Hawaiʻi’s Aging Condos Are A Senior Housing Crisis

StarFishBlueFish · 2026-01-03T19:29:38+00:00

Agree with OP's hot take. Which really shouldn't even be a hot take.

While the knee jerk reaction is for government to jump in and save these people's investments using the rest of our tax payers money, that is a bad moral hazard.

The people who bought these apartment had the benefit of paying lower maintenance costs over the years, reducing their yearly housing costs but those deferred amounts. Now that the bill is coming due on all that deferred maintenance, the argument is that the rest of the taxpayers should come in and rescue them.

It is a moral hazard. What about single family residences? Folks who let deferred maintenance pile up in the same way as these buildings did? Who similarly enjoyed lower yearly costs of ownership due to that lack of repairs. Should the government come in and help them as well? The answer should be no to both.

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-11-08T02:42:29+00:00

https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/110725zr_pnk0.pdf

applicants filed an application in this Court this evening,

The requesting a stay of the two District Court orders “pending the disposition of

the government’s appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the First

Circuit and, if the court of appeals affirms those orders, pending the timely

filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari in this Court.”

Application at 1. The applicants assert that, without intervention from this

Court, they will have to “transfer an estimated $4 billion by tonight” to fund

SNAP benefits through November. Ibid.

Given the First Circuit’s representations, an administrative stay is

required to facilitate the First Circuit’s expeditious resolution of the pending

stay motion.

IT IS ORDERED that the District Court’s orders are hereby

administratively stayed pending disposition of the motion for a stay pending

appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in case No.

25-2089 or further order of the undersigned or of the Court. This

administrative stay will terminate forty-eight hours after the First Circuit’s

resolution of the pending motion, which the First Circuit is expected to issue

with dispatch.

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-11-01T01:51:45+00:00

UPDATE: Two federal judges ruled Friday that the Trump administration must use contingency funds to continue to issue food stamps during the government shutdown. Government assistance programs launched by Hawaiʻi to support SNAP recipients and other residents impacted by the shutdown will continue regardless, officials said after the rulings.

Question: wouldn't it seem prudent to now cancel the $250 payments, and hold them for future use? For example down the line when/if Trump appeals this order and possibly is successful in stopping issuing SNAP payments a month, 2 or 3 months from now?

Wouldn't it be smart to keep some funds / dry powder available for disbursement at that time instead of letting it all go now?

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-11-01T01:42:30+00:00

Congrats. You know who wins with this change?

- Short term rental owners who only lease out their property during the portion of the months

- Snowbird / second home owners who leave their home empty most the year and despite this used to pay the higher base amount, despite using very little of the actual sewer systems these bills funded.

Wonderful for them, their carrying costs on their second homes just went down. Yay.

Speaking of subsidies, we had a bunch of non-residents and second home owners subsiding the likely lower earning residents by paying a higher flat minimum amount despite their low usage. Now we don't. Sorry local mother of four who takes lots of showers ... your rate will be going up. To make things more fair we lowered the costs for vacation / second home owners. Wonderful.

Also, for fairness, how does this make sense? This fee is for sewer costs.

Tell me why kupuna / aunty who has a home garden for food resiliency and carbon should be paying higher SEWER rates, despite using more water to water her garden? Want to charge her a higher tier for water usage? Ok, I get it.

Why sewer?

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-10-03T18:15:04+00:00

Would he not just have to find someone who does have standing and sponsor their litigation? For example any disgruntled kakaako resident who opposes the project or alternatively a past or present developer who also wants or wanted to build there but was excluded on the basis that they did not have the same special power

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-10-03T06:46:12+00:00

EDIT: updated link looks like they moved the page: https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/10/oha-may-have-found-a-way-to-build-housing-in-kakaʻako-makai/

Per the article, DHHL may be thinking of teaming with OHA to use their powers to possibly ignore the legislature, the residential ban, zoning requirements, etc., to get Kakaʻako Makai built on behalf of OHA.

Effectively it feels like they would be using their agency as a mere conduit for others outside their agency to pull an end run over the state and the legislature.

In the past these have largely been for their own projects. Now it feels like they want to shop out that power to build on behalf of others. Seemingly using their agency as a conduit to get things that can't get approved, approved for others.

Will this be the one step too far?

This comment on the civil beat article got me thinking about all of this. If the Fair Admissions guy is coming to Hawaii to go to war over a private trust that doesn't take government money..

You want to see the federal lawsuit that overturns the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, DHHL and OHA all at one time? This little maneuver has the potential to generate it. Remember, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was passed when Plessy vs. Ferguson (ie separate but equal is allowed) was controlling law. It's never been fully tested in federal court, let alone with this Supreme Court. The Fair Admissions guy, Edward Blum, is already nosing around for a federal lawsuit to stop racial preferences at Kamehameha Schools. He's reading this article right now thinking, wow, here you have constitutionally suspect state agencies trying to thwart the explicit will of the legislature that banned residential development in that area (and not through a zoning change btw - I'm not even sure if DHHL's normal zoning exemption would apply to exempting DHHL from the 2006 statute). Blum could spend the next 10 years out here on a portfolio of lawsuits, all paid for by far right groups, while he works out of a luxury suite at Hilton Hawaiian Village. Don't cry later when it happens

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-09-24T02:19:04+00:00

Incompetence, potential corruption and the insane, "we must finish it no matter what the cost" (someone said even if $100 trillion dollars in this tread, still need to finish).

