WAIKIKI SAND REPLENISHMENT PROJECT

Thank you to all who have taken the time to read my first blog!!  Sorry for the delay in getting another one posted.  I needed my tech savvy kid to show me how to post another one, duh!

WAIKIKI SAND REPLENISHMENT PROJECT

It’s the elephant in the room.  Or should I say, it’s the herd of elephants on the beach!  It’s the absolutely one thing that has me so completely outraged and stultified that I see red every time I walk even close to the world famous and widely beloved Kuhio Beach.  I hate to be so negative (especially with first real blog out of the shoot) and usually I’m much more laid back, but this is so completely absurd that I just can’t “let it go”.  Yes, I’m talking about the Waikiki Beach Sand Maintenance Project of 2012.  The nifty idea to restore the Waikiki beaches of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Outrigger, Moana Surfrider and Diamond Head all the way to the Duke Statue, to their original glory.  In other words, there’s simply not enough room for all of our beloved, sunscreen drenched, economy supporting visitors to lay out there pasty white bodies and get, in short, what they paid for. 

OK, I get it, and I even admit that it makes perfect sense.  The beaches are eroding and they do need to be widened.  So the city called together all the smart people who know about tides and beaches and erosion and economics so they could assemble a plan.  And a plan they concocted.  In fact, they figured out a way to expand the beaches by up to 30 feet, get the hotels to help chip in and accomplish this within a reasonable timeframe and budget. The problem was solved, the idea was sold to the powers that be and everything was headed toward a fairy tale ending.  

Whoops, that is right up until the point that they literally destroyed the entire pond in front of the Marriott Hotel in order to make it their pumping and dumping site.  Then for good measure, they roped off a generous portion of the second pond just Ewa of the Prince Kuhio Statue.  They completely destroyed the one beach by creating an enormous water filled hole then loaded the beaches with enormous machinery and generators that create an ear shattering amount of noise.  Don’t forget the tractors and dozers to push the newly acquired sand that is being pumped in from an off shore barge.  They installed a ridiculously long and obviously to narrow pipe under the sand running the entire beach and simply believed that this would simply do the trick.  Sure, this had never been done before, but what the heck, it ought to work. 

This whole project reminds me of my Alaskan past.  Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, needed a new performing arts center.  It needed to be fabulous and reflect a Native Alaskan Culture.  Who better to design the geographically relevant building then a mainland architecture firm.  Sure, they designed a beautiful building filled with Alaskan art but they failed to take into consideration one small detail.  Parking.  They built a parking garage 2 blocks away.  Now that might not sound like a big deal for a place like Hawaii with fantastic weather year round.  But for a city that has 8 ½ months of winter, icy streets, snow, hail and below freezing weather, it was the blunder of the century.  Women would be dressed to the hilt to attend the opera or a play, high heels and all, and then have to tackle a nail biting 2 block walk in the freezing cold clutching the arms of their dates to keep from slipping and sliding to the ground on ice.  If it was snowing, their hair would be ruined, there expensive shoes soaked.  Many a silk dress, dress slacks, tie or pricey new shoes were and still are, victim to the Alaska Center For The Performing Arts.  It kind of took all the fun out of a night out on the town. Besides the obvious weather differences, it’s deja vous here in Hawaii.

Yes, there are local people working on this project and that’s a really good thing.  But mainland companies are doing the majority of the engineering.  I understand that this is a unique project and outside professionals had valid input, but who on earth really decided that this was the best route to go?  It’s wrong in so many ways that I hardly know where to start.

1.                The project completely alleviates one of the main protected, family beaches for over 3 months! 

2.                The project invades a portion of the second protected beach as well forcing beachgoers to lie and park themselves uncomfortably close to complete strangers.

3.                The over crowding of the beach that is open is creating disgustingly dirty conditions in the pond with trash, sunscreen, and God knows what else (OK, we know, but don’t want to put it in words).

