Save Kauai brings together current information about Kauai and web-based tools that allow you to take action. If we want to affect the future of Kauai in a pono way we must organize and begin implementing solutions, not just fighting the problems.
Aloha 'Aina, Imua Kakou!
From: http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/11/24/story1.html
Friday, November 21, 2008
"Marriott, Starwood stop big Hawaii projects"
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Janis L. Magin
"Marriott has halted construction at its $1.4 billion Kauai Lagoons resort project, one of the largest Hawaii construction projects to be interrupted by the ailing national economy.
Starwood Vacation Ownership also has put a $304 million Maui time-share project on hold. Construction on the 1,010-acre Kukuiula project also on Kauai has been scaled back, and work on a new high-rise condominium in Honolulu was cut back considerably a couple of weeks ago.
The decisions to stop or slow work on some of the biggest private construction projects in Hawaii will add to the 36 percent decline in the dollar-volume of building permits in the third quarter.
Marriott notified contractors last week that all vertical construction on nearly 400 units planned for the 520-acre Kauai Lagoons project adjacent to the Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club would stop, but grading and infrastructure work will continue.
Uncertain economic conditions led the company to reassess its plans, said Ed Kinney, vice president of corporate affairs and brand awareness for Orlando, Fla.-based Marriott Vacation Club International and The Ritz-Carlton Club.
Unlike The Ritz-Carlton projects at Kapalua on Maui, Marriott is financing the Kauai Lagoons project internally.
Posted on: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Hawaii's economic forecast gloomy, with 10% drop in tourism
New forecast predicts bigger '08 tourism drop, no jobs growth
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081119/NEWS01/811190399/1001
By Greg Wiles
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state's new forecast for tourism, personal income, jobs and state gross domestic product paints an even gloomier picture than the previous forecast, but the report predicts a few bright spots in the economy.
Advertisement
The number of tourists coming to Hawai'i is expected to decline 10.1 percent this year, more than the 6.7 percent decline in the state forecast released three months ago. The number of wage and salary jobs is now projected to be unchanged from last year. Three months ago, the forecast was for a 0.2 percent increase.
The forecast is the latest by economists showing the body blow to the Islands by a series of shocks including record oil prices, the subprime mortgage crisis, big layoffs at several Island employers and — during the past three months — the financial crisis on Wall Street.
More gloomy forecasts are expected today and tomorrow when First Hawaiian Bank and the University of Hawai'i Economic Research Organization release their economic prognosis for the state.
"Hawai'i's economy has so far avoided the degree of economic slowdown experienced nationally," Ted Liu, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said in a statement.
The executive director of BALLE will be on the Malama Kaua`i Radio Show on Friday, 11/28, from 12-1
Judy's story
When Judy Wicks moved onto a leafy Philadelphia street in 1972, she discovered that her new neighborhood was to be torn down to make way for a mall. "How could it be that these charming brownstone row houses and neighborhood shops would be Judy full-lengthdemolished to make way for chain stores and fast-food restaurants?" she exclaimed. This must have been her first BALLE moment! After helping to save the block from the wrecking ball, Judy opened the White Dog Café in January 1983 as a take-out coffee and muffin shop on the first floor of her house. Over the years the business grew into additional row houses and the menu expanded, until by 1989 the White Dog had grown to a full-service restaurant seating more than 200 customers, with a menu inspired by fresh local produce from the family farms of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Continuing to live above the shop, Judy grew deep roots in her community, providing educational programs on progressive issues and developing a mission of service in four areas: serving customers, employees, community, and nature. In serving nature, the White Dog Café became the first business in Pennsylvania to purchase 100 percent of its electricity from wind power, developed a recycling and compost project, and installed a solar hot water system for washing all those dishes.
First passport-holding Korean tourists arrive
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/11/18/news/kauai_news//doc492268...
By The Garden Island
Published: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 1:14 AM HST
The first of many South Korean tourists taking advantage of a new program that makes it easier for them to travel to the United States arrived yesterday in Honolulu.
Sixteen South Koreans are visiting Honolulu under the United States’ visa waiver program, which allows people from the Asian nation to use a passport rather than go through the process and costs of acquiring a visa.
“It was very easy and comfortable,” said Moon Byung-cheal, one of the passengers on the eight-hour Korean Air flight who plans to see Waikiki Beach, Iolani Palace and take a sunset cruise during his four-day visit. “A lot of people are going to be able to come because of this simple and easy process.”
The U.S. attracts about 800,000 Korean visitors per year currently, and that number could double in 2009 because of this program, said Austin Kang, co-chair of the Korean Visa Waiver Committee.
In Hawai‘i, tourists from South Korea could double to 80,000 next year and quadruple to 160,000 by 2010, Kang said.
“We have been waiting for this for a long time,” he said. “Korea has been one of the strongest allies to the United States in the fight against communism, so Korea deserves this visa waiver.”
