Hawaii Becoming the Hamptons?

In her "Under the Sun" column for the Star-Bulletin, Cynthia Oi wrote this timely piece on beach access:

Hawaii is going private with public beaches

THE woman stepped back from her car wedged in a space along the lane that led to the beach. Tilting her head, she examined a window where a sticker similar to one that would permit parking was obscured by tall grass. It would pass casual inspection, she figured.

She glanced at the other cars and decided her silver Saab didn't look out of place among the Beemers and baby Benzes along the road. Only then did we set out for the shoreline to lunch on sandwiches and lemonade, a couple of outlaws with no right to sit on the fine, white sand and watch the Atlantic waves sweep in.

That's how it is in the Hamptons, the summer playground of the rich and richer, where "beach cottages" the size of community college buildings stretch across the Long Island coast, and their owners vigilantly defend the oceanfront against intruders.

Heaven forbid that cooks and waitresses who prepare and serve their gourmet meals in charming restaurants, the hardware store clerk who delivers applewood charcoal for their barbecues or the nurseryman who switches out fully grown trees on their estates to suit current garden trends should sunbathe on the same sand.

That's not how it is in Hawaii, or at least not how it's supposed to be. Access to the ocean is the law of our land, yet more and more public shorelines are being privatized...

To read the entire column, please go to:

http://starbulletin.com/2008/03/26/editorial/oi.html