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ASD Staff

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"text":"Mr. T would pity the fool who doesn't find this funny.","type":"text"}]

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<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An amazing chain of events</title>

Today's social media find comes from nailsbydanny, and it's all about the links.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An amazing chain of events

Mr. T would pity the fool who doesn&#039;t find this funny. 

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Aloha Spirit

State and U.S. flags will be flown at half-staff this weekend in commemoration of former U.S. Rep. Patricia “Pat” Saiki, who died Wednesday at the age of 96.

Saiki was the second woman in Hawai‘i elected to represent the state in Congress — the first being Patsy Mink — as well as the first Republican Hawai‘i Congress member. She reportedly died peacefully in her home in Kāhala, according to the 

, a successor organization to the state’s first teachers’ union, which she founded.

Before her career in politics, the Hilo-born Saiki was a public school teacher at Kaimukī Intermediate School. When her daughter fell ill at school and was taken to the hospital, she was told she could not use school phones for personal business such as checking on her daughter, which led her to form the Teacher’s Chapter of the Hawai‘i Government Employees Association.

Saiki ran for the state House of Representatives in 1968 and won — becoming the first woman to hold the seat — and served through 1974. Following that, she ran for the state Senate, where she served until 1982, when she unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor.

In 1986, she was elected to her U.S. House seat, where she served until 1990 before an unsuccessful U.S. Senate run. That year, then-President George H. W. Bush appointed her to be the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Association, where she served until 1993.

Among her legislative achievements were the establishment of the Kapi‘olani Medical Center’s Sex Abuse Treatment Center, passing reparations for Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans detained in internment camps during World War II, and successfully urging President Bush to halt the use of Kaho‘olawe as a bombing range in 1990.

Later in life, Saiki was chair of the Hawai‘i Republican Party from 2014 to 2015 — during which time the party saw membership rolls triple, according to Gov. Josh Green’s office.

“Pat Saiki’s six decades of public service and her pioneering example for young women and Asian Americans in Hawai

i and across the U.S., combine to form both a lasting, inspiring legacy and a high bar for all of us who serve the public,” Green said Wednesday.

From Friday through Monday morning, U.S. and state flags will be flown at half-staff at all state offices and agencies, as well as Hawai‘i National Guard facilities.

Saiki is survived by four children, Stuart Saiki, Sandra Saiki, Margaret Saiki and Laurie Saiki, as well as numerous grandchildren. Services are pending.

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<title>Former Congresswoman Pat Saiki dead at 96</title>

Flags to fly at half-staff this weekend to honor the state's first Republican delegate

Former Congresswoman Pat Saiki dead at 96

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Columnists

Aloha State Daily received a press release today from a Mainland-based national interest group, U.S. Term Limits (USTL), letting us know that “2026 Hawai‘i state senate candidate, Wallyn Christian (District 13) has committed support for term limits on Congress by signing the term limits convention pledge.”

Why does this matter to that organization? “(USTL, the leader in the national, non-partisan movement to limit terms for elected officials, is gathering support from state lawmakers across the nation,” the statement says. “Its mission is to get 34 states to apply for an amendment proposal convention specific to term limits on Congress.”

Term-limiting Congress is a popular idea, and USTL cites a 

 that, “An overwhelming majority of adults (87%) favor limiting the number of terms that members of Congress are allowed to serve. This includes a majority 56% who strongly favor this proposal, just 12% are opposed.”

The idea emerges often for local politicians, as well. Civil Beat has found public support for term limits to be as high as 70% in a 2018 poll of likely voters, a stat Honolulu Civil Beat resurfaced 

 of the lawmakers themselves to see where they stand on the idea of limiting their own time in office. “Nearly half of House members and more than a third of senators say they support term limits. There are enough undecideds in both chambers to give it a good shot if they held their position for two years,” CB found.

Respectfully, all of these people are wrong. Well intentioned, but they're aiming term limits at the wrong people.

I mean, I totally understand where the frustration is coming from. We elect people, nationally and locally, then are disappointed in their results. We could end their terms ourselves by simply not reelecting these people and yet obviously a lot of the people who say they want term limits do something very odd: They seem to reelect the lousy politicians they say they want to term limit.

