No parking, no gates, no problem? The next round of this is coming soon to Lihue Airport on Kauai.
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59 thoughts on “Lihue Airport Improvements Hijacked by Anti-Visitor Sentiment”
No parking, no gates, no problem? The next round of this is coming soon to Lihue Airport on Kauai.
Near impossible to placate/satisfy everyone’s perspective. Got married at Coco Palms in 1984(still in disrepair); a very special place with Larry singing. Returned many times ..with daughters, relatives & friends to Hawaii, Oahu, & Maui.. yeah. Culture, history, & serenity (to some extent) is wonderful. Paradise has changed though- follow da $. I appreciate local sentiment for too many visitors & impact (e.g. loud, rude, sloppy, clueless).. we raised our daughters to treat/respect others & environment like your own. Airport traffic anywhere is problematic – part of the experience(?). If HI tourism bureau/agency encourages more(or pressured to attract) tourist$, funding for infrastructure should be expected. Priorities..
Traffic congestion is not caused solely by tourists. Employees have to get to work. Hotels and other employers create peaks by having the sane work hours. County bus service is essentially unusable by tourists because of infrequency, indcipherable bus stop locations, and multimiles to destination.
HDOT is a disaster. Their “solutions” to problems just make things worse. The security force at LIH is rude and out of control. Lack of signage and professional enforcement of rules makes it worse.
Just a suggestion. Instead of trying to curtail tourism, why not try educating tourists? I think this topic alone and the various responses is quite enlightening. Of course some will never learn and continue to not care about the land, but it is worth a try…
I recently returned from Kauai and was appalled at the lack of knowledge of diabetic appliances. I traveled through the Spokane and Seattle airport with no problem but every time I travel to Kauai, I have problems getting through security. This has happened 3 times so far and it shows rudeness and discrimination to diabetics.
With all this complaining it seems like locals would have favored a Japanese victory in 1941. That government would have addressed all these concerns 80 years ago with a few thousands crates of ammo like they did in China, the Philippines and Korea.
Alas, Japanese citizens tend to be far more aware of creating offense and much better on following the rules than either Americans or us Brits. Also many came here as engineers to build railroads and irrigation in the sugar cane days. So Hawaiians got used to them.
Kauai is a small island, locals are burned out on tourism and the Uber rich buying up land to create their own little kingdoms.
Mark Zuckerberg needs to be kicked off the island. I agree with them there.
And Bezos and Winfrey. They are the reason why native Hawaiians can’t afford their homelands anymore.
Please remember that kauai is, or was, a small and local community. It is now a mess of traffic and overcrowding for the residents.
Any improvements at the airport will just open up the island to more overcrowding and less quality of life.
Prove to me How and When Hawaii became a part of America like your column states while talking about the airport in Lihue
Kauai has always been behind the curve. The island needs tourist so it would be ridiculous not to upgrade the airport.
Tourist only accounts for 20% of the state’s revenue an Kauai like the other islands would rather see diversification then expand tourism.
This may seem a little off topic, but a lack of State funding that appears to drag projects along for years might be resolved if a state lotto was allowed!!…I don’t mean casinos… The concerns of a small percentage of the population who may have a gambling addiction ( I recall reading that somewhere as being one the excuses for not allowing it…) as opposed to the tax revenue generated by a lottery for schools and infrastructure are minor. People have been asking for it for years, but the State Legislature always vote it out.
Just imagine the beautiful airport remodel or that all schools could get air conditioning.
“We have met the enemy and he is us” – Pogo
Goodbye… and good luck! Gotta go… my flight to Tahiti is boarding.
Hawaii airports are the worst, ugliest and poorly managed…..buckets sitting everywhere in the Honolulu airport when it rains…..new bathrooms dirty and littered…..dark gloomy, dated, poor signage, ag inspection with attitude, empty concessions….
Ah…….welcome…..paradise!
Leave Lihue alone! It’s charming! We don’t need more visitors. We don’t need more parking because we don’t need more cars or else our one road will turn into a nightmare parking lot.
When are leaders going to realize we need to restrict flights so that the visitors will have a better vacation? More people =more stress
Grow some common sense.
I can sympathize with both sides. Kauai is a very special place and I could see why the people there would want to preserve the beauty and way of life from big corporations that are drooling to get their hands on a piece of the island but cutting off tourism seems like it would be taking a step back 100 years and some would welcome that but most wouldn’t.
If I could go back and buy a few hundred acres from Cook I would in a heartbeat but unfortunately the dream of owning a small piece of paradise will most likely stay a dream.
A major problem are those that already own a slice of paradise don’t want to see others get their slice….
Seems like the two sides here can be framed as those that love Hawaii and want to protect it for the future. Many are people that live here or visitors that respect and love Hawaii for what it is. Or those that simply want Hawaii available to them as cheaply as possible and somehow think the more mass tourism the better and so what about the quality of life of the people that live here. They seem to think they’re bring jobs to people to serve their needs is reward enough. Hawaii needs to invest in education for it’s future and support quality tourism to fund it.
The improvement plan wasn’t hijacked at all. Creating an improvement plan was irresponsible when the island’s general plan hasn’t been executed. We can’t accommodate more tourists when we haven’t improved housing and traffic. And we don’t even have an adequate workforce to serve the growing number of tourists. It’s gonna be record numbers every month in 2023, until we hit a wall when tourists get frustrated with waits at the rental cars and hotels.
Improvements in safety, security,air traffic flow and bathroom amenities are fine. However, affordable housing for the local workforce and road improvements in and out of Lihu’e need priority over airport capacity enlargements. The public hearing was a demonstration in democrasy, telling their leadership not to put the cart before the horse.