I caught a report last week noting that construction fences would be coming down and the public finally allowed to enjoy the reopening of the Duke Kahanamoku beach and lagoon fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Hilton’s been taking lots of credit for carrying through on the project, which took more than two years to complete.

Back in October, a Star-Bulletin story quoted a Hilton official:

“The lagoon opening reflects the continuing commitment Hilton is making to our guests and our community,” said Gary Seibert, Hilton area vice president and managing director.

Unfortunately, the reporting didn’t dig into the back story.

Here’s what I wrote about the project back on August 20, 2005.

I see in today’s Advertiser that the Hilton Hawaiian Village is again touting a plan to clean up the lagoon. Way down in paragraph #8 we learn that the project is actually required as a condition imposed by the city in order to get approval of Hilton’s new timeshare tower. This round of promises to clean up the lagoon go back at least three years, and the cleanup, if it happens at all, could stretch out a couple of more years.

It’s interesting that Hilton now says the cleanup will cost some $13 million, while just a few months ago the Star-Bulletin cited a $5 million figure. Is there a little wiggle room in these cost estimates?

Of course, the underlying point that is lost is that keeping the lagoon clean was a condition of the first state lease of the area to Henry Kaiser, original developer of the Hawaiian Village, and has run with the property from the beginning. Obviously, though, the state has been lax in enforcing the provision, perhaps in deference to Hilton’s political clout and economic weight.

What this means, of course, is that the previous poor water conditions were the result of Hilton failing to live up to the conditions of their original lease by largely ignoring the lagoon for years.
It’s always good to temper all of the corporate P.R. with a bit of reality. Too bad it doesn’t happen more often in everyday reporting.

Several people have called my attention to last week’s quiet announcement that after Dec. 28, USA Today will no longer be printed locally by the Advertiser, will no longer be offered up at local hotels, and hundreds of existing street racks will disappear. According to the report, which first appeared in PBN, Gannett’s flagship newspaper will be flown in from the west coast and only available for purchase in few spots, “mostly at airports”.

The Star-Bulletin, quoting former reporter turned professor, Gerry Kato, questioned the economic impact of the move, which will reduce Gannett’s general visibility here, an impact beyond the few thousand copies being distributed.

It is unclear what the economic impact will be on the Advertiser, also owned by Gannett, which in part built its $82 million printing facility in Kapolei with the idea of publishing USA Today, Kato said.

“To keep the plant economically viable they need to keep publishing newspapers … any kind of reduction is going to have an economic impact,” he said.

I went to Gannett’s corporate web site and didn’t see anything about this move among the company’s many press releases, and the move has not been reported outside of Hawaii, or at least a quick Google News search failed to turn up anything.

I was surrounded by happy cats yesterday afternoon. After the termite fumigation last week, Meda washed and refilled some of the catnip toys, and put freshly laundered towels out on several chairs as nap spots. And we found several generations of cat treats when cleaning out all the kitchen cabinets, some apparently enticing. I’m not sure about the specifics, but the general impact has been a good mood. This is Mr. Silverman enjoying one of the fresh toys.

Just click on Silverman’s picture for a few more.