4.                The NOISE!  Hello, visitors come here for rest, relaxation to unwind from their already noisy lives.  There is no peace at the beach while this insanity is going on.

5.                The view, or should I say, the lack of the view, while the beaches are littered with heavy machinery, mountains of sand, cloudy water and orange faux fences.  Eww.

6.                The stupidly extended time frame that this project is taking. 

7.                The project is plagued with breakdowns!  Generators dying, pumps not pumping and did I mention, deafening noises.  There was the hose that sprung an underground leak and created a sand volcano on the beach that literally had innocent tourists running for cover.  And then the overall design that was very simply flawed and the pipes just can’t handle any kind of capacity that would make this whole thing efficient. 

I know there’s much more.  This is only what my husband I gleaned by speaking with disgruntled workman on the scene, who speak freely about their frustrations, and simply observing the rest with the naked eye.  All of which has put them weeks behind schedule.  What a surprise.

OK, they have to do the work, but 3+ months to do it?  Really?  Are you really telling me that there isn’t a better a way?  Spend a half hour at the beach, any time of day, and you’ll hear 10 different ideas buy visitors and residents alike. 

Pumping the sand onto one beach and then having to somehow move it hundreds of yards to another beach.  And now that the pipe method of moving the sand wasn’t working at great distances, they have to pump the sand to the Moana Surfrider and then move it again down to the Royal Hawaiian.  How efficient is this?  Plus, it closes off more of the beach!  Oh, by the way, did I mention that the sand is all an ugly dark gray and littered with small pieces of sharp coral.  Hmmm.  I’ll save that for another rant.

My husband and I are in the ocean several days a week.  We have been listening intently to the tourists who are literally so fed up with this whole thing.  Many are here to escape the cold winters of Canada and the East Coast.  Others have traveled great distances from foreign countries.  Everyone has an opinion but the overwhelming sentiment that we are hearing is that they are not coming back.  Can you blame them?  You save and save to come to paradise and when you finally arrive you get torn up beaches, noise and over crowding.  If it was only for a few weeks, Waikiki could take the hit.  But creating a project like this that disrupts the main commodity here for over 3 months is ludicrous.  Sure it’s coming in on budget, but what will the ultimate price that Hawaii will have to pay for this “plan” actually turn out to be? 

I don’t pretend to know the answer.  After all, I’m not an expert on beach erosion or a member of the Army Corpse of Engineers (the keepers of our beaches), but I do have a modicum of common sense.  Truck the sand in from another part of the island.  Do it at night.  Pull it off of Sand Island or a host of other fairly unused beaches.  Replenish that sand with the whole barge deal and pump it directly on the beach where it was taken from.  Duh!  This would keep the Waikiki beaches mostly in tact during this project and provide, clean, white sand as visitors expect and pay for.

If all else fails, go with my husband’s idea.  Eliminate the pipe under the sand and the lengthy process of pumping it down the beach.  Require each resident and tourist using the beach to participate in an old-fashioned bucket brigade.  Reward each participant with an old style Mai Tai from the famed Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai bar (Shirley Temples for kids, of course) and move that sand in record time.

A PHOTO UPDATE TO THE SAND PROJECT

Here's a few more photos of what they're doing to the beach at Waikiki.  Still not able to pump sand down the beach once it's on shore, but getting plenty out of the ocean.  You can't even see the ocean thru the mound of sand on Kalakaua.  What a mess!

It was a dark and rainy day.  This is the pile of sand that you see from across the street.

This is the beach blocked off.  The pond of water is normally sand.

They pump the sand into this area to "dewater" it before pumping it down by the pink hotel (The Royal Hawaiian).  To bad the pumping isn't working.

This photo is taken from the "Groin" area that extends out into the ocean.

This is the platform anchored off shore that they are pumping the sand from the ocean with.  Then it is sent to shore thru underwater pipes and ends up in the pile above.

