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I recently visited Hawaii from NYC and I fell in love!.. with the kind people, slow pace of life and beautiful almost dream like scenery. I am strongly considering on moving there to raise my daughter. I recently read that Hawaii is one of the safest states. Where I live, it is horrible( and I do not live in the ghetto)! I am afraid for my daughter to grow up here. Everyone is oding, and killing everyone!
I am a single mother and I want the best for my daughter, any suggestions on areas with the best schools? (in Oahu)
I also don't get why people say Hawaii is so expensive, NYC is definitely more expensive, I wonder who is writing these statistics?
We moved from Manhattan and the prices for food, gas, housing are certainly comparable. Similar when coming from the SF/ Bay area.
What's not on par is the possibility to earn sufficient money, the ability to walk everywhere, and the lack of public transportation outside of Honolulu.
There are few good schools comparable to NYC offerings. And most of them are private or on elementary level. There's less crime, but if it happens the law response is rather lackluster. Certainly fewer guns. Social life is harder to find, for kids as well for adults unless it is with other recent arrivals of the same social class and ethnicity.
We moved from Manhattan and the prices for food, gas, housing are certainly comparable. Similar when coming from the SF/ Bay area.
What's not on par is the possibility to earn sufficient money, the ability to walk everywhere, and the lack of public transportation outside of Honolulu.
There are few good schools comparable to NYC offerings. And most of them are private or on elementary level. There's less crime, but if it happens the law response is rather lackluster. Certainly fewer guns. Social life is harder to find, for kids as well for adults unless it is with other recent arrivals of the same social class and ethnicity.
Well that was hilarious. Honolulu housing prices are nowhere near housing prices in Manhattan and San Francisco. Rents in SF are easily 50% to 100% more than rents in Honolulu for a similar home in similar proximity to the city center.
Agreed that incomes here don't support the high cost of housing... but that's been a long-time historical norm for Honolulu. If incomes were more inline with housing costs, the island would be A LOT more crowded. It's important to note that those same income disparities exist in most other populated metros in the nation, particularly those that have strong tourism. This is definitely the case in SF and Manhattan; the income disparity there (income vs housing) is MUCH worse than it is here in Honolulu.
Success in social life between the three cities (SF, Manhattan, Honolulu) will be based on one's attitude and the particular lifestyle and social groups one wants to be a part of. Also will depend on one's ability to assimilate into local culture which will vary from city to city and neighborhood to neighborhood within the respective city. Social life may have been harder to find based on your personal experience (and others you know). But I personally know many that will disagree. When it comes to social life, I can't imagine one city having the edge over another. In other words, YMMV.
Why does every answer here has to turn into a pissing contest?! Meaningless overall stats never compare to lived experience. If the OP will describe in more details what her individual desires are we can address them.
Yeah, and increasing one's social life it's just a question of how much one is willing to downscale.
Why does every answer here has to turn into a pissing contest?! Meaningless overall stats never compare to lived experience. If the OP will describe in more details what her individual desires are we can address them.
Yeah, and increasing one's social life it's just a question of how much one is willing to downscale.
I am simply responding to what is clearly bad information. To say SF and Manhattan have similar housing costs to Honolulu is dead wrong regardless of "lived experience". I am correcting you so that information on CDF can be more accurate to its readers.
And no idea what you're getting at regarding increasing social life by needing to "downscale". Perhaps you can elaborate? I would agree that finding social circles could be a lot more challenging on the outer islands... I just don't see it as a real notable issue here in Honolulu.
To the OP - The best schools are going to be in East Honolulu (from Kahala to Hawaii Kai), Manoa, Nuuanu and Mililani.
I don't see that the OP is really asking for advice on social life.
Based on the research we have done ahead of our move, the best public schools, that are in a somewhat reasonably affordable area to live are in Mililani. Pearl City seems to have some schools that rate pretty high as well. I have never really looked around in Pearl City, so I'm not sure what the housing situation is there. We have some friends that live in Manoa who have kids in public school, and they say that they like it. The issue there is that Manoa is not affordable at all. If money were no object, I would be taking a really close look at the area around Kailua and the East Honolulu areas mentioned above. Unfortunately, we do not have unlimited resources, so it's what the leeward side has to offer that we will work with.
Well - traffic aside (which is awful just to get around the area), to each his/her own - but it a fairly ugly town. Made even uglier with all the rail pillars.
Its a poorer area of town and the houses reflect it - dusty, old, in need of serious rehab. If you mange to live a bit up the hill - the view is industrial. The flagship eating place is Buffalo Wild Wings.
Well - traffic aside (which is awful just to get around the area), to each his/her own - but it a fairly ugly town. Made even uglier with all the rail pillars.
Its a poorer area of town and the houses reflect it - dusty, old, in need of serious rehab. If you mange to live a bit up the hill - the view is industrial. The flagship eating place is Buffalo Wild Wings.
Based on pics from online listings, I can see what you mean. Lots of outdated looking, block construction homes. It seems that they are still able to demand a decent chunk of change for these places.
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