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Summary & Transcript
Alana Kay Interview on Maui Issues (Timestamped)
- [00:00 → 03:54] Introduction and Background
- Jason Schwartz introduces the show “The Neutral Zone Maui,” featuring guest Alana Kay, a mayoral candidate for Maui.
- Alana shares her political history: ran for council in 2012, mayor in 2014, and was involved in Don Guzman’s 2018 campaign.
- She discusses activist burnout but emphasizes her continued passion for Maui and its future.
- Key Insight: Alana’s main passion is Maui’s wellbeing, appreciating its natural beauty, people, and environment.
- She stresses the importance of thinking island-wide and systemically, noting current community plans and projections fail to address fundamental issues like overcrowding and sustainability.
- Alana emphasizes that to be truly effective in enacting change, one must hold a political seat or be closely involved with decision-makers.
- [03:54 → 08:02] Vision of Unity and Systems Thinking
- Alana aims to unite government, industry, and community to work collaboratively beyond divisive politics.
- She introduces the concept of systems thinking—a holistic approach to managing resources and community, inspired by the traditional Hawaiian ahupua’a system (a sustainable land and resource management method).
- The ahupua’a system emphasized shared responsibility and interconnectedness between people, land, and resources.
- Alana highlights that Maui’s current population is about 200,000, far less than the estimated pre-contact Hawaiian population of a million, underscoring the need to relearn indigenous wisdom for sustainability.
- She expresses urgency about Maui being at a tipping point environmentally, socially, and economically.
- [08:02 → 16:58] Challenges and Economic Diversification
- The discussion turns to Maui’s tourism-based economy causing systemic problems like unaffordable housing and high cost of living.
- Alana stresses that building more housing or providing money are band-aid solutions, as tourism inflates prices and skews the local economy.
- She proposes exploring local trade credit systems to help offset costs for locals on essentials like housing and food.
- Agriculture is identified as Maui’s greatest strength, in contrast to tourism as its greatest weakness.
- She praises efforts like Mā‘ili Pono’s million-tree planting and the growth of over 1,100 small farms in Maui’s central valley.
- Alana envisions steering Maui’s economy toward agriculture, local produce, eco-tourism, and the arts, which naturally thrive on the island.
- The conversation touches on the need for managed tourism focused on quality over quantity, including measuring tourism impact by dollars per visitor rather than headcount.
- Alana criticizes the inflated housing and rental market driven by outside buyers and investor speculation, calling it the “g factor” (greed).
- She advocates for higher taxes on non-resident property owners to discourage speculative buying.
- [16:58 → 25:54] Civic Engagement, Youth Involvement, and Education
- Alana stresses the importance of community involvement and voting knowledgeably.
- She created a booklet titled “My Vision for Maui”, available online and in print, encouraging public education on county budgets and environmental issues.
- She laments the lack of youth engagement in politics and sustainability programs, noting students fear a lack of local job opportunities after graduation.
- Alana highlights the general lack of island-specific knowledge among government officials, especially regarding hydrology and sustainability—issues that go beyond simple concerns like plastic bag bans.
- She proposes reviving education about Maui’s hydrological cycle, including the role of orographic rain and water recharge, to foster deeper community understanding.
- [25:54 → 33:22] Water Resource Management and Environmental Challenges
- Alana describes the critical state of the ‘Īao aquifer, a major water source, which has been neglected since the 1990s.
- She criticizes government agencies and leaders for not implementing integrated water resource management to protect and replenish aquifers.
- Construction projects, like the new civic center in Wailuku, are built over aquifers, further harming water recharge.
- Alana points out a lack of understanding in government regarding island hydrology, resulting in wasted funds and ineffective water management.
- She shares an example of energy generation using natural forces and gravity, implying a missed opportunity to harness sustainable technologies.
- The failed Energia project, which aimed to convert trash into power, is cited as another example of abandoned innovative solutions.
- She underscores the need for long-term visionary thinking in energy, water, and environmental policy, beyond short election cycles.
- [33:22 → 40:36] Government Reform and Homelessness
- Alana expresses concern that current leadership listens to “the same old voices” and lacks vision.
