Same story, different villains

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

It's a theme that has inspired many Hawai'i writers and composers to create some of our favorite pieces:

Gary Pak's "Watcher of Waipuna"

Alani Apio's "Kamau" and "Kamau A'e"

Darryl Tsutsui's "Easy Street"

Liko Martin's "Waimanalo Blues"

Add to that list works by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, John Wythe White, Mickey Ioane — plus untold numbers of screenplays, stage plays, short stories, novels, poems and songs that languish in drawers and files. It's a conflict that has become archetypal in modern Hawai'i art: Developers versus private landowners. Developers preying on private landowners. Developers using dirty tricks, inside deals and legal loopholes to take the family's land.

It's an issue that draws us as readers, audience members, listeners, because we know the frustration so well. We go to see the play, we read the book, we play the song over and over, because in art, perhaps we can get the satisfaction of seeing the conflict resolved, just once, in a just manner.

This classic conflict is again being played out before our eyes but this time the villains include members of the Honolulu City Council, and the poor landowners aren't all that poor.

The council's Policy Committee is considering a proposal to use the city's powers of condemnation to force the owners of five Waikiki parcels to sell their land to Outrigger Enterprises. Outrigger wants to build a big $300 million resort in the Lewers Street area, but the company's chief executive says getting financing for the project will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, if Outrigger doesn't own all the affected land outright. However, Outrigger already has business relationships with the private landowners and recently signed a 65-year lease with two of the owners.

The Policy Committee put the issue on hold for a few months while the Outrigger and the landowners attempt to work out a deal. Perhaps there's still hope an equitable solution will be found, but the discussions already have been weighted in the Outrigger's favor with the threat of condemnation looming. Yes, the owners would be paid fair market value if the land were to be taken by the city, but they would lose the leasehold income over time and, more importantly, they would lose the right to choose what they want to do with their land.

The situation is not as dramatic or perhaps sympathetic as the classic storyline of a humble family being run off their ancestral homestead by greedy outside business interests, but the city's willingness to get involved in what should be a business deal between private parties should serve as a big red flag flapping in the breeze. The antagonists of our favorite stories are real, and they have offices in Honolulu Hale.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com