Naval war games; housing squeezed by military


The Advertiser reports on RimPac:

Navies from 15 nations are converging on Hawai'i for war games that are part of the biggest naval exercise in the Pacific.

More than 40 ships, seven submarines, 100 aircraft and almost 18,000 sailors, airmen, Marines, soldiers and Coast Guard personnel are participating in Rim of the Pacific 2004, which gets under way Tuesday and runs through July 27.

The big exercise, staged every other year, will include the sinking of decommissioned ships, cat-and-mouse games between stealthy diesel submarines and ships and planes that hunt them, aircraft carrier flight operations, Marines storming the beach at Bellows...

The article talks about all the economic benefits to Hawaii businesses serving all these naval personnel, but ironically in the same paper there's two articles, one story about how tight the housing rental market is, saying " a tighter supply has led to higher prices," that "The rental market could become even tighter when military housing renovation projects start and military families must find alternative housing in the meantime." While another story talks about military arrivals hunting for housing: "O'ahu's tight housing market has become particularly frustrating for military families — especially new arrivals trying to compete with civilians for rental homes, which are in particularly high demand."

In other words, the military occupation of Hawaii, often justified in terms of the economic benefit it brings, is actually driving up rental housing prices for local residents. This is a major contributor to the high cost of living, which is one main factor in the diaspora of Kanaka Maoli away from their homeland to places like Las Vegas where they can afford to raise their families. But while the article on the Navy war games focuses on the purported economic benefits, the housing articles don't make the connection regarding the negative economic impact of the military presence.


Posted: Sun - June 27, 2004 at 07:16 AM    
   
 
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Published On: Dec 27, 2005 10:16 PM
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