You want to limit someone’s term? You’re just a month away from your next opportunity to vote for someone else!

So we’ve always had the power to fire politicians with every election, but don’t, then remain convinced that what we need is more turnover in government to make it more efficient, effective and responsive. Somebodies’ terms need limiting, but who?

Easy: The workforce. The bureaucrats. See, I want term limits, too, but I want them on the people staffing all the departments and agencies that we’re perpetually frustrated with. 

Consider, to cite just one example, how many different mayors you’ve seen over the past 20 or 30 years promise to reform the departments of planning and permitting in each county. The mayors have term limits. They come and go. Have any of them succeeded at this reform?

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has done more than any predecessor but there’s a long way still to go.

How many Hawai‘i governors — term-limited governors — have promised Hawai‘i a public education second to none? Which of them succeeded? Who is still in place, immune to reform?

What happens in real life is, candidates make bold promises of reform, we elect them, then they announce bold plans for reform and those plans run headfirst into a culture of unfirable civil servants shielded by union protections. These folks don’t even have to noisily and aggressively oppose the reform, all they have to do is … not do it. And wait. Four years later, or eight years later, their antagonist is gone, the staff remains, with its culture of job security over excellence safely intact.

[{"type":"text","text":"We, the taxpayers and voters, then sit around wondering what happened."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Hawai‘i’s"}]

What’s happened is simple: Since statehood, Hawai‘i’s people have steadily split into two camps, those who work for government and everybody else. The appeal of Government Hawai‘i is the security and benefits — lifelong employment, if you want it, totally protected from market forces and competition, with solid benefits like healthcare and retirement, paid for by the rest of us in Real Hawai‘i.

If you think the security and the bennies of government jobs are a trade-off to compensate for low pay, guess again. Government Hawai‘i earns more than Real Hawai‘i.

The annual average wage of a non-government job in Hawai‘i is 

 from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The average annual wage in state government? 

What does Real Hawai‘i get in return? One of the highest tax burdens in America for one thing, and then very little to brag about in high-quality government service. (

I would say that that two Hawai‘i’s have hardened into opposing camps, except that’s not exactly true. Government Hawai‘i drives an Us vs Them dynamic, that was never clearer to me than it was during Covid, when Government Hawai‘i showed us that it will shut the rest of down for years at a time given the slightest opportunity. It will also protect itself first, at the expense of the public is supposedly serves, as we see in the lingering effects of the schools closing for so long. That policy made no one safer, but it did mess up the kids. (And have you noticed ever since then, Government Hawai‘i takes the day off for even bad weather like it never did before, while the rest of us soldier on with our work?)

Out here in Real Hawai‘i, we grumble but otherwise settle for apathy (i.e., low voter turnout) or outright flight to states where it feels like a good life is more possible. I don’t know who Government Hawai‘i is going to tax when the last of us moves to Vegas.

With all that in mind, term limits on government service seem like the one revolution we haven’t tried, haven’t even discussed, but should. Say 10, 15 years max, total lifetime employment in government at any level. We want people to stay long enough to learn the ropes and finish things they’ve started, not so long that they just settle in and kill time until retirement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The upsides:"}]

Breaks up all the pockets of resistance to change. Turnover would occur systemwide, one person at a time, as they age out. Reformers at the top have a chance building support in the workforce among newer staff.

[{"type":"text","text":"Brings in new people and new ideas in government at every level."}]

Opens up more opportunities for Government Hawai‘i and Real Hawai‘i to trade places and live in each other’s worlds. This may be the biggest upside — more of us would get a chance to feel like we had a chance to change the system from the inside and deliver the service we’ve always wanted, while more of them would be forced to realize that Real Hawai‘i is something more than subjects to be ruled and tax cows to be milked.

Forces a revolution in how government hires. Using Mayor Blangiardi again as an example, he’s talked about how it took people six months on average to get hired by the City & County of Honolulu when he assumed office. 

