Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 3, 1 March 2005 — Activist community mourns Rothsteins [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Activist community mourns Rothsteins

(J~7 /~>awai'i's land-rights activ-1-1 ism community has been vAnourning the sudden loss

of Kona activist Jerry Rothstein and his wife Judith, who were killed in a car aeeident on Jan. 23. Rothstein was a tireless watchdog for environmental and Native Hawaiian concerns, and a constant critic of development. Since his arrival in Hawai'i from

New York in 1970, he organized numerous protests against shoreline development, fighting to ensure that puhlie access to beaches was preserved. Rothstein's most notable legal achievement eame from a lawsuit in whieh the organization he founded, Puhlie Access Shoreline Hawai'i (PASH), challenged a $350-million, 450-acre, coastal resort development in Kohanaiki in North Kona. The state Supreme Court's 1995 decision in the case, whieh reaffirmed Hawaiian cultural and gathering rights, is considered

a major legal victory for Native Hawaiians. More recently, Rothstein

I monitored shoreline certifications across the state, and was heavily involved in trying to ensure that rent was paid to the state by the owners of the Hilton Waikōloa Village. Just over an acre of the heaeh resort sits on state land, whieh has been valued by an indenendent annraiser

at $2.7 million. The Rothsteins were killed when their station wagon crossed over the center line on Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, five miles south of the Waikōloa Beach Resort, and collided with a sedan, the two passengers of whieh also died. Jerry was 68; Judy, 67. Lastmonth, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Board of Trustees passed a resolution honoring Rothstein's life and his contributions to Native Hawaiians and Hawai'i's environment. -i

CJn JKemoriam

Jerry and Judy Rothstein