Immigration from the Mainland

The continual flow of mainlanders moving to Hawaii is a hot-button issue on the islands. Many local residents, those born here and those who moved here a long time ago, feel the aloha spirit is eroding as more and more people want to share it. A recent article in the Pacific Business News out of Oahu sounds the alarm:

4 percent of Oahu housing units are owned by Mainland residents, 8 percent of Big Island housing units, with a high concentration on the west side, more than 20 percent of Maui housing units and 21 percent of Kauai housing units.

This suggests a continuation, and perhaps an intensification, of a Mainland migration to neighbor islands. State figures have previously shown that more than half the population of Kauai and Maui moved here from the Mainland.

The SMS report says 60 percent of these housing units were bought since 2000 and 71 percent of respondents spend only two to four weeks a year in their Hawaii home.

However, I think those numbers are more reflective of the growing idea of “vacation ownership” that includes condos and time-shares. I doubt time-shares are counted in those numbers, but vacation condos surely are. Few condos would really qualify as places you’d want to move to permanently. So I’m waiting to see some more descriptive numbers.

Name Dropping

Two days ago, I’d heard through the coconut wireless that the Clintons were visiting Kauai. I’m always surprised how a non-gossiper such as myself manages to hear these things. Anyways, it was nothing to blog about, especially without any proof.

But it made the news today, so it must be true. Bill, Hillary, Chelsea, and possibly her fiancé are/were here. As my original source put it, “I didn’t know they still traveled together.”

What does any of this change? Nothing at all, which is why we call it gossip. But it is interesting to note that many celebrities visit here, a reminder of the away-from-it-all-yet-luxurious segment of the local tourism industry. Soon after moving here, we met a guy who works at the private jet terminal at the airport. He sees them all come and go, rolls out the carpet for them, loads their bags, refuels their planes, and keeps his job by not saying anything about them–and gets good tips I imagine.

Like some not-so-rich-and-famous visitors, a few celebrities have bought into the island dream as well. Bette Midler owns much land between Wailua and Kapaa town, though I think that is more about buying into the real-estate boom than living here. It is agricultural land, so her property manager runs cattle on it, and she is generally open to community needs such as when they wanted to run bypass road through her property. Ben Affleck (or is it Ben Stiller, to me he’s just the recent movie star whose name starts with Ben) owns a house on the North Shore and vacations there off-and-on. A friend told me he was with his family at Kalihiwai beach the day we got married there last year. I wouldn’t be able to recognize him, even if he was on any of the photos.

I’m filing this under journalism so I don’t have to create a “gossip” category.