Can Hawaiʻi Feed Itself?
A lot of elements are needed to make Hawaiʻi self-sufficient in food. Here are a few examples of struggles and resiliency that enable more productive local farming and food production.
Community & Economy
California Dreaming
Each year, the world’s best surfers – both men and women – compete against each other for millions of dollars in prize money at tournaments around the globe staged by the Association of Surfing Professionals and other promoters. Hawaii surfers…
Talk Story with Pohai Ryan
Executive Director, Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association Ryan brings wide experience to her role, from managing an information office in Kailua to serving as a state senator. This Kamehameha Schools alumna plans to focus on culture and authenticity during her tenure,…
Talk Story with John White
Executive Director, Pacific Resource Partnership PRP, a unique partnership between Hawaii’s top contractors and the Hawaii Carpenters Union, is a powerful supporter of rail. White talks about integrated communities and how they will help guide Oahu’s development. What are…
Hawaii is the World's Shrimp-Breeding Capital
Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the U.S. – the average American eats more than four pounds a year. But nearly all of it is imported and most of that farm-raised in Asia and South America. Those are well-known…
Kakaako: Remade for the 21st Century
No matter which lens you use, Kakaako is where the transformations in Hawaii’s 21st-century life are most clear. The demographic lens: You already know there are more older people today, while young people are delaying both marriage and their families,…
A Brief Guide to Understanding Chinese Tourists
The wave of change coming to Hawaii tourism could be seen on a recent evening at La Mer, the Halekulani hotel’s five-star French restaurant. The raucous group at one table stood out amid the room’s dark wood, roses, flickering Wolford…
Talk Story with Peter Fithian
You seem to have lived many different lives. I’ve done a number of things. Probably some of the work I did with the visitors bureau and the various committees I’ve been on did more for Hawaii, but I’m best known…
Editor's Note: Heroes, Villains and Tech Laggards
I recently read “Flash Boys,” Michael Lewis’ account of how Wall Street has stolen from you, me and our 401ks. I was astonished by the sophisticated corruption, and about how many people and companies thought it was OK to cheat…
Leasehold Properties: A Deal or a Drain?
While most of the state’s leasehold single-family properties have converted to fee simple ownership over the past few decades, the leasehold option remains alive in the condo market.
13 Great Things About Waikiki (Plus 13 Awful Things)
A Hawaii Business team of four reporters, four photographers and four interpreters (two Chinese, one Japanese and one Korean) invaded Waikiki. We asked tourists, workers and business owners what they liked and didn’t like about the tourist mecca, and here are the…
Bartering Makes a Comeback
A graduate student trades the bananas he grows to a local café for gift cards. On Craigslist, a beekeeper on Hawaii Island says he wants to swap a Langstroth beehive for a sailboat or greenhouse. Using a bartering network, a freelance…
Waikiki After Dark
Waikiki is the Honolulu Police Department’ssmallest district, but, at three square miles it is also the most densely populated, says Officer John DeMello, who has been patrolling these streets for the past 10 years. I accompanied DeMello one Friday evening and…
Waikiki Present and Future - Extended Version
Panelists: W. David P. Carey III: President and CEO, Outrigger Enterprises Group Rick Egged: President, Waikiki Improvement Association Eric Gill: Financial Secretary-Treasurer, Unite Here Local 5 Hawaii Ernest “Ernie” K. Nishizaki: Executive VP, Kyo-Ya Co. LLC George D. Szigeti: President…
HTA Tries to Smooth Out Boom-and-Bust Cycles
The Hawaii Tourism Authority understands how hard it will be, but it is trying to rewrite the old saying that insists, What goes up, must come down. There are already strong signs that the tourism boom of the past few years has…
Homelessness in Waikiki
Many of Waikiki’s Homeless Are Mainland Snowbirds Just as tourists trade the cold winters of Minneapolis, Seattle and other cities for the warmth of Waikiki, so do another group of visitors. “There are homeless people who come here in the…
International Market Place Closes
The old International Market Place is dead. For more than 50 years, tourists flocked there, drawn to the warren of cheap jewelry stores, kiosks selling kitschy bric-a-brac and the romance of the original Don the Beachcomber restaurant, which opened there…
Editor's Note: A Waikiki Love Song
When people tell me they never go to Waikiki, I wonder why they would want to miss so many wonderful things. Sure I love to play in the ocean and climb our green mountains far from the madding crowds, but,…
Boom in the Hawaii Gun Business
Imagine a retail business in which one key measure of sales growth was up 42.2 percent last year, with similar growth this year. You’d be on Easy Street, right? Except this same business is plagued by a perennial problem: Customers…
Which Ethnic Group Makes the Most Money?
If you have lived in Hawaii for a while, the ranking of the richest and poorest ethnic groups shouldn’t surprise you. The hierarchy has remained the same for the past four decades, says UH ethnic studies professor Jonathan Okamura, who…
Building Bridges to China
Chinese companies and individuals are investing tens of billions of dollars in America. Here’s how Hawaii businesses and nonprofits are creating relationships with their Chinese counterparts and working to get a share of those investments, with varying degrees of success.…
Thirty Meter Telescope could boost Hawaii Island's economy
A $1.4 billion construction project would be a big deal anywhere in the world, but for struggling Hilo and Hawaii Island’s moribund construction industry, it’s a gift from above – figuratively and literally. “It’s a huge project for us,” says…
Riding the Up-and-Down Construction Cycle
The coming construction boom will be very different from the last one: different kinds of projects, new ways of financing and maybe fewer rising costs. It’s often hard to say exactly when the business cycle turns. Some date the end…
Editor's Note: China as No. 1: True or False?
It’s inevitable that China’s economy will overtake America’s in the next 20 years, right? After all, Chinese gross domestic product grew at an average annual rate of 9.3 percent over the past five years, according to the World Bank, while…