- She views the homelessness crisis as a major emergency needing immediate interim solutions, such as:
- Safe parking lots for those living in vehicles.
- Homeless shelters in key locations (e.g., Kihei).
- Improved intake and support systems for homeless individuals.
- She criticizes politicians for being detached from community realities and misunderstanding the makeup of homelessness, which includes many working people living in substandard housing.
- Alana shares her personal experience managing a failing apartment complex, turning it into a thriving community with creative, hands-on leadership.
- She emphasizes the need for government reorganization, better communication with departments, and more public involvement.
- Alana underlines her patience and persistence, having written eight books and actively engaged in community issues over decades.
- She challenges other candidates to show their actual achievements rather than credentials or tenure.
- [40:36 → 46:21] Political Realities and Voter Responsibility
- Jason highlights the difficulty of running for office, mentioning harsh public criticism.
- Alana encourages voters to research candidates thoroughly, not relying on name recognition or campaign spending.
- She warns that voting for familiar or well-funded candidates perpetuates political stagnation.
- The need for fresh, younger voices in government is emphasized, though older wisdom remains valuable.
- Alana advocates community involvement in small acts like highway cleanups as a way to rebuild civic responsibility.
- She argues that society has overly depended on government, leading to bloated budgets and chaotic outcomes.
- Alana calls for a return to collective responsibility (“kuleana”) and caring for the island and each other.
- [46:21 → 51:50] Visionary Idealism and Final Messages
- Alana identifies herself as an idealistic visionary, grounded in practical experience and deep love for Maui.
- She laments lack of action from leaders despite decades of warnings and ideas.
- Alana stresses the need for media and interviews to raise public awareness about candidates and issues.
- She invites people to visit her website and download her booklet “My Vision for Maui” to learn more.
- Alana encourages everyone to volunteer and participate in politics or community service.
- She expresses hope that her vision and efforts will bear fruit, even if after her lifetime.
- The interview closes with Jason praising Alana as a “breath of fresh air” and urging viewers to stay informed and involved.
Key Themes and Concepts
| Theme | Description |
|---|---|
| Systems Thinking | Holistic approach inspired by Hawaiian ahupua’a, integrating environment, economy, and community. |
| Tourism vs. Agriculture | Tourism economy inflates prices and harms locals; agriculture seen as Maui’s sustainable strength. |
| Water Resource Management | Protection and replenishment of aquifers through integrated planning, currently neglected. |
| Community Engagement | Voter education, youth involvement, collective responsibility (kuleana) needed for real change. |
| Government Reform | Need for transparency, coordination, and leadership with vision beyond election cycles. |
| Homelessness Crisis | Urgent need for practical interim housing solutions and better understanding of homeless demographics. |
| Local Economic Innovation | Ideas such as local trade credit and value-added agricultural products to support locals. |
Important Links and Resources Mentioned
| Resource | Description | URL |
|---|---|---|
| My Vision for Maui booklet | Alana’s vision document available as PDF and softcover. | alanakformayor.info (tab: my vision) |
| Mā‘ili Pono website | Agricultural organization with reforestation projects. | Not specified |
| Tutu’s Pantry (Kihei) | Store featuring local Maui value-added products. | Not specified |
Final Recommendations from Alana Kaye
- Educate yourself on Maui’s issues and candidates before voting.
- Participate actively in community service and local initiatives.
- Support diversified economic development focusing on agriculture and arts.
- Demand government accountability and long-term sustainable planning.
- Rebuild community spirit and shared responsibility to care for Maui’s future.
This summary captures Alana Kaye’s comprehensive vision and insights as a mayoral candidate focused on sustainability, community engagement, and systemic solutions for Maui’s pressing issues.
