headland

Sitting outside a Starbucks across the street from Waikiki Beach, I'm attempting my first blog from my PDA. Thumb keypads have the virtue of forcing succinct blogging, for every typed word is a chore.

It is early evening now in Honolulu. This afternoon's Advertiser has an interesting report concerning Kuhio Beach, across the street from where I am now sitting. It seems that the city is cracking down on oldtimers who leave their plastic chairs chained to the surfboard lockers overnight. Each day, they sit in their chairs for hours, "watching the surf and talking story." Since it is illegal to store personal belongings in a public place, the city removed their chairs. "There's no place for us to sit," said June Harvey, 38, of Waikiki. "It's not right, what the city did....We've lost the fun, the ambience, the aloha spirit here."

To this casual observer, there appears to be a good bit of aloha left, with or without the chairs.

Labels: aloha, Hawaii, Honolulu, Kuhio Beach, Waikiki Beach