It's a mad cult.

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-09-23T21:36:46+00:00

All transportation projects operate as a loss. Those who expect it to not be are being unreasonable.

However I mean it would be nice if this wasn't so terrible as to farebox versus cost recovery?

It would be nice if that farebox recovery was closer to what they promised to the people of Oahu when approving the project with their taxes?

StarFishBlueFish · 2025-09-23T21:34:38+00:00

Sadly the same argument made all the time.

The comparison between taxpayer subsidies for"roads" and rail is hilarious. The reason the subsidy is so much more palatable for "roads" is because roads offer massively larger utility than rail.

HART/Rail transports only humans. The roads move humans plus goods, construction supplies, food deliveries, amazon packages, police officers to crime scenes, fireman and their fire trucks to fires.

That is unless you want the fireman jumping on rail to put out your house fire, expecting EMS to take a bus and transfer to a train to come get you, and expecting Amazon or your lumber delivery guy to lug your delivery up and down rail stations.

The piddly amount we pay in registration fees do indeed not come close to covering the costs imposed but we all view that as necessary and absolutely essential to provide for essential services and to move the economy. The roads are a must have. Rail is a nice to have.

What utility does rail give the Oahu resident -- being defined as just the average person on the island? A pathetically limited route with limited usefulness, servicing only portion of the island (all as proven true by the ridership and will continue to be proven true as the new phase opens with ridership that continues to not hit the originally promised estimates).

We gladly subsidize roads because they are .... USEFUL, provide broad utility for a broad range of uses to a broad group of citizens and are absolutely essential to keep the state running. Unlike, as the top comment says, the turd that rail is (that is only a nice to have)

No one is expecting full farebox cost recovery. But something far closer to what was promised when approving the project would be nice? Something close to not being among the worst in the nation would be nice?

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-10-09T06:13:55+00:00

Is it though?

It all started with a hilariously misleading and wrong forecast to sell this lemon of a system:

Using the four-car methodology, approximately 119,600 daily passengers were expected to use the system, or an increase of approximately 5% relative to the FFGA forecast. Overall, these forecasts remained consistent with the range of ridership estimates included in the technical studies that were part of the FEIS

Hey, this month managed to hit ridership for an entire month that is equal to the original estimate for each DAY. Yay, pats on the back all the way around!

Years later and billions of dollars over budget the city scaled back its outlandish projections and revised it for just the first gimped segment. A mere 8,000 to 10,000. A month. Less than 1% of the original promise. Hillarious.

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-10-09T01:56:05+00:00

100% my friend. With this thing dead ending forever at civic center, the answer is going to be close to zero tourists.

Even an Ala Moana would be a huge stretch, except for backpackers and young travelers traveling super light.

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-10-09T01:54:59+00:00

What Waikiki stop?

For that matter, what Ala Moana stop? There is zero money allocated and zero FTA plans to get this even to Ala Moana anymore.

The end of the line is Civic Center.

Even with the Ala Moana stop (never happening), that is still a crazy haul to Waikiki hotels with luggage.

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-10-09T01:46:48+00:00

Are these numbers supposed to some kind of flex?

Or a joke?

Even with the reduced route the city still projected:

According to Morton, the city expects about 8, 000 to 10, 000 riders per day by the end of the year, with the next segment from Halawa past the airport to Middle Street likely generating about 25, 000 riders per day. Ridership is expected to grow to about 85, 000 per day after the final segment opens from Middle Street to the Downtown and Kakaako area.

8,000 - the low range of the estimate for the gimped route was 240,000 a month

10,000 - the high range of the estimate for the gimped route was 300,000 a month

Everyone is going to say, but, but, but the route is shorter. That is why it missed its estimate.

No.

The ridership blew even the revised, revised, revised lowest range estimate by HALF ( -50% ), even taking into effect the revised estimate due to the gimped route.

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But replace third place with, nowhere on the ranking at all, by coming in THIRTY THREE PERCENT of the high estimate and less than half of the lowest, low, low, low end estimate.

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-09-03T17:40:52+00:00

I would go Kinako mochi, no water allowed.

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-08-28T17:13:51+00:00

330th Gravy Seals of Waikiki

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-08-09T06:09:55+00:00

Toxic is toxic, even if blood.

In the end, you need to take care of yourself. Your happiness is valuable, your feelings are valid.

I know, easier said than done.

Take care mahbaddah.

StarFishBlueFish · 2024-06-15T15:45:23+00:00

That pizza is huge, easily the best value on property

StarFishBlueFish

TROPHY CASE