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If you want a locals view of Hawaii, head to Nanakuli or Makaha.
Go door to door and explain to the people you meet that your there new neighbor.
hopefully your medical insurence is paid up!
when i visited i went to makaha. the people were so nice, and friendly. no, i didn't go door to door. but they treated me nicely because i was nice first. i actually thought that makaha was a neat little town.
Thanks for the input all, so far I've done a few of the things mentioned and I've been chatting up a few of the locals to find out how they spend their time, what they do, etc...
Its interesting, my in person interactions have been similar to some of the replies I've gotten here: some of the people are very negative and unhappy while on the other hand, some others are so completely welcoming and actually enjoy living here.
My in person interactions have been similar to some of the replies I've gotten here: some of the people are very negative and unhappy while on the other hand, some others are so completely welcoming and actually enjoy living here.
Funny - that's what I remember from my first time in Hawaii, a bit over fifty years ago. I was here in the Military, and I remember concluding that about half my friends just loved it, and the other half just hated it. Darn few were lukewarm.
is that what you do as a local twood. Knock on people's doors on the leeward side and announce your presence? Seriously way to help this person out. Why do all of these threads have to be so negative? There are hard neighborhoods everywhere, so always pointing out oahu's isn't going to scare anyone.
Straight up... Racism is negative.
If pointing it out saves one Haole famly from waisting his/her money on making a un educated move to Hawaii... then its worth it.
On the other hand, if they know what to expect and still come... then they cant complain.
Funny - that's what I remember from my first time in Hawaii, a bit over fifty years ago. I was here in the Military, and I remember concluding that about half my friends just loved it, and the other half just hated it. Darn few were lukewarm.
Hank
Hank, I'd have to agree with you.
About 50/50 love it or hate it.
My advice to anyone contimplating a move.
Go rent a condo with a lease not longer than 6 months.
Dont stick to tourist areas during those 6 months.
Go to garage sales, join local clubs, attend church.
Whatever you do, DO NOT PUT YOUR WHITE KIDS IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL.
What I did was I went to craigslist, and looked for a temporary roommate situation. I moved into an apartment that was on Nuuanu Avenue. I used a rental car for about two weeks, and I spent two weeks on foot/bus going everywhere.
Through this, I was able to live with people who lived in Honolulu - invaluable! Additionally, the rental car allowed me to travel pretty much every street and road throughout Honolulu and most of Oahu. Then when I went by bus, I was WITH locals all the time....I also hit the Library often, as well as everywhere else I go. ALSO, I try to go to as many Targets and Wal-Marts and Malls and whatever else, especially when I had the rental car. You can see exactly the kind of people who actually LIVE there and overhear the conversations and everything else. You get a good feel for areas that way.
Hi Original Poster! If you want to know what living in Hawaii is really like, here are some suggestions:
1) Picture yourself as a medium-end service employee in Hawaii
2) Imagine moving out of "paradise" to live in some crappy part of the mainland.
3) Convince yourself that this latter geographic area is true paradise... no, no... mecca itself!
4) Troll on the "Hawaii" forum and convince those who surf this forum that every person living in Hawaii (yes, all >1 million of them) is completely miserable and poor.
5) Write on your current geographic area's forum just how GREAT it is to live in your present locale. And remark on how this awesome area somehow escaped being noticed by most people in America; thus explaining their dirt-cheap cost of living.
Now you know what it is to live in Hawaii!
Clearly written by an outsider or local jerk who has zero experience of what a family from the mainland would experience if they moved to Hawaii.
There's some good discussion going on in here and I appreciate it.
As far as racism and poor areas go, I understand its here on Oahu and that's fine. I live in DC and can walk a few blocks in the wrong direction and wind up in some very, very rough areas where a white person stands out like a sore thumb and muggings, robberies, and worse are not uncommon. I can walk the 5 minutes to the nearest Metro (subway) stop and pass multiple homeless. I say these things not to sound smug or to discredit or cheapen Hawaii's issues but to iterate that I am savvy enough to avoid the areas that are not safe for me and to show respect and keep a low profile if I happen to find myself there for whatever reason.
Everywhere I've gone, I've tried talking to the people who live here. They have been overwhelmingly helpful and most of them have been excited that I am considering moving here. This has ranged from haoles who have been here a couple of months to haoles who have been here for years to Hawaiians who were born and raised here. They've given me good advice on what to see and do but more importantly on how life is here and how they spend their time. Most have been happy and loved it here, some have not. I find a lot of that is related to their financial position, which is understandable.
