Development in Kakaako booms as nature neglected

From my office at Ward and King, the frenzy of activity in Kakaako is unmistakable. This week, I could see nine working cranes outside my window on the sixth floor of the Honolulu Club Building. Several patients commented on their eerie experience sitting in gridlock traffic with one of these mechanical monsters resting high overhead. "There was no way out" one person commented. "It triggered a panic attack."

It seems there is no end to ambitions for more high-rises built with capital organized from some of Hawaii’s largest stakeholders. The Kobayashi Group and Alexander & Baldwin are in the game. Kamehameha Schools has extensive plans for fee-simple moderate and luxury condos as well as workforce rental units. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is on the move with its 31 acres, part of a settlement with the state regarding ceded lands originally valued at $200 million.

The Kakaako Community Development District Mau­ka and Makai Area Plans and Rules is a government entity charged with guiding the redevelopment of Kakaako, a former warehouse area, into an urban community. Its parent, the Hawaii Community Development Authority, is a state agency established to promote and coordinate public and private sector community development. These organizations fall under the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.

The highly contested rail is going right through Kakaako. Expanded transportation marks only the beginning of the infrastructure drive needed to support Honolulu’s current rate of growth. Management of sewage and landfills for rubbish are huge issues as are energy and water. Oahu’s aquifers are already under burden. Will the state eventually need to resort to large-scale desalinization?

What is the end game? Is Honolulu destined to become like Singapore, which has a land mass half the size of Oahu but more than five times the population? How much can the aina support?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group, just delivered an update and reconfirmed that the ice caps are melting while sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic is continuing to collapse. The overall global supply of fresh water is becoming more limited as heat waves and torrential rain remain unpredictable and intense. The oceans are still rising and threaten coastal communities. The absorption of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, mostly from urban centers, is also causing the oceans to become more acidic. Coral reefs are dying, and fisheries are in trouble. Many species are migrating toward the poles, some are experiencing stunted growth and the rate of extinction is climbing.

The Bolivian government may have found a solution to balance dizzying urban growth with the needs of the natural environment. The Law of the Rights of Mother Earth recognizes the well-being of the planet as a matter of common interest and describes Mother Earth, together with her human communities and ecosystems, as titleholders of inherent rights specified in the law. Not long ago, the United States determined that corporations are entitled to privacy, not unlike a citizen’s right to privacy. Why not extend essential rights to the living, breathing environment?

Still, the momentum of special interests bent on continuing development at all costs has the resources to ensure its success. According to a recent article in this paper, approximately $850,000 of contributions for Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s re-election campaign came from people or organizations that stand to gain from Kakaako development, including Mitsunaga & Associates, The Kobayashi Group, Alexander & Baldwin, Kamehameha Schools and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Urban development and population growth results in global warming and continues to pit itself against the capacity of nature to support, regenerate and sustain itself. Too often nature is on the losing end. A higher priority must be placed on finding solutions and setting limits to nurture and care (malama in Hawaiian) for Mother Earth. We can’t live without her.

Ira Zunin, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., is a practicing physician. He is medical director of Manakai O Malama Integrative Healthcare Group and Rehabilitation Center and CEO of Global Advisory Services Inc. Please submit your questions to info@manakaiomalama.com.