Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 6, 1 June 2001 — LEKA Kālele KWO FOCUS LETTER [ARTICLE]

LEKA Kālele KWO FOCUS LETTER

Down in the valley

The long battle for the return of sanctity to the operation of Waimea Falls Park sank to a new low April 20 when New York real estate developer and adventure park owner Christian Wolffer's Attraction Hawai'i Management Company filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy code after years of mismanaged operation and a misdirected operating philosophy. This legal action occurred not in Hawai'i - the home of the park"s employees, facility, creditors and cultural heritage - but in New York, where Wolffer's legal action will presumably be negotiated in front of a judge familiar with the nuts and bolts of day-to-day real estale transactions, but completely unaware of the multi-layered problems at the sacred valley of Waimea. home to gencrations of Hawaiian high priests and containing a virtual treasure trove of documented historical, cullural sites as well as being the home of the internationally acclaimed world-class botanical garden. All eonlinue to fall into ruin due to the current man-

agement's hell-bent desire to turn what was onee 0'ahu's premiere visitor attraction into an "adventure theme park" with "thrill rides." With the fate of Waimea hanging in the halanee as the City and County moves forward with its eondemnation procedure, perhaps it is worth noting here that the entire Waimea Valley debacle is but the latest example of what insensitive absentee ownership and management of Hawai'i's real treasures has produced. Perhaps it is time for the great Hawai'i-based foundations and trusts with their cultural and historic roots to begin to buy back some of the.se treasures - be they hotels, scenic coastlines, or sacred valleys - before il is too late to save them. In reality, Hawai'i is already home to perhaps the greatest "theme park" in the world. That theme is "Hawai'i," and it is being sold off pieeemeal to the highest bidder like so many rundown amusement park rides. Ralph A. Bard III Stewards of Waimea