|

Hawaii’s Largest Parking Lot?

About a week ago, Hawaii’s governor, David Ige, announced that everyone arriving here by plane—whether local or visitor—would have to be quarantined for 14 days.

.

That effectively shut down the tourist industry, of course. Hawaiian Airlines cancelled most of its flights, and several of the hotels just closed down altogether. 

.

The rental car companies had an entirely new problem: what to do with the 19,000 cars that would normally be rented to visitors and dispersed among hotel and condominium parking garages?

.

Some vacant land adjacent to the Maui airport—formerly used for growing pineapple—has become a huge parking lot. This photo was run yesterday in The Maui News and the accompanying article says there are some 19,000 cars in this one photo.

And we wonder why there is congestion on our roads in “normal” times!

.

By the way, as of this morning, there are a total of twelve states with either no or very limited restrictions with respect to gatherings in restaurants or bars and other public locations. Every one of those states is run by a Republican governor. Words fail me.

5 Comments

  1. Jim, you have every right to post anything since this is your website. However, I must agree with the fellow comment that this is not as black and white as it seems to be. There are countless other statistics that can put blame on either side of the aisle, but there are even more that suggest this is not a political issue. This is a horrific time period in history and many, like myself, are terrified. I truly believe the vast majority of our leaders are making every decision based on what is in the best for EVERYONE, regardless of political affiliation.

    1. First of all, I really appreciate your email. And I totally agree about the gravity of our situation . . . “our” meaning every living soul on the planet. In retrospect, and with the proverbial 20-20 hindsight, I may well have let my dismay at the actions of the president taint my reaction to hearing that all those Republican governors had perhaps taken their cue from President Trump and were taking this nightmare less seriously than the rest of the governors. My problem is that a news bulletin will appear in my in-box just as I’m ready to post something, and I vent in a couple of sentences, tack them onto the post and send the whole thing on its merry electronic way. I have to watch that. And for the record, I do very much agree with your last sentence.

  2. Why Politics Jim? By the way, Coronavirus central in the USA is New York City, run by Democrats. Nancy Pelosi tried to cover up the stimulus bill with political items NOT RELATED to the Coronavirus, how American……..

    1. I just thought it was noteworthy that the only governors ignoring the advice of medical professionals are Republicans.

      1. Now, while it’s true that some Republican governors have been ignoring the medical advice of professionals, including those in the Federal Government, some Republican governors are doing the right thing, and have done so earlier than some Democrat governors have. Even Cuomo should have intervened far sooner to mitigate the current crisis in NY, but he didn’t. And I understand, nobody will remember the people who didn’t got sick in a couple of months time, but the experts have been advocating long before most politicians, including Democrats, were ready to intervene.
        Now, it’s a shame that there are still some Republican governors holding out, or are just now coming around, but it’s not as black and white as you make it out to be. And it’s quite the same here in Europe, by the way, yes, left-leaning governments were generally quicker to respond, but Italy, Spain… were still far too late to the party, and the leftist Swedish government is still dragging its feet. I sincerely hope it doesn’t come back to bite them..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.