The question is simply: What do you want your community to look like in 50 years?
This is a question for all of Hawai’i to consider carefully and not just listen to woke attacks. It takes thoughtful planning and is not an elitism, NIMBY or against affordable housing. It is very forward thinking. Here’s our family vote: Our family is very much concerned about the proposed Manoa Banyan Court for all the reasons Les Inouye, Willow Chang and others have cited. The water, the environmental impact and in this tightly packed old community—the one road in and traffic. Don’t be fooled by the marketing - and PR-twisted arguments from LYCA. Everybody should be asking themselves why this is a great idea and its impact on their own communities in the future if this project is allowed. I’m a lifelong resident of Manoa Valley and my grandparents are buried in the Chinese cemetery. They chose to raise us the Valley because of its environment and culture—it’s untouched simplicity and quirkiness. Other old neighborhoods should be aware of the threat similar development can bring to Nuuanu, Pupukea, Sierra Drive, Kaimuki, Waipahu — and support Manoa against this kind of disruption and indiscriminate development. They might be next. A neighborhood is just that — a planned small community without high-rises and shopping malls and parking spilling into homes. Commercial buildings don’t belong deep into the fabric of the natural landscape and a settled community. I hope that Hawai’i precious communities with history and memories will remain untainted by the apparent greed and manipulation of organizations like LYCA. We encourage everyone who loves the culture of the unique small towns in the islands to be very vocal to government leaders and stop Manoa Banyan Court from destroying one of the few places in the islands that hold childhood memories of the past as a forecast of similar ones for future generations simply because of the recognition that 50 years from now, we cared enough to say no and not be fooled by avarice disguised as progress. Maintaining the stability and simplicity of the total environment of Manoa Valley is progress and prescient—a way of practicing the belief in Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono With aloha, Sheila Donnelly Theroux, Paul Theroux, Brendan Donnelly, Rain Ensign
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