Not Always Easy Riding
For frugal folks, riding a motorcycle or moped is the way to go, says Glenn Koishigawa. “People’s jaws drop when I tell them they can get up to 60 miles to a gallon on a moped,” says Koishigawa, owner of…
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Love Your Curves
“Belly dancing makes you love every muscle in the body. … It made me appreciate the curves I was born with.” You may have seen belly dancing and been in awe, but actually doing it offers something no other workout…
Meaning Built Into the State Capitol
Some say symbols are all around us if we know how to look and that’s certainly true at the state Capitol, which is imbued with representations of Hawaii’s culture, history and aina. One major theme of the design is the…
Kahala Renaissance
If your realtor suggest you buy on a street now vibrating with jack hammers, buzz saws, chain saws and tree grinders – including the requisite oversize, loud-mouth backhoes and flatbeds, blackdust barricades and…
Talk Story: Richard Wacker
Richard Wacker didn’t start as a banker. An engineer by training, he spent 20 years in executive positions at General Electric. His first banking job came in 2004, when he left GE to run the troubled Korea Exchange Bank for…
Nighthawks
Honolulu at night is a different animal from its daylight self. Yes, it’s darker, but also emptier, the spaces less defined and much less colorful. What light there is feels dramatic; simple sights can feel staged. The person who works…
Salvaging the Ferry
It’s been six years since the Alakai sailed out of Honolulu Harbor for the last time, yet somehow the Hawaii Superferry won’t go away. It haunted the 2014 campaign like the ghost of elections past. In June, an unscientific online…
Facing Future
“There was always something else. When pineapple closed, the resorts were there. When the ranch closed, Monsanto was still there. There was always an answer. We don’t have the answer now.” —Kimberly Mikami Svetin, Store owner To some people, Monsanto…
Audacious Beginnings for Hawaii Business
It was 1955. The FDA approved the Salk polio vaccine and Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. The Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series for the first time and Disneyland opened. Jimmy Stewart and…
Talk Story with Shari Chang
CEO, Girl Scouts of Hawaii Girl Scouting runs through Shari Chang’s veins. Her grandmother and mother were both scouts. While growing up, she was a scout in four different states and a foreign country. Her two daughters, who grew up…
Markets to Suit Every Taste
Hawaii’s known for a unique blend of cultures and tastes, and that is evident in the wide variety of foods and products available in the Islands’ many ethnic markets. These markets go far beyond the typical Japanese, Chinese and Korean…
Fixing a Broken Budget Process
A fiscal crisis this past fall, coming on the heels of the Wonder Blunder and other missteps, is forcing UH and its flagship Manoa campus to reform its flawed budget process. For decades, UH allocated funding to individual departments and…
Boomers Changed the World. Now, It’s Millennials' Turn
In the 24/7 global marketplace, where the game changes overnight and social media amplifies your message and your mistakes, here come the Millennials, the generation raised to thrive in this world. Just about everyone has strong feelings about Millennials. The…
Start-Up Paradise
Reif Tauati got the idea for his startup after visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for the first time since the second grade. “I remember walking through the lava tube and hearing about how ancient Hawaiians stored poi and water there.…
For-Profit Companies That Are Not Just For Profit
Another arrow in the quiver. One more tool in the toolbox. A vehicle for change. That’s how Hawaii lawmakers and business leaders recently described a state law that in 2011 created a new business registration category for company founders and…
Native Niche
Maybe being a tree farmer means having the ability to look into the future: When Jonathan Keyser and Ethan Romanchak hold a seed, they can already see the tall, strong koa it will one day become. So although there was…
It Takes a Village to Host a Tourist
As the sun rises on Waikiki Beach, some workers are going home while others have just arrived and are preparing to serve, feed and entertain up to 6,000 visitors at the Hilton. Senior writer Beverly Creamer and photographer Greg Yamamoto…
What’s Your View of Uber, Airbnb & Other Parts of Hawaii’s “Sharing Economy”?
I’m running late. My meeting has gone over time by 45 minutes, and suddenly the cushion I allowed for catching the bus out of downtown Honolulu to pick my daughter up from preschool in Moiliili has evaporated. It’s time for…
The Value of Heeia
Some of the most valuable lands in ancient Hawaii were located in Kaneohe, and prized by kings and chiefs. There on the windward side of Oahu, mountain springs flowed into acres of terraced loi that grew kalo in fertile soil,…
What’s Hawaii’s Environment Worth?
The coral reefs of the main Hawaiian Islands are worth $9.7 billion. That’s the finding of a well-known 2002 study by Dutch economists Herman Cesar and Pieter van Beukering. They created an elaborate equation that summed up the various types…
Alive and Doing Well
Reports of the death of books have been greatly exaggerated, as the local publishing industry keeps evolving to meet demand Despite the closing of bookstores around the Islands, local publishers say they are thriving. Books about Hawaii still sell –…
Editor's Note: I Struck Out, But the State May Have Money for You
You may have had this daydream, too: A letter arrives saying there is unclaimed property in my name worth $20 million (it’s a fantasy, so I didn’t scrimp). In my daydream, I collect the money and live happily ever after.…
Eyes on the Sky
The world’s worst traffic is not in Los Angeles, Bangkok or Beijing. It’s hundreds of miles above the Earth, where an ever-increasing mishmash of satellites, debris and junk are circling the planet at thousands of miles per hour, and a…
Where Has All The Flour Gone?
Ever wonder where the flour to make your morning toast or lunchtime sandwich came from? Until a few weeks ago, it most likely came from Oahu’s only wheat-flour mill, the Hawaiian Flour Mill on North Nimitz Highway. But, due to…