Category Archives: Housing

Another fine example of a condo war

2 Replies

I’ve written before about different condo wars, battles between owners and boards of directors in Hawaii condominiums. This week my Civil Beat column tries to describe another condo conflict, this one in a Maui condo-hotel (“Ian Lind: Condo War Breaks Out On Maui When Homes Become Hotels“).

This is an example of disputes in older condominiums over management and finances of their rental pools.

The unstated background issue here is that just as Uber and other ride sharing companies are causing upheaval in the taxi and car rental industries, Airbnb and other online booking sites are disrupting the staid world of resort-condo rentals. Once upon a time, the best way for condo owners to position their units to target out-of-state visitors was to become part of a corporate-operated rental pool, usually with an experienced hotel management company. Now, when individual owners have many choices for how to manage their rental units, older management structures are being challenged.

This particular case involves an older condominium with governing documents more appropriate for a traditional residential condo than a resort-condo project. As condo boards try to protect their competitive position with attempts to intimidate or retaliate against owners that rent independent of the favored hotel pools, trouble ensues. That’s what happened in this case.

Anyway, that link at the beginning of this post will take you directly to the column.

I started with condo stories at least 15 years ago. Check out “Mondo Condo” from the April 10, 2002 issue of Honolulu Weekly.

Homelessness in a previous era

Leave a reply

I was looking through a couple of copies of my old Hawaii Monitor newsletter, and came across a book review by the late Chuck Frankel, who spend much of his career at the old Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Frankel was reviewing a history of the city published by UH Press: “The City and County of Honolulu, a Government Chronicle,” by Donald D. Johnson.

One snippet caught my eye. Time passes, it seems, but things don’t necessarily change a lot.

Frankel wrote:

The homeless, much in the news today, were called “squatters” in the 1920’s. The head of the Hawaiian Tourism Board suggested that Squatersville at Kewalo Basin be turned into a tourist attraction as a “typical Hawaiian village.”

So many city plans to eliminate slums and to beautify the island turned out to be ways to sweep aside Hawaiians and others who were poor and powerless.”

How to support hurricane relief

7 Replies

It isn’t necessarily easy to know how to effectively contribute to relief efforts to aid those impacted by the series of recent hurricanes, Harvey, Irma, and Jose.

As usual, the Red Cross was out in front with their very public fundraising efforts, including a simple text to contribute $10. But many are wary of the organization after its actions in Haiti several years ago came under scrutiny.

This series of tweets from Pro Publica traces their prior in-depth reporting on Red Cross relief efforts.

A recent article in the Washington Post reviewed the Red Cross controversy and alternatives (“People are urging donations for Harvey relief efforts — just not to the Red Cross“).

The New York Times recently wrote about how to donate to victims of Hurricane Harvey (“Where to Donate to Harvey Victims (and How to Avoid Scams)“).

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is soliciting donations.

CDEMA presently comprises eighteen (18) Participating States (PS): Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Republic of Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Islands and the Virgin Islands.

Former Honolulu resident Lora Williams Helmer, now living in Oregon, is asking her friends to donate to ShelterBox, which provides aid kits in disaster areas with tents, rebuilding tools, and items such as solar lights, blankets, etc.

To donate, go to Shelterboxusa.org. Lora asks that you please designate Rotary D5100 and her when making your donation.

Obviously, there are likely many other ways to donate to disaster relief. Please share information on your favored relief agency.

After a moment of calm, a question…

3 Replies

First order of business, a small moment of morning calm. Photo taken about 6:26 a.m. at Waialae Beach Park.

Monday morning

Now, after that morning of calm, here’s just a small question. I got an email from a friend. He refers to the recent Marco Polo fire as the “$100 million plus” fire. That’s a very scary number.

Could the total cost really exceed $100 million? And, if so, who will take the biggest hit? All apartment owners via special assessments? The insurers holding the master fire and liability policies for the condominium association? Individual owners of the damaged apartments?

What’s your guess?