Archive for the 'Fun & Living' Category
Honolulu: Best Place in the U.S. to Raise Your Family!
May 22nd, 2008 categories: Fun & Living, Views of Honolulu
Wow! Honolulu was just selected by Best Life Magazine as the best place in the United States to raise a family. Even with the high cost of living, I have always believed this to be true. I have a 14 year old daughter and a 10 year old son, I find a sense of safety that cannot be found in the mainland. It is very rare to hear of an abducted child, in fact, the last missing child I can remember occurred in the late 1990’s. We have no missing children printed on our milk cartons. Safety is one thing, but there is so much for children to do. In fact, sometimes I find my kids too busy. Still, luck we live Hawaii. Here is part of what Best Life said.
“Television executives seized the idea long ago: American families value where they plant their roots. The Cosbys had Brooklyn. The Cunninghams, Milwaukee. The Simpsons, Springfield. But fathers face reality when they’re not in prime time. They want to raise their children somewhere safe, where they can attend good schools with favorable student-teacher ratios, above-average test scores, and respectable budgets. Plenty of museums, parks, and pediatricians also contribute to a good quality of life, whereas multihour commutes, expensive houses, and divorcing friends and neighbors do not.”
Click here to read the entire Best Life article.
The picture above is an example of one of the great things about living on Oahu. This picture was taken from the Lanikai Pillbox hiking trail this past Sunday. Our island has many really great hikes, just minutes from most homes and condominiums.
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“Downtown” Honolulu Sizzles
May 8th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living
Congratulations to Chef Ed Kinney for making the Conde Nast Traveler Hot List! He was the only Hawaii restaurant to make this year’s list. It is the second time he has been on the list. The first award came for his Kaimuki shop aptly named “Town”. Lucky for me, “Town” is a half block from my office and has terrific lunches (my waste line can attest to this). Check out the recent article on “Downtown” in the Honolulu Star Bulletin.
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Honolulu’s Hidden Jewel (Kapiolani Med. Center for Women & Children)
April 28th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living, Rants & Riffs
At the beginning of April, I joined the board of the Kapiolani Health Foundation. This is the fundraising arm of the Kapiolani Medical Center. The purpose of this blog is to inform, as well as ask you to make a donation to help sustain this valuable community asset (click here to make an online gift). Many of us take it for granted that Honolulu has a women’s and children’s hospital. However, to put this in perspective, every other women’s and children’s hospital in the United States serves a population of between 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 people. Hawaii has a population of approximately 1,100,000. Why is this important?
Without Kapiolani’s expertise many patients would be facing trips off island to receive high quality care. In emergencies, it takes a minimum of 24 hours to arrange an air ambulance (with an accompanying Dr. and/or nurse too) and, realistically, a patient can wait 36 to 48 hours before being transported to the mainland. These many hours can mean the difference between life and death. If the wait for the flight doesn’t kill the patient, then the cost may cause financial trauma to the family, as this type of flight can cost more than $60,000. On top of this, a child would be facing treatment in the mainland, far, far away from family comforts.
Due to Kapiolani’s specialization in women and children, it is the hospital of last resort for babies born at Honolulu’s other hospitals. In other words, when there are childbirth issues that other local hospitals cannot handle, they are transported to Kapiolani. When a mother or child needs extraordinary care anywhere in the pacific islands (Guam, Samoa, Christmas Island, Micronesia, etc.) Kapiolani is the hospital everyone attempts to get to for that care.
Here are Kapiolani’s annual numbers
- 6,000+ babies are born at Kapiolani.
- Of this 6,000+, 15% are treated in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Intermediate Nursery for critical care.
- Over 300 children are treated at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
- Over 27,000 adults and children are seen in Emergency Room.
- 62,000 inpatient and outpatient children plus an additional 79,000+ adult patients.
- 653 children are treated in the Pediatric Ambulatory Unit (PAU) for Blood and Cancer treatment.
- 464 life saving air transport is provided for seriously ill newborns and children to/from neighbor islands and the mainland.
- Kapiolani spends $2.2 million each year on uncompensated care.
- 29% of all Medicaid/Quest patients in Hawaii are seen at Kapiolani.
- 5% of all patients arrive with no insurance at all.
The numbers are important, but, to me, when a child or baby can be saved, when they otherwise may have been lost, no money or number can compensate for this outcome. If you want to help or get involved, call me on my cellular phone at 808-398-3220. Or just click here to be taken to a page where you can make a donation on line. Thank you in advance for caring and your generosity.
Note-the Firefox web browser does not work at the Kapiolani donation web site. So if your using a Macintosh computer be sure to go to the site using your Safari web browser.
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Honolulu Grows with General Growth’s Master Plan For Ward!
April 23rd, 2008 categories: Fun & Living
General Growth Management (the owner of Ala Moana Shopping Center and most of the land in the Ward area) offered more clarity on its 20 year master plan for Ward Center area. It includes nine residential high rise condos (4300 units), retail (as much as 7,00,00 square feet) and entertainment businesses. This bodes well for the future of an area that has been a mish mash of low rise retail and ware house space. With the right plan it should compliment improvements which have already been made. I watch with an optimistic bent for a great outcome.
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High Speed Internet Penetrates Honolulu!
April 17th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living
Who would have guessed? Read the entire Honolulu Advertiser Article.
“Honolulu is tied with the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area for having the sixth-highest percentage of households in the nation with high-speed Internet connections, the report by Scarborough Research shows.”
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Stryker Brigade Made Permanent!
April 16th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living, Rants & Riffs
The military plays a huge role in Honolulu’s economy and, therefore, demand in real estate. The recent announcement that the Brigade’s home base of Schofield Barracks has been made permanent is good news! See the articles in the Honolulu Star Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser.
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Ward Area Making Bid to become Center of Honolulu
April 16th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living
Review article on General Growths plan.
“As part of the overall 20-year master plan, most, if not all, of the existing buildings in the Ward neighborhood would be replaced to make way for the new vision.
A grand, central plaza two and a half football fields long will connect Queen Street to Kewalo Basin in the first phase.”
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Surf at Diamond Head
April 15th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living, Views of Honolulu
If you like surfing, here is what you’re missing at Diamond Head.
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Honolulu Real Estate & Hospitals
April 10th, 2008 categories: Buying Honolulu Real Estate, Fun & Living
Almost all of the major medical care available in Hawaii is located in the core of Honolulu. Not only is there a great deal available in Honolulu’s center, but I am told that we have very good health care (thankfully, I haven’t had to personally discover how good it is).
If you need significant health care in Hawaii, you will probably come to Honolulu for that care. What does this mean to Honolulu real estate?
Well, we have all heard about the legendary buying power Read the rest of this entry »
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Book’em Danno!
April 7th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living
Hawaii Five-O did a great deal for familiarizing the world with Hawaii. We owe a debt to Jack Lord, who played Steve McGarret, who knows maybe he’s the reason Honolulu real estate values took off! Here’s a recent article on the sale of his leasehold apartment on the beach in Kahala.
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