Sunday, June 23, 2013
On the road to Hong Kong
by Larry Geller
The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
Cast includes Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Joan Collins and Peter Sellers, the Hawaii Community Development Authority, Honolulu City Council, the state legislature, and Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
Did I forget someone? Oh, yes—Dorothy Lamour and Kamehamea Schools (former Bishop Estate) as themselves.
Order your copy from Amazon.com (link above) or just sit back and do nothing, Hong Kong will arrive at our doorsteps as we fight about what is wrong lately with UH sports.
Kamehameha Schools is seeking to build the parking garage with six levels rising 65 feet, or above the 45-foot base height limit in the area that avoids triggering special provisions associated with high-rise projects that may go up to 400 feet. Including signage and other ancillary components, parts of the structure will reach 79 feet.
Got that? 79 feet high, an exemption from the 45-foot height limit.
What we really need is an exemption limit. The current situation is a joke, the politicians have already sold us out on development limits.
The paper apparently accepts the height exemptions as a done deal:
COMMUNITY INPUT
What: Presentation and public testimony on new Kakaako parking garage
When: July 3 at 10 a.m.
Where: HCDA office at 461 Cooke St.
Note it doesn’t say “proposed” Kakaako parking garage, it says “new” Kakaako parking garage.
Bring your testimony, there will be trash cans just inside the entrance.
Apparently slim is in. The latest variance requests all say that getting the right to build higher means the building can be "slimmer". Since when is a slimmer parking garage a better building?
Here is the thing - I hear again and again that of the 22-29 condo towers planned for Kakaako, only about 6-8 will actually get launched before rising interest rates and negative public sentiment result in major changes, postponements and cancellations. Others say as many as a dozen could get built. Fact is, for many of the developers, the ship has already sailed and if you are not prepared to dig holes and pour concrete by end of year, you better be prepared to downsize o mothball your plan. Imagine what happens to the Third City Renaissance if interest rates go screaming upwards as the quantitative easing policies are "tapered"?
: June 23, 2013 at 10:57:00 AM HST << Home
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