PREVIEW EDITION
FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, 2024
What Is The Future Of Lahaina? By Philip Scott Wikel
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hen we say, “Let’s return Lahaina to what it was,” which Lahaina are we talking about? Granted, all of Lahaina’s residents need their houses rebuilt. But what sort of Lahaina do we want going forward? Would we choose the Lahaina that tourists know or the Lahaina that residents love? If we could all get the State of Hawaii to diversify its income streams, then maybe Lahaina could return to a place where we can know and see each other. During the COVID lockdown we were all alone with each other and, despite the horrors of the pandemic there was at least some redemption in that we could all see each other again without the haze of so many visitors. We were bound by a common thread. Are we not seeing something of that thread now? I understand that some visitors have begun to come back and others are set to come back in droves. I understand that so many businesses need their patronage. However, moving forward, can we find a balance? There hasn’t been a balance since the 1990s. Local people left in droves during Covid, sadly to some extent because of the greed of many landlords that sent housing costs through the roof. Now they’re leaving because they’ve lost their livelihoods. Soon there’ll be very few who can afford to “be of service” to visitors. So I’ll restate what I mentioned earlier. The State of Hawaii needs to diversify its income streams and break the habit of its dependence on visitors for our economy. Many families have a lineage that goes back decades or even centuries. Families have been broken by Hawaii’s addiction to tourism. The people of Maui are leaving (estimated at more than 1,000 since the fire). Who will be here to carry on our cultural values and the value of our sense of community which has shown itself so strongly in times of distress? We need to imua (move forward) now and reflect on the future of not just
Story and Photos by Philip Scott Wikel Lahaina, but of all of Hawaii Nei. Maybe Jessica Terrell of the Honolulu Civil Beat says it best: “If residents of Lahaina want to see something worthwhile rise from the ashes of their town, if they want to emerge from this tragedy with a stronger, safer and more equitable community, they have to band together and create a shared vision for the future. And they have to do it now.” Born on the East Coast, Philip moved to Maui which is now his home. Educated at UC Santa Cruz as a literature major and history minor set him on a path to freelance writing (including an interview with Jack Johnson), publishing a short-lived surf magazine called The Surfwriter’s Quarterly and writing a novel called The Tradewinds; featuring a fictional young surfer, Morgan Blake, a writer from Maui. Philip also enjoys video editing, graphic design, and photography. He is the creator of Salty Zen Clothing. Y