As often happens when some piece of our islands picks up some distinction, it becomes one of the “great secrets,” “a hidden gem that you won’t read about in the travel books!”
These breathless descriptions mark Laniakea Beach.
It is undoubtedly a beautiful stretch along Oahu’s North Shore, largely known for its surf, and though there’s sand, the coast is lined with rocky shelves above and beneath the waves.
Because of the rocks, seaweed is abundant, which is one of the attractions for endangered green sea turtles that sometimes haul themselves out of the water to laze in the sun.
The wild creatures, by just doing what the species has done through its existence, have created intrac-table problems for the most dynamic of living beings on Earth who just can’t seem to get enough.
Swimming or sunbathing on a lovely white expanse of shoreline is fine, but swimming with turtles or prancing around a resting one is even better. If you can get a photo and send it around to friends, you also gain a bunch of envy points. Outstanding.
Watching a glorious sunset from a waterfront park satisfies the desire for a serene moment in an island paradise. But people want more, or so thinks the agency in charge of Kakaako.
The Hawaii Community Development Authority wants to brighten a part of the park it considers under-used, a term that is likely defined in the agency’s dictionary as “a condition that’s not generating the revenue we really, really want.”
HCDA sees the glow of revenue in a production of passive and active displays to radiate with vivid polychromatic LEDs at the admission rate of as much as $18 a pop.
The show could draw as many as 500 people a day, certainly enough to fill the 9 acres or so that are normally underused.
That state-owned land leased to a commercial outfit would discourage public use doesn’t seem to factor in the HCDA’s view, even as the need for open vistas and public spaces will grow as the agency allows developers to crowd Honolulu’s south shore with thousands of condo units.
Crowding is Laniakea’s problem. Too many people have been let in on the secret of turtle sightings.
Rental cars and tour buses jam shoulders and the empty spaces on the mauka side of the two-lane Kamehameha Highway. To get to the beach, they have to cross the road, creating dangerous situations and slowing through traffic to a crawl.
The state, in its inimitable snail-paced and convoluted way, has been studying the problem for years and years. Its solution is to eliminate parking in the area.
That’s not going over well. Tourism interests cite the loss of revenue; residents and beach-users, the loss of access.
Some suggest moving the highway inland or putting in an entrance and exit for a large vacant lot, but those proposals would involve the city and private landowners.
The turtles don’t appear to be greatly harmed or bothered by their human stalkers, thanks to volunteers who protect them, but someday, they may choose to go elsewhere and the problem will leave with them.
For the time being, however, doing nothing to alleviate people-vehicle mess invites trouble. And if banning parking is the only workable solution, then officials should do it.
