer welcomes us. As the old quote says: “You can’t live on love alone.”
Lynn Lee, a University of Hawaii public administration graduate, is retired from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development where she worked in community planning and development.
