Saturday, Feb 2 - Join Us Here!

The Beach Access Day is almost here! Here's what you can do to participate:
• Join the Trolley Tour in Honolulu to promote our message of greater beach access for Hawaii. Email Rich to get onboard.
• Attend a sign-waving rally along various beach access points all across the state. See the complete list here.
• Download a petition and gather signatures in your neighborhood. Contact Roxanne to turn in your petitions.
• Download a poster to put up in your business and/or neighborhood.
• Download a Fact Sheet about Beach Access in Hawaii.
• Sign our online petition to save Beach Access in Hawaii.
• Take pictures of gates and blocked beach access in your neighborhood. Email Rich with the pictures and include the exact location. We're building a collection!
• Thank the many local companies who support the "save beach access" activities! They are listed in the right column (scroll down) and more joining us every day!
• Read the GREAT ARTICLE in Friday's Star-Bulletin. Mahalo nui Gary T. Kubota and Robert Shikina. (Send them an email too!)
• Read the Letter of Support from Rep. Lyla Berg (PDF)


Beach Walk 580 - Preserve Beach Access Hawaii

Groundhog Day Rally: Be There!

Lee Cataluna did a column about it in Sunday's Advertiser (Jan. 20)... The Star-Bulletin has contacted us and is working on a major story about beach access... We now have confirmed rallies on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island!

It's been like a tsunami -- started with a small ripple, and has been building for the past month: first Beach Access Hawaii, Surfrider and Kahea, along with folks in East Oahu and the Windward Ahupua'a Alliance, then the Defend Oahu Coalition, Keep the North Shore Country, Common Ground, and others joined us from all over the islands. Saturday, Feb. 2 -- "G-Day" -- it all comes together. And we are stoked!

Good Idea, Bad Reporting

As dutifully reported by the Advertiser and Star-Bulletin, the City put up numbered yellow 911 signs on public beach accesses to aid first responders. Good idea -- except the press and TV news media failed to note that there are only 87 public rights of way for the entire island of Oahu, which has over two hundred miles of coastline!

More importantly, the need for these 911 signs underscores the public safety issue we've been raising: locked gates on private lanes could mean the difference between life and death in ocean emergencies. Those nice, new 911 signs? Sorry, but they're nowhere in sight for long stretches of Kailua Beach because some the public accesses are over a half-mile apart!

And look at the photo above of Sign #89A at the access next to Kailuana Loop. On the left side you can see the back of the yellow 911 sign... which they put behind bushes, trees and a sand dune, several yards back from the beach. Great job! Don't they have any common sense? Hello? Stand on the beach and look back before you install the sign!

Help Us Promote Groundhog Day!

All over Oahu, and on other islands, groups are emailing and printing flyers to publicize our statewide public beach access rallies on Sat., Feb. 2. Please take a few minutes to print out copies of the G-Day flyer and hand them out to friends and neighbors. If everyone on our BAH list just got 5 to 10 people to join us that day, we'll have a thousand signs telling the public -- and our elected officials -- that NOW is the time to take action to acquire more public rights of way!

Check back the week of the rally for date, time and location of the sign-making party we're planning. Until then, here are some flyers - you can make copies to distribute. Mahalo!

2-Page Info Sheet prepared by Kahea Fdn (PDF; 1.1 MB)
Color Flyer for Feb 2 Event (PDF; 456 KB)
Groundhog Flyer-Color (PDF: 188 KB)
Groundhog Flyer B&W
Petition Form - Print these and walk your neighborhood!

Check It Out: Other Web Sites Spreading the News!

Thanks to alliances we've forged to promote the statewide beach access rally on Groundhog Day, other groups are posting Kailua Gate photos (and East Oahu pictures too) to share with their members.

Please visit the Surfrider site.

And while you're there, take a moment to read this update about surfers fighting to keep free parking at Ala Moana Bowls:
http://www.surfrider.org/oahu/groundhogday.html

For more info, go to the Dec. 10 post and article links for more information about the controversy over the DLNR proposal that would affect parking at Ala Wai harbor. It's just one more example of how free and easy access to our shorelines and beaches is disappearing all over the island...

Petition Online

In conjunction with the Ground Hog Day protest, we're mounting a statewide petition drive to put pressure on the counties and State legislature to ensure public beach access at minimum intervals of every quarter mile of beach.

Even if we can't change the laws right away, we'll be able to show there is widespread support for our cause, and that might prod our elected officials to take action. You can sign the petition online by going to:

Beach Access Online Petition (Opens in a new window)

Better yet, you can download the pdf file below for a hard copy of the petition form, and help us by collecting signatures on your block. If everyone gets just 10 signatures on their street, we'll have thousands of names to show our officials on 2/2! (Please remember to only sign once though.)

BAH Petition (PDF File)

Please contact Roxanne Darling if you would like to help out. She's coordinating both the online and face-to-face petitions, and can be reached via email at: roxanne@barefeetstudios.com

Also, check out her thoughtful and relaxing video musings at Beach Walks with Rox. (Opens in a new window)

Mahalo to Roxanne -- and all of you -- for your involvement and support!

PayPal Link Now Online

Thanks to the Windward Ahupua'a Alliance, an officially recognized 501c nonprofit group, you can now make tax deductible donations to Beach Access Hawaii online at:

http://www.waa-hawaii.org

You'll see the PayPal link for contributions under the text about BAH. It would have taken us months to get official nonprofit status, so we owe a big mahalo to Jim and Shannon Wood at WAA, which has done terrific volunteer work for Hawaii!

Every little bit helps -- $5, $10, $20 -- whatever you can afford. The question is, how much is "free" public beach access worth to you? Your donations WILL make a difference!