, he had cut that down to three months. Compared to the speed at which the private sector can hire, that’s still an eternity, and that would have to change immediately to deal with the kind of turnover we need.

(To be fair, government is not alone on this front. In my decade at Pacific Business News, I heard executives at Hawai‘i’s larger companies talk endlessly about a labor shortage. At the same time, I knew plenty of talented people who could not land great jobs. Something is seriously broken in the hiring process, and I suspect HR, especially using automated keyword-based filters on resumes, is to blame. Make Direct Hiring by Managers Great Again!)

Loss of expertise, I suppose, but we’ve seen what the accumulated expertise gets us: A chief elections officer who thought a lauhala basket suited the dignity of a Hawai‘i electoral tie-breaker and ended getting his office sued — successfully — and 

. Scott Nago has worked at the Office of Election for nearly 26 years, almost 17 of those years as its chief election officer. As Civil Beat 

, it’s just about the only place he has ever worked in his life. Well, in the private sector, you can lose your job for bungling things so badly you get sued. Under my plan, the private sector is where he would’ve been sent years ago. Had someone else, perhaps with a wider range of life experience, been at the helm, maybe that person would've made better decisions.

[{"type":"text","text":"So, OK, there are no downsides."}]

Term limits on government service. If you like this idea, spread the word. We’d be moving a mountain to make it happen. But that’s got to be better than carrying the mountain of Government Hawai‘i on our shoulders forever.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

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People take time out of their lives to participate in the democratic process by testifying before committee hearings. Too often, the committee isn't there.

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Pipikaula Corner: Invisible Legislators

It's not getting much media attention, but the private diaries of Dr. Anthony Fauci have been published online by Sen. Rand Paul in advance of his hearings this week into Fauci and Covid-19. What they reveal across thousands of pages is man in love with the adulation he received, who privately knew that many of things he said publicly about the pandemic were wild exaggerations.

Getty Images 2155919948

Pipikaula Corner: Fauci revealed as fear-mongering, fame-loving fraud

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms</title>

It's an election year, and some people are running on the popular idea that legislators and Congress should have term limits to prevent lifers from working the system. ASD Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier argues this is a great idea, with the wrong target. What if it's actually the government workforce itself that needs a term limit?

Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms

WEB square crop Hayley Lehman Headshot RGZ1636

Haley Lehman

Business & Tourism

The Chinatown Cultural Plaza will be demolished and redeveloped, the City and County of Honolulu announced Wednesday. When Aloha State Daily visited the site, we saw Taiwan and U.S. flags flapping in the wind, graffiti scrawled on the side of the plaza, empty storefronts, and a handful of restaurants and shops.

Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi has been open with his frustration over the property over the past five years and has pushed for improvements as part of a broader revitalization effort in Chinatown. He met with a Taiwanese 

 in Honolulu in July to discuss the future of the Chinatown Cultural Plaza. In a statement issued Wednesday, he said that the redevelopment is a breakthrough to transform Chinatown and Honolulu.

“This is about much more than redeveloping a single property,” Blangiardi said. “It is about what Chinatown can become. This community has extraordinary history, culture and character, and we want to see that reflected in its future. A revitalized Cultural Plaza can help bring new energy and economic activity into Chinatown while remaining a place that celebrates the cultures and traditions that have made this community so special.”

Six Chinese organizations designed and built the 3.97-acre Chinatown Cultural Plaza in 1974. Taiwan purchased the property in 1979 through China Airlines and Longevity International Enterprises Corporation has 

The center, located at 100 N. Beretania St., is bordered by River Street, Kukui Street and Maunakea Street. The Mun Lun School is not part of the Chinatown Cultural Center.

In April 2025, Blangiardi told the Chinatown-Downtown neighborhood board that he was “totally dissatisfied … with the state of the cultural plaza,” pointing to disrepair.

Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock, founder of the Chinatown Business and Community Association and chair of the Downtown-Chinatown neighborhood board, told Aloha State Daily Thursday that the “plaza is dilapidated from years of neglect.”

The management company has not adequately addressed maintenance over the years, leading to holes in the ceiling and broken elevators, Shubert-Kwock said. Community members have also seen homeless encampments, drug use and illegal gambling at the plaza.

