Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Steelyp t1_j6daer2 wrote

Great shot! We were in Maui and I regret not getting over there but just didn’t have the time. The guide books mentioned that the last decade or so has been tough for Moloka’i. Here’s an excerpt - would love to know how true it is:

The island has a perpetually dismal economy. Most residents are on some kind of government assistance. Though the island’s nickname is “the friendly island,” you may find just the opposite. Though residents are very friendly with each other (the only repetitive motion injury residents are likely to suffer is from drivers constantly waving at each other), many (though by no means all) tend to be pretty reserved with visitors. The grumpy reputation is, to a certain extent, for effect. Most residents here don’t want many visitors and don’t want a friendly reputation, even if they are nice to you on a one-to-one basis. The belief is that community stink eye can help keep the island from being developed and its resources depleted. (It’s a favorite island of many visitors because of its undeveloped nature, but many complain of feeling unwelcome.) "No Trespassing" signs are conspicuously few. You either belong somewhere or you don’t, and residents don’t need signs to tell them that.

Local residents had a nasty little war going on with the island’s largest landowner, Moloka‘i Ranch, which owns over a third of the island (mostly on the drier western half). When the ranch built a pipeline to carry water to another part of the island, vandals destroyed it. While the ranch suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses from their operations, residents stopped them from doing any development. As a last ditch effort to save the business, Moloka‘i Ranch threw a Hail Mary. They proposed developing a 500-acre strip of land at La‘au Point on the extreme southwestern tip. They agreed to use proceeds from the sale of luxury lots at the otherwise inaccessible land to rebuild the long-closed Sheraton resort and to set aside 50,000 acres (over three-quarters of all their land holdings) for conservation. But residents opposed them. Handmade Save La‘au signs went up all over the island, and local activists influenced the land use commission to turn down Moloka‘i Ranch’s plans.

So in 2008 the company essentially quit the island. They closed their two remaining resorts, shut down the gas station and movie complex in Maunaloa and closed off access to their third of the island. After being thwarted in their quest to build windmills on the island and send the electricity to O‘ahu in 2014, the war now seems pretty much over… and both sides lost. There is a little activity taking place on their land, but Maunaloa is still a ghost town with only a private general store open next to Moloka‘i Ranch's office. Most other buildings have been abandoned and vandalized. The owner put the property on the market in 2017, and it can all be yours for a mere quarter billion dollars.

13

crankyape1534 OP t1_j6dgktj wrote

Sounds accurate. I’ve only been on Molokai for a paddle competition. That and flown over it many times. I’ve heard it was expensive for their food and resources and that many were living off the government. I read many small businesses that were tourist friendly closed down. I’ve heard locals can be very welcoming and also very unfriendly depending on the exact situation. I’ll likely never get to go explore it fully but I do appreciate what I have experienced.

8

possumallawishes t1_j6dymlw wrote

One time, I took a ferry there from Lahaina and camped up in the mountains.

I took a mule ride down these sea cliffs to Kalaupapa, which is actually a literal leper colony. Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, has been cured as of like the 1950s, so at the time I went there, there was only like 7 people left who had suffered from the disease and they were like 70 or 80 years old. That alone is an interesting story, but I’m kinda going off on a tangent, it’s an interesting story should you ever want to go down an internet rabbit hole.

People in Molokai were generally friendly, but even a decade after the fact, there was still “Save La’au” signs and anti-Sheraton propaganda. They were overgrown in the vegetation, and sun faded over time, but you could feel the anti-establishment sentiment in the air. There was not much to do, in a sense of commercial outlets. I rented a jeep and drove from one end of the island to the other. There was like one little bar and a little gift shop, and that’s pretty much all I remember. I got a lot of suspicious looks and mean mugs, but I sort of expected it because I knew I would stick out like a sore thumb. But you could basically pull off the road anywhere and have miles of beach to yourself. I think i stayed two nights, and while it was a unique and memorable experience that I think outshines every other adventure I’ve had on any of the other islands, I don’t think I would go back. Like I said, people were nice, but I definitely didn’t feel like I would be welcome there for very long.

Another story about Molokai that I thought was funny/interesting:

The island was overrun by an Axis Deer population. They are obviously not native and are invasive to the land. So, the island or the government or whatever, hired a guy to go up in a helicopter with a machine gun and just pull up on these herds of these monstrous deer and he would take out like 300 a day or something, and did that for a couple weeks until the herd was thinned out. Crazy stuff.

To me, Molokai is like the Florida of Hawaii.

3

Boating_Enthusiast t1_j6e9jd9 wrote

"Welcome to Molokai! Come visit, don't stay." It's not the tourism focused tropical themed experience that Maui, Kauai, and Waikiki resorts try to provide. Imagine the island is someone's home that you're visiting. It's still full of friendly Hawaiians, but don't try to claim a bedroom and expect a warm response.

Also, Molokai Ranch would love to spin a story about how much they care about the locals, but Molokai recognizes the same scheme happening on other islands. Build some luxury, gate it off. Build more luxury, gate it off. Offer the locals some minimum wage jobs, tell them to be happy or pound sand. Sorry, you can't cross our land to get to the sand.

Molokai chooses their lifestyle, which isn't modern 3 and 2's with an upscale strip mall nearby. No Walmarts, no Panera, no Chick-fil-A. No attracting outside development that will pave over Hawaii and sell it off to foreign investors.

Whoops, a bit long winded, but the tldr is Molokai is friendly but untrusting, seeing what happens when foreign investment decides they can make a profit off selling your home.

2

Steelyp t1_j6ellnm wrote

Thanks! I think that’s totally fair seeing how the other islands have developed. I guess I’d be afraid some rich person would come in and wall it all off too.

2

LittleWhiteBoots t1_j6gvbe0 wrote

I had good experiences there, but I came there already knowing someone and quickly made friends. It’s definitely not Maui in terms of catering to tourism. I had some uncomfortable moments. The people I knew who were employed… a plumeria farm owner who supplied leis to hotels on Maui, a tower maintenance dude who climbed those massively tall towers, a construction worker, a pastor, someone who worked at the airport. Many were on the government dole. There really isn’t any industry there that I recall. Back then Maunaloa was still open for business though, some hotels were open. Sounds like they closed.

Most of the people I knew have moved to Oahu.

1