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What to expect from the military’s 8.6 percent drop in its 2016 housing allowance for service members stationed on Oahu? That’s the biggest dip in its “basic allowance for housing” nationwide, and contrasts the trend in increases averaging 3.4 percent.
Still, locals struggling with housing here won’t be overly sympathetic, seeing that the new subsidy still comes out to, for instance, $3,075 monthly for an Army sergeant with dependents (it was $3,312 last year), or $3,786 for a major (it was $4,062 last year). For context: Rent on a three-bedroom Oahu house last summer averaged $2,681 monthly — do the math and it’s clear that service members are well covered.
It’s often been said that the military’s generous housing subsidies drive up rental rates here. Housing analysts, let’s see what happens.
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A stadium on the Ala Wai Golf Course?
Here’s an idea that might surface soon for everyone to argue about: Trim the 145-acre Ala Wai Golf Course from 18 holes to nine and use the remaining land for a stadium or multi-sport arena.
Star-Advertiser sports columnist Dave Reardon wrote Wednesday that Mark Rolfing, longtime Hawaii golf promoter and reporter and announcer for the NBC Golf Channel, is pushing the idea as head of Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui’s sports advisory committee, so there is a chance it could emerge as an actual proposal, although Tsutsui hasn’t shown his hand.
In 2000, then-Gov. Ben Cayetano proposed turning the entire golf course into a public park, but golf course regulars got then-Mayor Jeremy Harris to support them, and the idea was abandoned.