Shubert-Kwock said that the property managers should be held accountable for failing to maintain the building to proper standards. She expressed concern that tenants will not be compensated for moving before their leases are up and received short notice of the lease terminations, calling it “unfair to tenants.”

 added that she supports the redevelopment project, and said she'd like to see affordable housing, retail, restaurants and public parking at the site. She would also like a large Chinese restaurant at the plaza. The Empress Restaurant opened in 1979 and closed by the end of 2018, leaving a 10,000-square-foot banquet space empty on the second floor of the Chinatown Cultural Center and eliminating a banquet space for community gatherings, she noted.

, co-founder of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue and chairman of 

, said that the plaza was beautiful when it was first built, but “slowly, gradually deteriorated” after it was sold to Taiwan.

“The problem is mismanagement,” Flores said. “Nobody cares. I’ve never seen a property so mismanaged in my life.”

Flores said that the redevelopment could bring affordable housing, retail, a community center and a large Chinese restaurant to the plaza.

“We’re looking forward to the future. People are afraid to go there at nighttime," he said.

Flores gave Blangiardi an “A+” for advocating for change in Chinatown. He said that Chinatown has been a center of business activity, community and historical significance, and the area could be a tourist attraction second to Waikīkī with investment.

According to the City and County of Honolulu, preliminary work at the plaza will include environmental impact assessments and archaeological studies, followed by demolition of existing structure and requests for redevelopment proposals.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu stated in a news release Friday that the redevelopment ushers in a new chapter for the Chinatown Cultural Plaza.

TECO identified Longevity International Enterprises Corp. as the owner of the Chinatown Cultural Plaza, and stated that owners agreed to redevelop the plaza to align with the City and County of Honolulu’s efforts to promote the development of Chinatown.

“The redevelopment aims to create a modern, safe, and vibrant new landmark with stronger Taiwanese characteristics, while continuing to serve the community and function as a bridge connecting Taiwan and Hawaii,” TECO stated in the news release

It’s not clear how the demolition and reconstruction will impact local events like the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Hawaiʻi Chinatown Peace Festival, formerly called the Buddha Peace Festival, used to be held at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza and has moved to Maunakea Marketplace in recent years.

Tenants were given a notice of lease termination and must vacate the premises by March 31, 2027, per the county.

Sandy’s Café has been open since 2020, and the restaurant’s lease is up in 2028, owner Henry Cheng said Thursday. The restaurant is in a good location, he said, adding that increased security could deter homeless people and improve conditions.

Cheng said that tearing down the plaza could mean the end to the businesses that set up shop there.

Eva Chen, one of the owners of Lee Ho Fook Restaurant, has been operating the restaurant out of the Chinatown Cultural Plaza for 30 years. She does not currently have plans to relocate, and her son, Matthew Wu, said that his parents want to take a break when the lease ends in March and may reopen in the future.

Wu said that the plaza seemed thriving and livelier when he was younger, but has turned into a “ghost town” in the last five years.

Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam said by email Thursday, “My priority is making sure the existing tenants receive clear communication, timelines and expectations as this project moves forward. I want the City to be a partner in supporting these businesses as much as possible and will continue advocating for our small businesses throughout this process. I hope the redevelopment will contribute to a stronger, more vibrant Chinatown while recognizing the important role these longtime businesses play in our community.”

Chinatown Cultural Plaza

<title>UPDATED: Chinatown Cultural Plaza to be razed, redeveloped</title>

The center, owned by the Taiwan government, will be demolished and redeveloped after a years-long push by the City and County of Honolulu to improve the site. Over the past 50 years, Chinatown Cultural Plaza has “carried forward our unique cultural traditions and preserved the shared memories of Honolulu,” said the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu. Its tenants received end of lease termination notices and must vacate the premises by the end of March 2027.

UPDATED: Chinatown Cultural Plaza to be razed, redeveloped

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

[{"type":"text","text":"A Waikīkī resort is getting a $100 million refresh."}]

Outrigger Hospitality Group has started the overhaul of its Outrigger Waikīkī Beach Resort.

, the company says the resort is being "reimagined as a design-led, barefoot luxury destination more deeply connected to the ocean, surf culture and sense of place that defines Waikīkī."

Monica Salter, vice president of global communications and social responsibility for Outrigger Hospitality Group, told Aloha State Daily in an email that the renovation will touch "every aspect of the guest experience, from the moment of arrival through to the ocean's edge."

"Highlights include a dramatic new grand arrival staircase with design details inspired by the ʻĀpuakēhau Stream, a museum-quality art program developed in collaboration with leading local artists, a one-of-a-kind surfboard installation in the lobby and a fully reimagined Voyager 47 Club Lounge that will be more than three times its current size with expanded indoor-outdoor spaces," she says.

Meanwhile, Salter says guest rooms and suites are being redesigned with "soft palettes and textures drawn from the natural environment of Waikīkī including the surf, the sand and the light. Throughout, the design is rooted in the cultural history and surf legacy of this iconic shoreline."

Outrigger Waikīkī Beach Resort first opened in 1967 and its last major renovation was a "few decades ago," she noted. 

"Outrigger Waikīkī Beach Resort is where the Outrigger story began — on the historic grounds of the Outrigger Canoe Club, at the birthplace of modern surfing," Salter says. "After 60 years, the time felt right to honor that legacy in a way that reflects both where the brand has been and where it's going. This transformation will create an experience that is more elevated, more immersive and more authentically rooted in the culture and spirit of Waikīkī than ever before."

The resort will remain fully open throughout the renovations, including Duke's 

Waikīkī, Hula Grill Waikīkī and Blue Note Hawai‘i. Salter says the work is being "carried out thoughtfully" to minimize disruption.

The reimagined guest rooms are on track to debut later this year, while other elements of the transformation will be revealed in phases in the months that follow, she told ASD.

According to the announcement, several organizations are collaborating on the project, including DTL — a Hawaiian Strategy Studio, PowerStrip Studio and WCIT Architecture.

“To design in Hawaiʻi is to remember," Mālia Ka‘aihue, president of DTL, said in the announcement. "Our work at Outrigger Waikīkī Beach Resort was shaped by the ʻĀpuakēhau Stream, by the genealogy of the land, aliʻi and people of this place, and by the rhythm of the kahakai. For kamaʻāina and malihini alike, we wanted the generational abundance of Waikīkī to be felt in every material, every motif, every moment."

Outrigger got its start in 1947, when American architect Roy Kelley and his wife Estelle opened the 33-room Islander Hotel in Waikīkī, according to a 

, you'll find the Outrigger Reef Waikīkī Beach Resort, Waikīkī Beach Resort, Waikīkī Beachcomber Hotel and Waikīkī Paradise Hotel; on 

 there's Outrigger Kā‘anapali Beach Resort and Honua Kai Resort & Spa; the Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa is located on Hawai‘i Island; and the Outrigger Kaua‘i Beach Resort & Spa is on the 

 across the Islands, and owns and operates resorts in Fiji, Thailand, Maldives and Mauritius. Find its portfolio of properties 

(ICYMI: Several other Hawai‘i hotels have unveiled multi-million dollar renovations and updates in the last year, including 

The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikīkī Beach

Honolulu hotels alone generate $12 billion in economic activity and support 63,912 jobs, according to an 

 released in February by the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Hawai‘i Hotel Alliance. Hotel guests spend $6.5 billion throughout Honolulu each year, the report notes, which is equivalent to $760 per room night on lodging, retail, dining and other activities.

OUTRIGGER Stair Entry Floor

<title>Outrigger Hospitality Group starts $100M 'transformation' of Waikīkī Beach Resort</title>

The company says the resort is being "reimagined as a design-led, barefoot luxury destination more deeply connected to the ocean, surf culture and sense of place that defines Waikīkī."

Outrigger Hospitality Group starts $100M 'transformation' of Waikīkī Beach Resort

Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

The most bizarre section in Hawai‘i’s 

 is the one that relates to the state’s regulation of population growth. It is a testament to a bygone era informed by misguided local anxieties. 

