Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

Kolea suggested in a comment to my followup article on undergrounding the utility wires near Waikiki that there are other ugly spots. I have seen a few, and it’s really easy these days to get at least a passable picture by snipping from Google Earth. Heck, I’ve taken a few through the windshield in the past, but snipping from Google Earth is even easier than going through my photo collection.

Here are just a few of my “favorite” spots. I’m sure there are better.  Click the photos for larger.

This is one of my favorites. The Google pic doesn’t do this tree justice. It’s been maimed by the utility wires, and now looms over them looking like it wants to bite back.

Here’s a snap along Dillingham Boulevard near Honolulu Community College.Note the extreme damage to trees on the left side. This is very typical of how the utility wires have ruined the natural beauty that should be ours..

Another view, from the other direction. Oh, those poor trees…

Proceeding along Dillingham, just a minute or two past this spot, we have this scene:

There’s no use even thinking of trees here. But more interesting, this was along one of the originally proposed routes for Mufi’s Train. Can you imagine the cost of undergrounding all the high- and low- tension wires and telephone lines in this picture?

Don’t worry, though. APEC delegates won’t venture this far out of Waikiki. Unless, of course, they’d like to do some shopping at Costco. Hope they don’t follow their shopping trip with a visit to Chinatown for some lunch…

Permalink posted by Larry @ 5/19/2011 01:51:00 PM