When we visit Hawaii it's a different kind of vacation.  That's because my husband's ancestors have lived there since the mid-1800s when many Portuguese came to help manage the plantations.  Our visits are filled with family events, giving us a different perspective than most tourists.

The extended family includes a great mix of ethnic backgrounds, in addition to the Portuguese, including Hawaiian, German, Chinese, Irish, Japanese and more.  It also incorporates a wide variety of professions.  From teachers to firefighters, nurses to clerical support, the relatives work hard to get by but most do not feel secure.  

Hawaii is absolutely gorgeous. It's a fabulous place to visit but a more challenging place to live these days.  The cost of living is high, traffic is out of control and wages have not kept pace with the cost of growth. Rental apartments have changed to condos and housing is so expensive that many  adult children can't afford to move from home, so they don't.  There's a nice word in Hawaiian for this type of living. It's called 'ohana, meaning family style; generations living together.  

I love the concept of 'ohana living but we saw the reality up close and it's not always pretty.  Lovely established neighborhoods are now crammed with cars everywhere, filling the streets, driveways and yards with parking.  Two, three and four families are living together in one home.  Garages are remodeled to add rooms, so sheds and storage units are everywhere. And these are not the unemployed.  These are people with full-time jobs, often married with children, still living with their parents.

The working poor without family support have a bigger problem.  There's now a tent city in the middle of Kapiolani Park, just two blocks from Waikiki.  As we took our early morning walks along the beautiful beach, we also passed a surprising number of homeless sleeping on the sand.  The disparate contrast between their struggle and the nearby luxury hotels was disheartening.  It made me worry about our own North Idaho gem.

In many ways Hawaii reminds me of Coeur d'Alene, or what we might become if we don't heed the warning signs: Growth that outpaces wages and does not pay for itself, piling greater tax burdens on existing folks.  Development aimed at high-end tourism, creating a large number of low-paying service jobs for people who can't afford local housing. City officials using tax money for expensive public projects without asking the voters.  These are all steps along the way to serious public problems that threaten our quality of life, the very reason we live here.

A recent headline in the Press was a big warning sign of problems. Our local Food Bank is facing the worst shortage in their history.  They are not only experiencing a 50% drop in donations, which indicates that average folks are less able to give, but they are also seeing an increase in need.  Requests for food assistance are up 25% over this time last year.  Lower donations and higher need for help, that's a troubling combination. 

There are no quick and easy answers to these complex community issues, but we need to be aware and take action.  Let's start by using our urban renewal dollars to attract sustainable, career-level jobs.  Let's offer more professional technical education for our students and give them the option of learning specialized trades.  And let's care more about servicing the needs of our existing citizens than building extravagant monuments for high-end tourists.  We have a jewel here in North Idaho and we must work to protect it.
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Follow-up Notes to recent letters to the editor:

1. John Martin, VP of Community Relations at NIC wrote that I misstated the NIC Board policy two weeks ago.  I did not.  I specifically wrote that the policy was for "continuing professional services" but the board chose not to follow the policy.  I did not say they violated it.  The integrity of the NIC Board would have been better preserved if this policy had been followed, and Mr. Martin is not off to a good start as their new spokesperson by twisting my words.
2. Terry Lee wrote there had been a Request for Proposals published before his project was considered by LCDC in 2004.  I went farther back in the meeting minutes to find he was correct.  I apologize for the error.  The column I wrote was not about Terry's project, per se, but about the growing property tax increment acquired by LCDC and their need for public relations help.