Kailua is changing and it’s hard to stop it

What is the thing with the proposed Target store and some residents, who are dead-set against it?

Some just prefer the quirkiness of what it would replace: Don Quijote, the last of the old-style department-store dynasty dating back to Holiday Mart. But it seems more general than that. The buildup of fear from ongoing redevelopment is becoming toxic: Is everything little and surfy about Kailua giving way to everything that’s big and boxy? Because it’s size that matters here. At 130,000 square feet, Target would be bigger than almost anything other than a grocery store.

And Kailua likes things small and unassuming. Pretty hard to place a target on the town when it would prefer to fly under the radar.

Let’s hope better dorms equal better grades

Location, location, location.

That’s the golden mantra of real estate — and it’s just as applicable when it comes to dorming. After all, for a college student, being able to get to class with ease is part of the battle.

So UH-Manoa students signed up for campus living at the "round dorms" must be stoked about the newly renovated digs. Thanks to a $24.5 million overhaul of the Hale Aloha dorm complex, the Lehua and Lokelani towers are now ready for rooming, as were their sibling towers Mokihana and Ilima last August. University officials hope the upgraded facilities, which include 540 more beds, will help build community among incoming students.

Now it’ll be up to this class and future ones to absorb this mantra: Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance.