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Hawai'i Skies

beach. "This pic was taken at my favorite beach," Medeiros wrote. "It's where I grew up and lived my entire life. I love this place." 

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<title>Hawai'i Skies: West Side best side</title>

Today's Hawai'i Skies was captured by Wai'anae resident Kim Medeiros at Māʻili Beach.

Hawai'i Skies: West Side best side

Today's Hawai'i Skies was captured by Wai'anae resident Kim Medeiros at Māʻili beach. "This pic was taken at my favorite beach," Medeiros wrote. "It's where I grew up and lived my entire life. I love this place."  To submit your Hawai'i Skies photo, visit us online or email: general@alohastatedaily.com For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.

Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

Government & Politics

Columnists

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While the times have changed, our Constitution’s outdated language shows how we are still stuck in the ’70s.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.

Crowd i Stock 1357524756

<title>Hawai‘i's bizarre legacy of population control (and why it's still here)</title>

In the 1970s, Hawai‘i gave in to fears of overpopulation, so much so that population control was put into the State Constitution.

Hawai‘i's bizarre legacy of population control (and why it's still here)

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

The Honolulu Ocean Safety Commission is looking for a chief of ocean safety. The job has an annual salary of $201,984, according to representatives of the City and County of Honolulu.

, which became a stand-alone department in May of 2024, staffs more than 40 lifeguard towers on Oʻahu and also patrols with trucks, jet skis, UTVs and ATVs, according to its website. It is responsible for ocean safety and emergency rescue on the beach and near shore waters along Oʻahu’s 227-mile coastline. Ocean Safety previously was under the Department of Emergency Services. Prior to that, it was part of the 

John Titchen, the previous Chief of Ocean Safety, was put on 

 in April of 2024, as previously reported by Hawaiʻi News Now. 

 was named director of the department that month, according to representatives of the City and County of Honolulu. Titchen was “released for cause” on July 29, 2024, according to an email to Aloha State Daily from the same representatives.

“The application and selection process for our next chief of ocean safety is one of the most important responsibilities we have as a commission,” said Billy Pratt, chairman of the Ocean Safety Commission, in a written statement. “This leader will shape the future of ocean safety on O’ahu, support our island’s lifeguards, and ensure that the protection of our residents and visitors remains the global standard of excellence around the world.”

The responsibilities for the chief include overseeing a department of more than 300 people across five districts: South Shore, Windward Coast, North Shore, Leeward Coast and Hanauma Bay. 

Applicants for the role must have United States citizenship and residency in Hawaiʻi for at least a year prior to appointment. In addition, they must have five years of training and experience in ocean safety plus at least three years in an administrative role.

Interested individuals must apply by Oct. 16. Application packets will be reviewed by the Ocean Safety Commision. 

Ocean Safety Department

<title>City and County of Honolulu searches for chief of ocean safety</title>

The role pays more than $200,000 in annual salary and includes responsibility of more than 300 people across five districts on Oʻahu. The Ocean Safety Department oversees ocean safety and emergency rescue on the beach and near shore waters along Oʻahu’s 227-mile coastline.

City and County of Honolulu searches for chief of ocean safety

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

 just opened its second Honolulu store, which is located at the Renaissance Honolulu Hotel & Spa.

A traditional Hawaiian blessing was held this morning to celebrate the second Honolulu café, which opened to the public at 10 a.m. Starting tomorrow, Oct. 1, the café will be open daily from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The new café at the Renaissance Hotel & Spa mirrors the size and layout of the business’s first location in downtown Honolulu, which opened last February. Customers can grab a tray and choose from a variety of pastries in the bakery display cases.

Paris Baguette is known for its variety of sweet and savory pastries, cakes and beverages. Choose from popular options like strawberry lemon cream croissants ($4.29), tiramisu tarts ($4.69), hash brown bread ($5.49) and twisted donuts ($3.79).

Keep an eye out for new treats, including Biscoff Cookie Butter king cream donuts ($6.49), cookies and cream mochi donuts ($5.39), Dubai chocolate tarts ($10.29), chocolate chip scones ($5.69) and maple pecan pastries ($4.89).

The beverage menu includes coffees and cold brews, lattes, teas, smoothies and frozen drinks. Customers can also enjoy seasonal options like pumpkin pie lattes ($4.99-$6.99), Cookie Butter macchiatos ($4.99-$6.99), pumpkin pie sweet cream cold brews ($5.99-$7.49) and iced matcha fruit lattes ($5.99-$6.99).

The globally recognized brand has more than 250 locations across the U.S. and more than 4,000 units worldwide.

Paris Baguette Renaissance sign 093025

<title>Paris Baguette just opened its second Honolulu location</title>

The bakery café celebrated the grand opening of its second Oʻahu location today at Renaissance Honolulu Hotel & Spa. Starting Oct. 1, the café will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Paris Baguette just opened its second Honolulu location

Arts & Entertainment

’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival and Parade presented by Hawai

i National Bank Foundation is returning to Honolulu’s Chinatown from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 4.

Also known as the Moon Festival, this cultural event celebrates the conclusion of harvest season. Attendees can look forward to free entertainment, keiki activities, food and craft vendors and more.

“The event is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy food, music, dance, and other traditions under the beauty of the full moon,” states Leonard Kam, president of Chinatown 808.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is typically held on the 15th day of the eight month of the lunar calendar with a full moon in the evening. Families often celebrate by gathering to admire the moon, exchange wishes for good fortune, and sharing mooncakes.

This year’s festival features a variety of festivities, including a lantern parade, in which participants are encouraged to bring their own homemade lanterns and dress in Chinese cultural costumes.

“We’re excited to present an actual lantern parade through Chinatown,” says Kam. “This will showcase some of the lanterns that were made, as well as other ones that participants will bring. It will truly bring the celebration to Chinatown.”

; participants will walk from the Hawaiʻi National Bank King Street branch toward Sun Yat-sen Mall. Interested parade participants are encouraged to sign up online; check in begins at 5:30 p.m.

Festival attendees can also look forward to a lantern-making contest, in which participants can design their own lanterns to be displayed during the parade. Winners will be judged based on use of recyclable materials, craftsmanship and presentation, and creativity and originality. See Chinatown 808

“I’m looking forward to our lantern-making contest,” Kam says. “It’s going to be interesting to see all the different creative designs of lanterns.”

This year’s festival features more than 25 vendors offering a variety of specialty foods and products. The line-up includes Blue Truck Teppanyaki, Hawaiian Honey Cones, Legend Seafood Restaurant, Local Poke Bowl, Olay’s Thai Lao Express and Teapresso Bar, to name a few.

Chinatown 808 Mid Autumn Festival 1 092925

<title>Chinatown 808’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival is coming this Saturday</title>

Chinatown 808 is celebrating harvest season on Oct. 4 with this all-day, family-friendly event, presented by Hawaiʻi National Bank Foundation. Attendees can look forward to a lantern parade, cultural performances, a variety of festival dishes and more.

Chinatown 808’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival is coming this Saturday

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawaii History

Ala Moana Shopping Center is said to be the largest open-air mall in the world, but its beginnings were far humbler. Long before the plans were drawn and the foundation was laid, this flat, sandy area was once filled with loko i‘a (fishponds) and loko i‘a kalo (taro fields used to raise small fish). The ‘ili (land division) of Kālia ran from the ‘Ewa end of Ala Moana Center to what is now Halekūlani Hotel.

Within these wetlands, wildlife was abundant, and Hawaiian families lived and worked to care for the land and feed their people. They raised their children here, and served their ali‘i as was required, and lived out their years as a community of abundance. 

In the 1920s, the landscape of Kālia changed drastically as the Ala Wai Canal was created. The marshes, the lo‘i kalo, and loko i‘a were filled in with the dredge from the canal project, leaving a foundation for future developers. Later, a daring idea of an expansive, two-level, open-air mall broke ground. In August 1959, Ala Moana opened its doors, and almost overnight, it reshaped Honolulu’s commercial landscape. Where Fort Street once bustled as the city’s premier shopping district, lined with department stores and filled with foot traffic, Ala Moana offered something new and modern. With its wide walkways, ample parking, and a design that encouraged strolling between open-air shops, the mall became the city’s new hub for commerce and social life.

The shopping mall grew steadily, adding new wings and anchor stores as Honolulu expanded around it. Soon, Ala Moana Center was recognized as an international destination, blending entertainment, everyday necessities, and luxury stores. Its stage in the center court became a place for hula shows, school performances, and community events, reminding shoppers that the center is also a gathering place.

But beneath the polished storefronts and bustling walkways lies a much older story—one that reaches back to the days when Kālia was nothing more than sand, wetlands, and fishponds. In those sands, generations of Hawaiians laid their loved ones to rest. Though the newspapers of the 1950s said nothing of such discoveries during construction, the uncovering of pre-contact burials in the immediate vicinity in recent years reminds us that Ala Moana was not built on empty ground.

Behind the scenes, often out of view of the customers, Ala Moana Shopping Center takes on another life entirely. Employees who have worked its halls day in and day out tell of shadows that do not belong to any living person, of whispers caught in the stillness, and of presences that refuse to let go of the space.

One former worker at Sears confessed that the stockroom was unbearably haunted. At first, she just saw glimpses of a small girl darting between racks where no child should have been. After a few weeks, sightings of this girl were constant, even early in the mornings before the store opened. Another person stated that he once saw a man gliding across the sales floor in the middle of the day. He emphasized gliding.

“As in, his body didn’t bounce like a normal person walking,” he said, “The dude literally floated across the floor because he had no feet!”