Just what you want to see when you come to Waikiki, huh?

Waikiki After Dark, a cautionary tale

WAIKIKI AFTER DARK
Waikiki is a fun and active place.  So much do, day and night, that it easily attracts a young and fun loving crowd.  Sure, there's us older folks, the ones that are home and in bed by 9pm, but there's the younger group as well and they come here to party.  Of all the Hawaiian Islands, Oahu is the only one with the kind of night life that will fulfill their urges.  There's great bars and clubs in China Town (next to Down Town), Waikiki & right outside of Waikiki as well.  So there's no shortage of places to choose from so have fun, but please be cautious as well.

As far as big cities go, Honolulu and Waikiki are pretty safe.  There are tons of police out and about, especially after dark, but there's that other "element" as well and it just makes good sense to keep your wits about you while your out, especially as the midnight hour draws near.  Walk the streets of Waikiki between 7pm and 10pm and you'll find crowds of tourists going to different restaurants and shops.  There are street performers as well and even various evening farmers markets.  It's a great time to have fun and feel the energy of this bustling place.  But once it gets a little later, the crowd definitely changes.  Back in their hotels, under their hotel sheets and watching their hotel TV channels are the older folks and the family visitors.  Now the streets belong to the younger set, out to find their next drink, sports bar, night club, strip club, or, dare I say, street walkers.  Yup, there's plenty of them, despite the police, they freely walk Kuhio Avenue (just one block up from the ocean) and they are hard to miss.  Bars that had a few people in them earlier now have lines out the door.  Loud music comes blaring out of various establishments and the night life is in full swing.

Some bars in the area are open until 4am and this can only mean trouble.  It's not uncommon to see people staggering down the street, even fights are fairly common after midnight.  So be careful.  Pay attention to what's going on around you.  People, especially impaired tourists, are known to get mugged, especially on the side streets.  We met a guy a few weeks ago that was actually drugged at Señor Frogs and woke up 4 hours later on the street, with an empty wallet on his lap.  His wife was worried sick because he just went out for a couple of beers.  His bank account had been emptied with his ATM card and he had no recollection of any of it.  By the way, he was staying at the nicest hotel in town so no one is immune!  Although we had never heard of this happening here, we weren't surprised.  The places that stay open late are notoriously seedy so be alert.  It makes the most sense to be in a group, not alone.  I don't want to scare you, just warn you to be aware of your surroundings so you can have fun and stay safe!

Remember, if you are having any trouble or see anything going on that you feel is unsafe, flag down a police officer.  They are constantly cruising up and down the streets in police cars and on bikes.  Just wave at them and they will stop.  Once one pulls over, more are sure to follow.

Finally, if you've had a great time the night before but feel less than stellar the next day from a little to much, GET INTO THE OCEAN.  It's the cure all for a hang over and you can work on your tan at the same time.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY BLOG!

THANK YOU TO ALL who took the time to read my first blog!!  Sorry for the delay on my 2nd one.  I needed my tech savvy son to show me how to add another.  I hope it was worth the wait!

WAIKIKI SAND REPLENISHMENT PROJECT

It’s the elephant in the room.  Or should I say, it’s the herd of elephants on the beach!  It’s the absolutely one thing that has me so completely outraged and stultified that I see red every time I walk even close to the world famous and widely beloved Kuhio Beach.  I hate to be so negative (especially with first real article out of the shoot) and usually I’m much more laid back, but this is so completely absurd that I just can’t “let it go”.  Yes, I’m talking about the Waikiki Beach Sand Maintenance Project of 2012.  The nifty idea to restore the Waikiki beaches of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Outrigger, Moana Surfrider and Diamond Head all the way to the Duke Statue, to their original glory.  In other words, there’s simply not enough room for all of our beloved, sunscreen drenched, economy supporting visitors to lay out there pasty white bodies and get, in short, what they paid for.

