© 2024 Hawaiʻi Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Conversation: Thursday December 29th, 2016

Honolulu Homeless Crisis

Controversial Homeless Map; Community Approach to Business; Garden Isle Coral Garden

Chamber of Commerce Hawaii's Goals for 2017: Sherry Menor McNamara

CV_SMM122916.mp3
Sherry Menor McNamara

Credit Chamber of Commerce Hawaii
Sherry Menor McNamara

Hawaii’s Chamber of Commerce has a 165-year history, tracing its origins back to the California Gold Rush of the mid-nineteenth century. The Gold Rush expanded a demand for Hawaii goods and services in an international arena that has never let up.   Hawaii’s isolation, and the communications challenges of living in a chain of islands, have put the Chamber in a unique position, and we’re asking Sherry Menor-McNamara, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, to look at where we are now.

Intro Music: Faith (Instrumental) by George Michael
Outro Music: Electric Indigo by The Paper Kites

Kekoa Collective: Dewey Doan

KK_DD122916.mp3
Dewey Doan

Credit Kekoa Collective
Dewey Doan, Kekoa Collective Founder.

How often do you hear of a business that measures their success based on their contributions to the local community, students, suppliers, and employees, well it’s rare, and it’s also the mantra of the Kekoa Collective, more than just a community store but a gathering place for like minds who share a passion to work hard, play hard and do-good. Founder Dewey Doan is here to explain how to create a new version of the bottom line in business, and life.

Intro Music: Come Let Go by Xavier Rudd
Outro Music: Above The Bones by Mishka

Civil Beat Reality Check: Millennial Influx to Chinatown

RC_122916.mp3
Chad Blair

Credit Flickr - madmarv00
First Friday in Chinatown

There’s a new economy growing in Honolulu, and it’s growing in one of the city’s oldest districts. Chinatown, with its century-old buildings and its seedy history, may seem an unlikely locale for millennials, but its cheap rents and colorful past have their own allure, as Chad Blair reports in this morning’s Reality Check.   

Intro Music: Trust Nobody by Cashmere Cat and Selena Gomez
Outro Music: Let Me Love You by DJ Snake, Justin Bieber

Hawaii Kai Representative Gene Ward

CV_GW122916.mp3
Gene Ward

Credit Wikimedia Commons
House District 17, partially seen here, is the site of the latest showdown over homelessness.

Hawaii Kai Representative Gene Ward has published a map of homeless encampments in his district, along with descriptions of some of the people who live in them -- identifying one as “mentally ill,” another as a “meth addict.” As he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “We know where they are and what they’re doing… those people in homeless communities (need) to tell their friends that Hawaii Kai is not a friendly community.” His map has been called everything from a helpful guide to people in need of help to an invitation to vigilantism.

Outro Music: Electric Feel by MGMT

Kauai Coral Garden: Katherine Muzik

KK_KM122916.mp3
Katherine Muzik

Credit Wikimedia Commons
Katherine Muzik's 'Malama Moana' project has been transplanting coral as a means of preservation.

Worldwide, coral reefs are dying, bleached away by a combination of warmer water, pollution, viruses, and more. But fighting against the loss of such an integral part of our aquatic environment, marine biologist Dr. Katherine Muzik has been transplanting coral on the reefs near her home on Kaua’i and hoping to combine both a project to save the corals with a public educational campaign to help everyone realize their role in preserving the environment.

Intro Music: It Don't Matter by Donavon Frankenreiter
Outro Music: To The Sea by Jack Johnson

Stay Connected
Dr. Kathy Kozak hosts The Body Show on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. on HPR-1.
More Episodes