We used to have neighbors in the house directly across the street.
You know, neighbors. People you recognize as belonging. People you know by name, or perhaps just by appearance, familiar enough to at least say hello and exchange pleasantries. When you have neighbors, you watch out for them. And they watch out for you. You can ask them for help if needed, and they’re willing to do likewise. We’ve shared tools as well as gossip with many neighbors over the years. Some neighbors become good friends, others remain acquaintances. But in either case, you’re connected because of your proximity, personal contact, and because you share an interest in the immediate neighborhood where you live.
I stayed in touch my whole life with Larry Olney, who lived across the street for several years about the time I was starting school. When we started first grade, we were buddies. We freely wandered between our two houses, playing first on one side of the street and then the other. We were together in Den 1 when a cub scout pack opened at Kahala School, and I remember surviving a couple of annual scout Makahiki events with him. We had lived through several small kid disasters, which I won’t describe here.
When Larry’s father retired and the family moved back to the mainland, we kept in touch. Initially we kept in contact vicariously because our mothers corresponded quite regularly, passing family updates back and forth. Later, as an adult, I stopped a couple of times to see Larry while visiting Southern California. We’ve continued to have periodic contact via email or an occasional phone call. We’re still in contact, and I was one of those he phoned when his wife died after a long illness.
That process has repeated itself several times as the house across the street was sold and resold, new families moved in, and new friendships grew. It continued even when the owners were from Japan and only in Hawaii part of each year. Despite the language barrier, my mother was always able to welcome these new neighbors and they reciprocated with holiday visits and thoughtful gifts.
My point–Neighbors are more than just the people who live next door, and often become lifelong friends.
But in the last couple of years, we’ve lost the neighbors in the house across the street. It’s not that the house is vacant. It’s full most of the time, and there’s a lot of activity. But it’s full of strangers who will never become more than that because its occupants are a string of short-term visitors apparently recruited via Airbnb, VRBO.com, and other travel sites. There are a few regulars who show up to clean between rentals, or open the gate across the driveway for each new batch of vacationers, but we don’t know whether the owners of the house are among them.
And the house on one side of the house across the street has also become a short-term vacation rental, although operated by different owners. The result is the same.
For us, this becomes dead space in the neighborhood. We don’t know anyone there, and don’t even know who belongs and who doesn’t. We’re robbed of the chance to turn neighbors into friends. The bonds of neighborliness, in the absence of a better term, can’t grow in these conditions. And we’re poorer for it.
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The Honolulu City Council will take up Resolution 19-24 Wednesday. Reso 19-24 would allow the county to have access to certain state transient accommodations tax records. Shared access between the state and counties should help with enforcement on both sides.
Agree wholeheartedly. We have had some of our neighbors for 55 years, and deep friendships exist. I would hate having a vacation rental next door.
Auwe ! got to stop ! people need HOMES and Neighborhoods
Condos are that way, when boards don’t involve the owners in maintenance, upkeep decisions, and neighborhood updates via bulletin board, email and personal contact. Mostly, they are becoming big concrete boxes housing little concrete boxes.
Too bad the rich illegal Airbnb owner can afford a better lobbyist than the poor local renter.
The refusal of the city and state to aggressively crack down on illegal vacation rentals has created a monster with many tentacles. The lack of recognizable neighbors is merely one of the shortest.
Our family, the Steiger’s, lived across the street from Ian and his family in the late 1950s and very early 1960s. Our father was stationed at Hickman AFB at the time. My older brother, Jim, was good friends with Ian while we were there.
The Steigers moved in after Larry Olney’s family left. Jim and I got to be good friends, and I remember spending a lot of time over at their house, as well as cruising the neighborhood on our bikes.
Here’s a photo taken in 1957. Jim Steiger is over on the right, holding the softball. I’m second from the left. We’re at Waialae Beach Park.
https://www.ilind.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/at-the-park-1957.jpg
Every word so true! I saw this during the last hurricane evacuation. Every family in the neighborhood evacuated. I was the last to leave and our empty street was dark and boarded up. Along comes an uber dropping a just off the plane couple. They had no hurricane supplies or water and went straight to the neighboring Airbnb and punched in the door code . They were totally unaware that civil defense had evacuated the area and could easily have been killed. Who knows where the owners of the Air BnB live, but unlike regular neighbors, in an emergency they are not the neighbors you want to have.
So here’s a question – The state department of taxation requires that all owners, operators and plan managers of transient accomodations conspicuously provide their TAT license number in and on all advertisements and through all media types utilized (print, online, ad or electronic link) for that accomodation or be in violation of Section 237D-4, HRS. If the TAT license numbers are supposed to be posted, why can’t or isn’t there a parallel or supplemental requirement that the GET license number of the provider also be made a mandatory disclosure?
Something to check on — It is my understanding that Airbnb and other companies that are paying rent to owners are supposed to file 1099s. If that is correct, how is the state handling them?
Ian, have you checked whether the use of those houses as TVRs is legal? I believe you can check online to see if there are valid permits.
We should also be asking ourselves whether we’re contributing to the problem by using businesses like AirBnB or VRBO, that do not respect local laws against such practices, when we travel.
I completely agree with you. Now that I know the consequences of this bigtouribusiness, I will not support it. Anywhere.
I believe vacationers who knowingly participate in illegal transactions should also be held accountable. I see them as complicit in ruining our neighborhoods and altering some peoples’ lives forever by edging them out of the housing market. Auwe!
It has been pointed out that Hawaii’s politicians pride themselves on an ever-increasing number of tourists, but without the construction of new hotel space, this pushes those tourists into short-term home rentals. So within the limited area of Hawaii’s tourism (supposedly an area of expertise), there is no long-term plan.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/12/is-housing-sacrificed-to-attract-more-tourists/
This seems to shift the issue away from regulation toward the matter of supply and demand. But would we all just complain anyway if new hotel space were constructed, even if it drew down the numbers of short-term home rentals?
Excellent observation. Thank you.
A related issue is the recognition that Waikiki cannot be armored against sea-level rise, and that ultimately the government will have to give up on Waikiki.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/01/we-have-to-move-our-homes-and-businesses-away-from-the-shoreline-but-how/
Short-term home rentals would then become the primary option for tourists visiting Hawaii.
A lot can happen between now and “ultimately.” For example, some are preparing to spend ~$350 million for a flood mitigation project along the Ala Wai Canal. It appears Waikiki isn’t going to be given up any time soon.