 

OK, I get it, and I even admit that it makes perfect sense.  The beaches are eroding and they do need to be widened.  So the city called together all the smart people who know about tides and beaches and erosion and economics so they could assemble a plan.  And a plan they concocted.  In fact, they figured out a way to expand the beaches by up to 30 feet, get the hotels to help chip in and accomplish this within a reasonable timeframe and budget. The problem was solved, the idea was sold to the powers that be and everything was headed toward a fairy tale ending.  Whoops, that is right up until the point that they literally destroyed the entire pond/beach area in front of the Marriott Hotel in order to make it their pumping and dumping site.  Then for good measure, they roped off a generous portion of the second pond just Ewa of the Prince Kuhio Statue.  They completely destroyed the one beach by creating an enormous water filled hole then loaded the beaches with enormous machinery and generators that create an ear shattering amount of noise.  Don’t forget the tractors and dozers to push the newly acquired sand that is being pumped in from an off shore barge.  

This is in the beginning of the project, it's much worse now

They installed a ridiculously long and obviously to narrow pipe under the sand running the entire beach and simply believed that this would simply do the trick.  Sure, this had never been done before, but what the heck, it ought to work. 

Again, these photos don't begin to do this justice.  This was in the beginning of their closing off the beach.  Now there's piles of sand here.

This whole project reminds me of my Alaskan past.  Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, needed a new performing arts center.  It needed to be fabulous and reflect a Native Alaskan Culture.  Who better to design the geographically relevant building then a mainland architecture firm.  Sure, they designed a beautiful building filled with Alaskan art but they failed to take into consideration one small detail.  Parking.  They built a parking garage 2 blocks away.  Now that might not sound like a big deal for a place like Hawaii with fantastic weather year round.  But for a city that has 8 ½ months of winter, icy streets, snow, hail and below freezing weather, it was the blunder of the century.  Women would be dressed to the hilt to attend the opera or a play, high heels and all, and then have to tackle a nail biting 2 block walk in the freezing cold clutching the arms of their dates to keep from slipping and sliding to the ground on ice.  If it was snowing, their hair would be ruined, there expensive shoes soaked.  Many a silk dress, dress slacks, tie or pricey new shoes were and still are, victim to the Alaska Center For The Performing Arts.  It kind of took all the fun out of a night out on the town. Besides the obvious weather differences, it’s deja vous here in Hawaii.

Yes, there are local people working on this project and that’s a really good thing.  But mainland companies are doing the majority of the engineering.  I understand that this is a unique project and outside professionals had valid input, but who on earth really decided that this was the best route to go?  It’s wrong in so many ways that I hardly know where to start.

1.         The project completely alleviates one of the main protected, family beaches   for over 3 months! 

2.         The project invades a portion of the second protected beach as well forcing beachgoers to lie and park themselves uncomfortably close to complete strangers.

3.        The over crowding of the beach that is open is creating disgustingly dirty conditions in the pond with trash, sunscreen, and God knows what else (OK, we know, but don’t want to put it in words).

4.         The NOISE!  Hello, visitors come here for rest, relaxation to unwind from their already noisy lives.  There is no peace at the beach while this insanity is going on.

5.             The view, or should I say, the lack of the view, while the beaches are littered with heavy machinery, mountains of sand, cloudy water and orange faux fences.  Eww.

6.              The stupidly extended time frame that this project is taking. 

7.      The project is plagued with breakdowns!  Generators dying, pumps not pumping and did I mention, deafening noises.  There was the hose that sprung an underground leak and created a sand volcano on the beach that literally had innocent tourists running for cover.  And then the overall design that was very simply flawed and the pipes just can’t handle any kind of capacity that would make this whole thing efficient. 

I know there’s much more.  This is only what my husband I gleaned by speaking with disgruntled workman on the scene, who speak freely about their frustrations, and simply observing the rest with the naked eye.  All of which has put them weeks behind schedule.  What a surprise.  Oh, and just yesterday we found out that they blew another motor on the compressor that blows the sand.

