Rick Egged

Waikiki’s biggest booster hopes to reinvigorate the venerable tourist district

By Vicki Viotti

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Oct 26, 2012

~~<p>For decades, said Rick Egged, Waikiki had been frozen in time, stuck in 1976. That’s when a set of rules was passed, laying down restrictions under the city’s Waikiki Special District ordinance (people in Egged’s line of work call it by its acronym: the WSD).</p>
<p>At the time the thinking was that Waikiki was overcrowded, so one of the WSD design guidelines specified that building setbacks were OK for landscaping, but little else. Sidewalk dining became a thing of the past.</p>
~~

For decades, said Rick Egged, Waikiki had been frozen in time, stuck in 1976. That’s when a set of rules was passed, laying down restrictions under the city’s Waikiki Special District ordinance (people in Egged’s line of work call it by its acronym: the WSD).

At the time the thinking was that Waikiki was overcrowded, so one of the WSD design guidelines specified that building setbacks were OK for landscaping, but little else. Sidewalk dining became a thing of the past. Login for more...