Michael S. Mackey REALTOR® ABR, CRS, GRI, RSPS

Well, it finally happened. The protestors got their way, and the Hawaii Superferry is no more.

Yesterday, the Hawaii Superferry set sail, leaving the State of Hawaii for good. Even as the ferry headed out to sea, there is the perhaps misguided hope that one day she will return.

After investing millions of dollars in building harbor landings on the islands of Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island, and millions developing the superferry craft to suit the waters here in the Hawaiian Islands, a small vocal minority of self-absorbed critics of the Superferry has won the day. The Hawaii Supreme Court, in it's latest vaccillation on the issue, has now decided that the Superferry did not have the right to operate while compiling its environmental impact statement.

The Superferry could not afford to sit here idle, waiting for the EIS to be completed. They could not find a suitable use for the ferry during that waiting time either. The only choice was to leave, and seek another more friendly location in which to operate.

Gone with the ferry's departure are the 276 jobs of the ferry's employees. In the short time of it's operation here, untold numbers of businesses had come to benefit on the cost savings of transporting goods between the islands. That benefit is now gone. Other businesses had begun to expand their territories to other islands, being able to simply drive onto the ferry and drive off onto another island, and return to their home base the same day. Gone. Families could afford to visit relatives on the other islands, driving their own cars and saving the cost of car rentals and the higher priced airfares. All gone.

The Superferry and its benfactors have lost, and what have the protestors gained? Some nefarious, but dubious claim that the waters are now safer for whales in the Hawaiian waters. Based on the fact that there has NEVER been a whale strike by one of these ferries anywhere in the world, I doubt the validity of this claim. They also achieved the goal of lessening the amount of traffic on their islands. The overwhelming impact of one to two hundred vehicles added to the tens of thousands already on the roads is sure to be a tremendous benefit to them. As if.

They also benefit by not having additional clients spending money at their stores, restaurants, shopping malls, etc. The main goal, of slowing down the number of visitors who might stay on their islands permanently, may also have been accomplished. After all, the protestors themselves, like the mayor of Kauai, are transplants themselves, and they know how tempting that is, since they are guilty of doing so themselves.

Well, now that their wish has come true, let's see how they live with it.

Hawaii Superferry, R.I.P.

Once again, a very vocal minority of extremists have managed to gum up a vital service in the islands. The Hawaii Superferry has suffered enormous financial strains because of delays in launching it's interisland services, which finally began in April of 2007. Due to a vocal minority of protestors that created legal hurdles to the Superferry's operation, the Superferry has once again had to cease operation.

The Superferry has been operating under a law that allowed the Superferry to operate while the EIS, or environmental impact statement, was being compiled. The EIS can take years to complete, and the State saw fit to allow the Superferry an exemption to operate whie the EIS was being completed. Unfortunately, the legal challenges have managed to stop the operation while the exemption is being challenged on constitutional grounds.

The legal challenges that have stopped the Superferry in it's wake are supeficially based on requirements for the EIS. The actual protests against the Superferry's operation stems from the protestor's belief that the ferry will bring increased population, traffic, congestion and so on to their less populated outer islands. It is interesting to note that the majority of these protestors are themselves transplants from the mainland, and they themselves have created the exact impact on the islands that they are purportedly trying to prevent.

In the interest of preventing increased tourism and a few more rental cars on the roads, the effect is a compounding of detrimental effects on their own economies. The protestations can be summarized as a compounding of ignorance. They ignore the fact that the Hawaiian Islands are the only major archipelago in the world that is entirely dependent upon the aviation industry for passenger travel. They ignore the fact that the Superferry provides an alternative civil defense capability to provide emergency relief in the event of natural disasters, such as we experienced after the 6.7 earthquake in October 2006. The national guard found it more expedient and cost effective to transport their heavy equipment to the outer islands on the Superferry than on military ships. The Superferry has reduced transport costs for local businesses, and has created more opportunities for outer island businesses to expand to Oahu, and vice versa.

The Superferry has similar operations throughout the world. There has never been a negative environmental impact by any of these similar operations. The Superferry did a stellar job of preparing for operating safely in Hawaiian waters, and have procedures in place that go well beyond the requirements of an EIS to maintain their safety record.

A while back, on Dec. 8 2006, I had posted a blog about the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The point of the post was to share a little bit of trivia, about a Japanese Zero pilot who had crashed on the tiny island of Niihau, was captured by the locals, tried to escape and...well, if you want to know that story, click the link and read that blog.

Today, the local paper ran a story that I had never heard about, and thought it an interesting history lesson to share with you.

On May 4, 1942, the Japanese launched a second attack on Pearl Harbor, called Operation K.

The operation was originally planned duing the opening weeks of the war, and was part of a larger operation that consisted of several attacks on Pearl Harbor, and would have eventually included attacks on California and Texas. In fact, I will have to do more research on that later, because there is some historical evidence that Japanese planes were sighted over the west coast during World War ll. But I digress.

Operation K involved two 4-engine Kawanishi H8K flying boats which could be refueld by submarine. The attack on March 4 was planned for using 5 planes, but only 2 were available. Their target was the "ten-ten" docks at Pearl Harbor, with the intent of disrupting salvage and repair operations after the Dec. 7th attack.

The U.S. Navy had intercepted some broken Japanese code that some indications of an attack were possible, and the planes were picked up by radar on Kauai. However, there was a heavy overcast that prevented P-40 fighters from seeing them. Fortunately, that same overcast prevented the Japanese from effectivly finding their targets, and they eventually dropped their bombs in several non-targeted areas.

One plane dropped four 550 lb bombs just above Roosevelt High School in the forested areas of Tantalus (where there is a famous Lovers Lane lookout). The other plane dropped his four bombs into the sea either south of Waianae, or near the entrance to Pearl Harbor.

In the confusion and aftermath, the Army and Navy accused each other of jettisoning bombs over Tantalus. The craters are still visible today, albeit overgrown with vegetation.

Here is another visual tour of the Mililani Recreation Centers. This one is of three Recreation Centers, No.'s 5, 6 and 7 that are located in Mililani Mauka.

I hope these Visual Tours help give you a feel for what the Mililani Community is like.

Previous tours:

4 Mililani Recreation Centers and Parks

Mililani Town's 3 Shopping Centers

Stay tuned for more tours to come. The next series will be of the neighborhood schools.

I just thought it would be nice to share some pictures of my neighborhood, here in Mililani, Hawaii.

There are two tours here. The first is of the neighborhood Shopping Centers (there are three: Mililani Town Center, Mililani Shopping Center and Mililani Market Place). The second tour is of 4 neighborhood Recreation Centers and a couple of the many neighborhood parks.

I hope you enjoy the tours, and that you get a real feel of what Mililani is like!

I used the Visual Tour product to create these panoramics.