Excellent article:
From: http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/11/16/news/kauai_news/doc491fd91...
"A template for Lihu‘e tomorrow"
Visiting architects offer plan for sustainable town
By Luke Shanahan and Michael Levine - The Garden Island
Published: Sunday, November 16, 2008
"Community leaders and concerned citizens this week welcomed a team of architects from around the country for a workshop on sustainable design ideas for Lihu‘e, with three days of work summed up in a presentation Friday evening at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center.
The Sustainable Design Assessment Team program, which aims to provide broad assessments to help frame future policies and sustainability solutions, featured presentations on five main areas — land use and smart growth, transportation and transit, housing affordability, economic development and renewable energy — in setting up a “template for Lihu‘e’s tomorrow.”
Over three days, SDAT members, working in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects and traveling to Kaua‘i from as far away as New York and Washington, D.C., spoke with community members to get up to speed on design and development issues particular to the island in general, and the Lihu‘e area, specifically from the Wailua River to the Tree Tunnel road.
Friday, November 14, 2008
From: http://www.rgemonitor.com/financemarkets-monitor/254332/we_interrupt_reg...
"We interrupt regular programming to announce that the United States of America has defaulted"
by Satyajit Das Nov 11, 2008
"On 30 October 1938, the American Radio Drama series Mercury Theatre aired “The War of the Worlds”, directed by Orson Welles. Adapted from H.G. Welles’ novel, the first half of the broadcast was scripted as a series of dramatic news bulletins of a Martian invasion. Listeners who had missed or ignored the opening credits assumed that the invasion was real. People fled their homes. Police were swamped by panicked phone calls. Today the financial equivalent of this broadcast would be the announcement: “we interrupt regular programming to announce that the United States of America has defaulted on its debt!”
Pay back in devalued dollars…
Default is the failure to honour contractual obligations; in the case of debt, non-payment of interest or principal payments due to the lender. The financial impact of default is the loss suffered by the lender.
Lenders to the United States (“US”) government have already suffered significant losses. The losses have not been from non-payment but because repayments have been in a constantly debased currency – the dollar.
Published on Friday, November 14, 2008 by The Nation
In Praise of a Rocky Transition
by Naomi Klein
The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington's handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal.
In a moment of high panic in late September, the US Treasury unilaterally pushed through a radical change in how bank mergers are taxed—a change long sought by the industry. Despite the fact that this move will deprive the government of as much as $140 billion in tax revenue, lawmakers found out only after the fact. According to the Washington Post, more than a dozen tax attorneys agree that "Treasury had no authority to issue the [tax change] notice."
Of equally dubious legality are the equity deals Treasury has negotiated with many of the country's banks. According to Congressman Barney Frank, one of the architects of the legislation that enables the deals, "Any use of these funds for any purpose other than lending—for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc.—is a violation of the act." Yet this is exactly how the funds are being used.
Then there is the nearly $2 trillion the Federal Reserve has handed out in emergency loans. Incredibly, the Fed will not reveal which corporations have received these loans or what it has accepted as collateral. Bloomberg News believes that this secrecy violates the law and has filed a federal suit demanding full disclosure.
"Rotary Club announces Kaua‘i 2008 Green Business Awards"
by Rodney Pascua
Green Business winners honored at Rotary awards luncheon
Kaua‘i businesses are going “green.”
The Rotary Club of Kapa‘a is pleased to honor eight local businesses as winners of the 2008 Kaua‘i Green Business Initiative Awards (KGBIA).
“All of the winning businesses have gone beyond environmental compliance to adopt and exemplify the best ‘green’ practices over the past 12 months,” says Rodney Pascua, chairman of this year’s program, noting that each business displayed a proven track record in one or more areas of efficiently using raw materials/supplies, managing waste responsibly, managing shipping/handling responsibly, saving water and saving energy.”
Winners include: Island Soap Company in the category of Wholesale and Retail Manufacturing; The Shoe Repair Shop in the Retailer category; Habitat for Humanity under the Nonprofit category; Aloha We Deliver! in the Home Business
category; Unlimited Construction in the Builder/Developer category; Saffron Mediterranean Cuisine in the Restaurant category; Farias Cattle Company in the Grower category; and H&S Publishing in the Publisher category...
See rest of article at:
http://www.kauaiworld.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2...
and second page at:
http://www.kauaiworld.com/shared-content/e-edition/display.php?pubdate=2...
Award plaques below created by Scott Mijares of Hawaiian Woodys in Kilauea:
From: "Chamber Juice: Kauai's natural and unnatural storms - another 'storm' on its way" -- Kauai Chamber of Commerce partners with Pacific Business News and the High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) to provide a seminar featuring panelists to discuss how to "Survive the Economic Storm -- Kauai" Series on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the Kaua'i Marriott Resort & Beach Club starting at 5:30 p.m. Series continues into the 1st Quarter of 2009 on the business and legislative advocacy agenda of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce.