Runaway population growth across the Hawaiian Islands once occupied the Hawai'i zeitgeist. While much of this mindset persists in the halls of society, it contrasts with Hawai‘i’s contemporary demographic woes. 

Between April 1960 and April 1970, Hawai‘i added 115,510 residents to its population, totalling 748,182 residents across the islands. It was a meteoric rise that stressed the Hawai‘i’s poor infrastructure, corrupt land management practices, and limited housing across the islands. 

Hawai‘i was a young, growing society. The median age of a resident was 25. Much of the State’s dynamism and vigour, in turn, were informed by a mix of talent both local and non-local.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Perhaps it was too much of a good thing. "}]

During this time, national commentators were fretting about the global population’s growth. Paul and Anne Ehrlich had co-authored 

in 1968. Internationally, the Club of Rome furnished the

report, which only further argued against overconsumption. Political views wrapped in scientific dogma started-off a new movement whose cultural salience was confirmed by the 1973 film 

While societies were wasteful and inefficient, these reports didn’t necessarily call for more efficiency. Instead, they called for fewer people. 

While the times have changed, our Constitution’s outdated language shows how we are still stuck in the ’70s. Through national debates over population control, Hawai‘i became a tragic guinea pig that used environmentalism to justify population control, opening the floodgates for arguments against urban development, immigration, and economic growth. 

These conversations continue to plague Hawai‘i’s zeitgeist, most notably when it comes to unnecessary conflict between economic growth and environmental stewardship.

In 1970, the Hawai‘i State Legislature passed Senate Resolution 305, establishing the State’s Temporary Commission on Population Stabilization. A 1972 report issued by the Commission suggested an inverse relationship between environmental stewardship and population growth. 

“It remains to be seen whether or not we will achieve a balance with the limits of the Hawaiian environment in this present period of growth in Hawaiian history,” the 

 warned, “but it should be recognized that with respect to maintaining the quality of the environment, population and prosperity are ‘trade-offs.’ If we expect to maintain a fixed level of pollution and impact on the environment by people in Hawaii, then any increase in one will require a corresponding decrease in the other.”

In the following year, the State Senate once again adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of an optimum state population. “The question of population equilibria among the Islands is a difficult one to answer quantitatively,” a 

 from the Department of Planning and Economic Development warned.

“One must consider the impact on the environment, what ‘quality of life’ should be used as a measure, means of developing a viable economy within a stable population, and the size of population on each Island which will bring about a desirable balance with the social and natural environment of Hawai‘i.”

Nationally, the Commission on Population and the American Future had been established by federal law in March 1970. A final 

 issued by the Commission was submitted to the U.S. Congress in March 1972, with proposals ranging from increased abortion access to voluntary sterilization to stricter immigration controls. Out of political embarrassment for its recommendations, the Nixon Administration largely distanced itself from the Commission.

However, the rhetoric which argued for limits on immigration had devastating consequences. In the present-day, arguments blaming immigrants for environmental degradation have had devastating 

Back in Hawai‘i, the reports stacked on one another. In 1972, Earl R. Babbie of the civic organization 

, a major argument for a cap on Hawai‘i’s population at one million (Hawai‘i’s population reached this threshold in the mid-’80s). 

These reports built a case for a more permanent state agency tasked with controlling the state’s population growth. As a result, the Commission on Population Stabilization and the Hawaiian Future was 

A primary architect of the measure, Nadao Yoshinga, was not solely worried about the influx of outsiders. Natural population growth among existing residents was another worry. Yoshinaga, an influential member of the State Senate, would 

 in the name of limited Hawai‘i’s population growth over the coming years. Limiting population by whatever means necessary (in the confines of the law) was the objective.

At around this time, Robert C. Schmitt, the State Statistician of Hawai‘i, 

 of the emerging field of population policy. Proponents of population control, at least in the early Statehood era, had started to organize in the late ’60s through such organizations as the University of Hawai‘i-sponsored Zero Population Growth-Honoulu, Citizens for Hawai‘i, Life of the Land, the Sierra Club, and Save our Surf. 