I have one question and this is where racism would be more of a concern to me and I am not so sure in this case its even rascism so much as localism or protectivism. Is it difficult to make friends here? I have never had issues making friends or building a great social life but it seems to me that most of the people my age here on Oahu, whether they are Hawaiian or a resident of another race, are in a deeply entrenched social circle (not necessarily based on race but some sort of commonality) that is very leery of outsiders. So (and this is mostly for the transplants) did you find it difficult to make friends when you were new to the island? And like I said, it seems like most of these social circles are deeply entrenched and as far as I can tell, this is around some sort of common theme. So for someone in my shoes (young professional, educated/recently out of college) where might I look to start making some friends who are at similar places in their lives?
Again, thanks to everyone. I'm having a great time getting to know this island.
There's some good discussion going on in here and I appreciate it.
As far as racism and poor areas go, I understand its here on Oahu and that's fine. I live in DC and can walk a few blocks in the wrong direction and wind up in some very, very rough areas where a white person stands out like a sore thumb and muggings, robberies, and worse are not uncommon. I can walk the 5 minutes to the nearest Metro (subway) stop and pass multiple homeless. I say these things not to sound smug or to discredit or cheapen Hawaii's issues but to iterate that I am savvy enough to avoid the areas that are not safe for me and to show respect and keep a low profile if I happen to find myself there for whatever reason.
Everywhere I've gone, I've tried talking to the people who live here. They have been overwhelmingly helpful and most of them have been excited that I am considering moving here. This has ranged from haoles who have been here a couple of months to haoles who have been here for years to Hawaiians who were born and raised here. They've given me good advice on what to see and do but more importantly on how life is here and how they spend their time. Most have been happy and loved it here, some have not. I find a lot of that is related to their financial position, which is understandable.
I have one question and this is where racism would be more of a concern to me and I am not so sure in this case its even rascism so much as localism or protectivism. Is it difficult to make friends here? I have never had issues making friends or building a great social life but it seems to me that most of the people my age here on Oahu, whether they are Hawaiian or a resident of another race, are in a deeply entrenched social circle (not necessarily based on race but some sort of commonality) that is very leery of outsiders. So (and this is mostly for the transplants) did you find it difficult to make friends when you were new to the island? And like I said, it seems like most of these social circles are deeply entrenched and as far as I can tell, this is around some sort of common theme. So for someone in my shoes (young professional, educated/recently out of college) where might I look to start making some friends who are at similar places in their lives?
Again, thanks to everyone. I'm having a great time getting to know this island.
There is no place on the island that felt as sketchy to me as the bad parts of DC... not even close. 99% of the time out there if I was conscience of my surroundings and minded my own business, I had zero problems. If you want to read about the few issues that I did have, I have posted extensively about it on the forum. The key, in my opinion, is to try and diffuse the situations rather than escalate them. As you pointed out, most people's frustrations with the place come from financial circumstances. It is sad how much the middle-class has disappeared there, and it seems to be getting worse each year. I absolutely loved it there until I had a few bad incidents with locals/HPD, considered the thought of $400k condo's, $700k single family homes, $10k/yr private schooling for my children, low wages, and that God-awful traffic. But as long as you are single, want to rent, and stay "humble" you should have an awesome time and experience a really interesting culture.
You are right that there are social circles that people are entrenched in... most of it depends on your family, where you went to high school, or where you work. The island very much has a "small town" vibe in that regard. My wife and I could hardly go anywhere in town without running into someone we knew (mostly her cousins or someone she went to HS with). Most kama'aina have large extended families in the area and spend a lot of time at family functions. But if you are outgoing I don't think you will have a hard time finding friends. There are 100's of people in their 20's that move there every month and are in the same boat as you will be. I made friends initially through my job in Waikiki, then later when I went to school at UH, I made more friends through classes and campus events. I also met some lifelong friends (that I still talk to today) by starting a conversation while out surfing or jumping into a pickup basketball game at wilson park. If that doesn't work, there are meet-up groups that you can find online where people in your same situation get together and do social activities whether it be hikes, bike trips, beach trips, or dinners. Getting in with a local family is just a crap shoot, I was lucky and one of my surfing buddies mother basically made me her hanai son since I had no family of my own out there. I still talk to her to this day even though I left the islands a year ago.
If you venture out into the rest of the island (away from UH, Waikiki, Hawaii Kai, and Kailua) you may have some bad experiences but most will be good ones and you will be better off for it. UH and the areas with a lot of transplants can be "Ivory Towers" in the sense that the people with money have tried to isolate themselves from the problems of the island, so I suggest getting a job away from campus and meeting some of the people that call the place home in the long term. I suspect you will have a great time out there. The culture, as a whole, is very warm and welcoming... it reminds me a lot of smaller cities in the south where people take pride in how they treat others and where they are from. Good luck! You have done your homework, know the pros and cons, and are coming with a plan. It sounds like you have the right kind of attitude to make it a great experience.
Last edited by UHgrad; 09-27-2010 at 06:52 AM..
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