There were strange sounds, too. At night, it sounded like hangers scraping over the metal bars of the clothing racks when no one was nearby. Others claimed to hear heavy ladders being dragged across the tile floors. The most numerous complaints were strange footsteps. One person said they’d often hear steps behind them as if someone was following them. Another said they heard what sounded like dozens of people walking past, but the store was already closed and no one was there.

And then there are the stories from the loading docks, places few shoppers ever notice. One man remembers working late at night, running air conditioning conduits overhead along the Mauka side and through the service corridor near where the old Arby’s used to be. As they approached the service corridor, one man jumped down from the scissor lift to open the door. He struggled a bit and realized that it was locked tight, the knob refusing to turn.

He turned around and started walking back to the lift, calling out, “The door’s locked!”

Suddenly, the door swung open behind him. For a long moment, no one spoke. The four men stared at the open doorway, the echo of what had just happened leaving their skin cold. Two decades later, the memory still lingers, sharper than any dream.

Another construction worker shared his story about the area when Foodland used to be near the Post Office. They were working on renovations, and in the middle of the day, he saw a Hawaiian woman walking through the construction area. He yelled at her because she was barefoot and not wearing a hard hat. As he rushed to approach her, he said she just walked right through the wall.

The old-timers at Sears whispered that Ala Moana sits atop a portal, a crossing point for spirits. Although the center has changed dramatically over the years, some things, like hauntings and portals, neer go away. Maybe it was the sandy ground, once used for burials, or maybe something older still, tied to the waters and fishponds that once filled Kālia. Whatever the reason, the mall seems to hold open a door to the other side.

Ala Moana Loading Dock Gates Large

<title>Hauntings at Hawai‘i’s Biggest Mall</title>

With a long history of Hawaiians living in the area prior to Ala Mona Center's development, the shopping center has been home to many strange and eerie sightings.

Hauntings at Hawai‘i’s Biggest Mall

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

A derelict property in Wahiawā could finally be razed after hundreds of resident complaints about squatters and safety hazards.

A Honolulu City Council committee voted last week to approve a 

 authorizing the City and County of Honolulu to pursue legal action against the owners of a property on Avocado Street in Wahiawā to compel them to demolish it.

The parcel in question is a roughly 9,300-square-foot lot just off of Kamehameha Highway and adjacent to Lake Wilson. According to Honolulu real property tax data, the lot was purchased in 2013 by current owner Angelo S. John, operating as the entity Angelo’s Auto Body and Detailing LLC.

In 2020, the Honolulu Police Department raided an illegal game room on the property, with the Department of the Attorney General later reporting it had seized $10,118 from that raid.

That same year, the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs terminated the LLC. In the years since, the property has fallen into disrepair, becoming a haven for homeless people, drug activity and violence.

On Sunday, a homeless man living on the property was killed by a pack of dogs.

Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, who represents Wahiawā, issued a statement Thursday assuring constituents that “immediate and long-term action” will be taken to address the property.

Assuming the council passes the resolution — the full council will discuss it on Sept. 3 — Dela Cruz said in his statement that it will “immediately” remove the derelict buildings from the property. Further down the road, he wrote that the state hopes to acquire the property and build a substation for the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement.

“This plan both addresses immediate safety issues and invests in a long-term community benefit,” Dela Cruz said in his statement.

Honolulu Councilman Matt Weyer, who represents Wahiawā announced on Instagram 

 that he has introduced another resolution requesting that the city administration be ready to acquire the land if needed. However, he suggested that the property could be used to expand Honolulu’s Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement homeless relief program.

While the council committee’s discussion of the resolution took place during executive session and was closed to the general public — common practice for any agenda item concerning legal action by the county — dozens of Wahiawā residents submitted letters urging the council to take action to improve the area.

“Frequent scenes of violence and property destruction. Car tires being slashed. Individuals carrying items to harm others. Deaths due to overdose in adjacent areas. Yelling, screaming and intimidation,” wrote Jennifer Koldingnes. “The presence of individuals engaged in illegal activities has created an atmosphere of fear and insecurity in the neighborhood.”

Eric Bartolome, who owns a Muay Thai school on an adjacent property, wrote that the state of 525 Avocado is a clear danger to the children who attend his classes.

“I’ve … asked our keiki to turn away when they had to retrieve two dead bodies who overdosed,” Bartolome wrote. “On another instance, one of my 13-year-old students was propositioned by a woman living in one of the abandoned buildings. I have also had an incident of someone living in that building taking a large knife to the tires of my student’s vehicles.”

State agencies also approved of clearing the property, including the DLNR and the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. The latter’s executive administrator, Daintry Bartoldus, wrote to the council committee that the property “has become a source of fear and distress.”

The Council will vote whether to pass the resolution on Wednesday, Sept. 3.

[{"type":"text","text":"ASD reached out to Dela Cruz and Bartolome for comment."}]

Hawai'i Skies: West Side best side

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Hawai'i Skies: West Side best side

Authors

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