Pretty, eh?

OK, they have to do the work, but 3+ months to do it?  Really?  Are you really telling me that there isn’t a better a way?  Spend a half hour at the beach, any time of day, and you’ll hear 10 different ideas buy visitors and residents alike.  Pumping the sand onto one beach and then having to somehow move it hundreds of yards to another beach.  And now that the pipe method of moving the sand isn’t working at great distances, they have to pump the sand to the Moana Surfrider and then move it again down to the Royal Hawaiian.  How efficient is this?  Plus, it closes off more of the beach!  Oh, by the way, did I mention that the sand is all an ugly dark gray and littered with small pieces of sharp coral.  Hmmm.  I’ll save that for another rant.

My husband and I are in the ocean several days a week.  We have been listening intently to the tourists who are literally so fed up with this whole thing.  Many are here to escape the cold winters of Canada and the East Coast.  Others have traveled great distances from foreign countries.  Everyone has an opinion but the overwhelming sentiment that we are hearing is that they are not coming back.  Can you blame them?  You save and save to come to paradise and when you finally arrive you get torn up beaches, noise and over crowding.  If it was only for a few weeks, Waikiki could take the hit.  But creating a project like this that disrupts the main commodity here for over 3 months is ludicrous.  Sure it’s coming in on budget, but what will the ultimate price that Hawaii will have to pay for this “plan” actually turn out to be? 

I don’t pretend to know the answer.  After all, I’m not an expert on beach erosion or a member of the Army Corpse of Engineers (the keepers of our beaches), but I do have a modicum of common sense.  Truck the sand in from another part of the island.  Do it at night.  Pull it off of Sand Island or a host of other fairly unused beaches.  Replenish that sand with the whole barge deal and pump it directly on the beach where it was taken from.  Duh!  This would keep the Waikiki beaches mostly in tact during this project and provide, clean, white sand as visitors expect and pay for.

If all else fails, go with my husband’s idea.  Eliminate the pipe under the sand and the lengthy process of pumping it down the beach.  Require each resident and tourist using the beach to participate in an old-fashioned bucket brigade.  Reward each participant with an old style Mai Tai from the famed Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai bar (Shirley Temples for kids, of course) and move that sand in record time.

Last night on the beach.  You can see the mound of sand starting to pile up.  Because another pump broke, it's all at stand still, AGAIN.

PHOTOS OF BEAUTIFUL WAIKIKI BEACH

WAIKIKI UNDERGROUND

As a long time resident of Waikiki and avid beachgoer, I hold an incredible interest in all the goings on in my beloved Waikiki.  Though not a writer by trade, I did take an obligatory Journalism class in college.  Sure, that was almost 30 years ago, but still, I know how to justify a column and waddle my way around punctuation.  Combine this training with the spelling and grammar check on my computer, merge it with my “fresh mouth” that my Grandma always warned me to control, and top it off with my deep and sincere love for Waikiki, and I believe this makes me totally qualified to offer a completely unbiased and greatly needed perspective on the state of this very unique city! 

Please join me while I tackle Waikiki stories and happenings, without sugar coating a thing, presenting a raw and honest view of what’s really going on in Waikiki.  Stories and activities brought to you from a perspective that only a full time, fully immersed resident, who literally trolls the streets and beaches day and night, could bring you.  We, the people of Oahu and beyond, deserve to be informed of what really happens behind the pretty facade of multi-million dollar hotels, beaches and never ending sunshine in what can only be described as the financial treasure chest of the Hawaiian Islands. 

One thing is certain, there is always something, or lots of something’s, going on in Waikiki.  From block parties to street repairs, sporting events in Kapiloani Park to parades, sidewalk performers to Happy Hours and sand replenishment projects (don’t get me started) to fireworks on the beach, everything is not always as it appears.

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