These groups advocated for policies to halt population migration, economic development, and other factors like densified communities in the name of environmentalism. Perhaps tragically, this misguided approach to Hawai‘i’s prevailing problems created a manichean world of values in conflict with one another.

Arguments for population control in the name of environmental stewardship had a real impact on policy in the late ’70s. Most notably, this came to a head in 1977.

During his annual State of the State address, Governor George Ariyoshi directly addressed population control, arguing for immigration controls and density regulation in the name of the ‘aloha spirit.’

“The problem of excessive population seems to be central to nearly every problem in the State.” he started. “Too many people means too few jobs and too much competition for them. Too many people means too little land for agriculture, parks, and scenic vistas. Too many people means too much crime and too much erosion of possibly our single most important commodity: the Aloha Spirit. Too many people means too much pressure on all our governmental and private institutions.” 

Ariyoshi wanted fewer people in Hawai‘i, plain and simple. To reinforce his views, the State Legislature even sponsored a 

 on population and the Hawaiian future in March 1977. 

One piece of legislation would have discriminated against recent arrivals to Hawai‘i through residency requirements for state jobs. A Federal Judge based in Honolulu, the part-Hawaiian Sam P. King, condemned the State of Hawai‘i’s flirtation with a flagrantly “anti-migratory” statute.

These attempts provide a marked contrast with the present day. In January 2025, the Department of Human Services 

 that the State suffers from a vacancy rate of 24% of all civil services positions (equivalent to more than 4,000 jobs). 

Nevertheless, Hawai‘i still inserted a section into its Constitution at the 1978 Constitutional Convention that called for population planning. To date, it is the only Constitution in the United States with such explicit language.

Instead of promoting smarter urban planning methods that conserved space while reducing sprawl or incentivizing farmers to bring more fallow agricultural land into cultivation, it was more convenient to blame the outside migrants for Hawai‘i’s development problems.

Instead of fostering solutions which invite greater societal innovation, it is more convenient to fall for an ideology wrapped in the veneer of science. 

Since 1970, Hawai‘i’s population fortunes have reversed.

Global population growth is not exponential, nor could it sustain the growth rates witnessed after the Second World War. In fact, our planet’s 

 will likely begin declining before 2100. 

The paranoia of the ’70s became irrelevant over the following decade. By 1983, the Commission on Population and the Hawaiian Future had been abolished.

For a majority of Hawai‘i’s residents in 2025, the ’70s are a foreign, unknown domain. Since Hawai‘i’s 

 was 41 as of 2024, it’s safe to conclude more than half of Hawai‘i’s population was born after 1980.

Today, Hawai‘i is missing people. It is one of the fastest aging states in the United States. The population is contracting, with more than half of all Native Hawaiians on the planet living outside of the archipelago.

Culturally, it is still easy to blame the outsider for our own problems. Instead of acknowledging our own complicitly in failing to plan for the future, it is far easier to find that the outsider is only exacerbating the problems we are not addressing. Policies which now arrest growth not only injure potential migrants. They also hurt residents.

The debates over population control in the ’70s were about a fear of change and a society’s failure to properly navigate the pressures wrought by new forces.

Contemporary conflicts over growth still magnify this attitude. Not unironically, stewarding Hawai‘i’s environment means Hawai‘i’s environment needs to also steward Hawai‘i’s people.

“It should be remembered,” Governor John Burns said in 

, “that the key ingredient in any environment is man himself: he is part and parcel of and the key to the value of our total system of symbiotic relationships on this earth. Being a part of the environment demands that we consider human economics together with biological ecology.” 

“If man is hungry, ill-housed, undereducated or poorly treated in his society,” he wondered, “what service is it to him that his environment remains in its pristine, natural state?”

A society without one cannot have the other. We need to think about growth, not stabilization. We need to think about people.

In our own time, we need a Constitution whose thinking is not tethered to the past. While the language in outdated documents like our Constitution locks our zeitgeist in another time, we need to get over our history. We need a better zeitgeist.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An amazing chain of events

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