00:00
[Music] hey world aloha i’ve been sitting here and i wanted to give us a formal introduction i am jason schwartz your host and this is alana kay our guest we are on the neutral zone maui neutralzone.com you can find us on kaku radio but surely on akaku maui community i call it tv media and we live on youtube and up on the web but this 2022 election we were just already talking about it alana thank you and welcome to our show thank you so much for doing this jason well you know it’s a little odd because
00:51
i am a candidate for council which we all vote in all districts but you’re running yet again for mayor of maui you know you’ve run a couple of times before right i ran for council in 2012 for south maui then then mayor in 2014 i worked on don guzman’s campaign in 2018 and then yeah i want i needed to take a break you know activist burnout i’m always busy you know i have a magazine sustainable aloha which requires a lot of work and all the other stuff i do so sometimes you take a break
01:24
no but you know what when you say take a break um as our world is uh what do they say in ruins around the world right you said something that i thought in your opening statement that the kia community association thing i only listened to the beginning and said oh there’s only part of the candidates here but you said we have to start thinking like we’re an island that is such a big thing it’s like why are we doing these things and creating these projections that have nothing to do with hey they don’t have
01:59
enough room right your community plans don’t tie in with that concept you’ve been at this stuff a while what what’s your if i were to say what’s your main passion about running you know you have a a a chance to win but you have a passion for something that’s really my passion and i almost tear up when i say this it’s maui i love maui i’ve been here for 24 years and honestly every morning i wake up i have a renewed appreciation for this place for the energy the people the abundance
02:36
the the natural landscape the ocean the fresh air the starry sky is just absolutely everything and um i want to take care of her i call it her her my roommate calls it a heap um i want to take care of maui and i see some things that need to be addressed and i’ve studied them for many years i have researched and i have come up with some tentative solutions and i always say i don’t have all of the answers i just like to throw the things out there for discussion but i like to do my due diligence before i
03:13
express my viewpoint and then i always welcome other people to fill in you know with blind spots or what they may think but i really boiled it down i often think and i’ve been at this also a long time in interviewing candidates that are serving and that the only way to really be heard and have what you just said really get traction is if you sit in that seat or you’re an assistant to that seat i always say right you know i take my wisdom from the community along with me right exactly i’m just leading a charge
03:54
on a vision right it should be larger than the separateness that politics creates oh my god that was oh absolutely and i don’t know if that’s the right words to put it but no that’s i love it i i love the way you put that um and that’s the other thing i like about engaging with other people i like how everybody has a different way of putting it i see it as like facets on a gym and mine um yeah i want to unite everybody i want to unite industry government and the and the populists
04:29
and working together just as we said about the way the urban planning is and everything is all just disconnected and one thing i really i learned in sustainability classes at the college a term that’s used in sustainability very often is systems thinking which is basically how the ahupua system worked and they were very successful with that and very sustainable and their is a hawaiian section uh it’s a way they manage their real estate and community that’s what you’re talking about so we have viewers
05:08
from all over the world so that’s true yeah just giving them the the pre-contact hawaiians um before the monarchy they brought that they had a feudal system which meant that you didn’t own land but you shared all of the work and um it was all designed so that everything intricately worked together including the people and their roles yeah remember they talk about a million people and now we’re having a hard time with two hundred thousand right no matter how you do it we gotta go back
05:45
and grab the wisdom of old and stop exactly i’m getting goosebumps yes i know and the thing is that we’re an island and so we have to do it but we also are able to do it you can’t do it in like los angeles but we can do it and we’re we haven’t gotten too far yet we kind of are we’re but we’re at a tipping point i think and that’s what i want to get people to understand as i’m campaigning and right like you said unless you’re campaigning and unless you’re in the seat it’s hard
06:19
to be heard with these things and that’s one of the reasons i’m doing it is mainly because i want people i’ve actually noticed other candidates have picked up on some of my talking points already and that’s the main thing is i want to educate people because i really believe in the things that we need to do and you you know you you created a magazine and i’ve been doing these shows same vision the only way to to uh have this happen is people step up and they have to step up from
06:49
their heart you can’t you can’t uh you know force them into duty but the world is getting to a point where the tipping point is getting real clear maybe maybe uh some don’t see it but someone’s taking a baseball bat to our world yeah it’s it’s but spiritually i believe that this was the culmination of what i call the matrix anyway it was the disconnected world it wasn’t connected to spirit and we need to get back to like you mentioned the heart living with the heart and then when we
07:24
live with the heart we will live close to the land and we will live in harmony with that and with nature and with each other you know we’re speaking i want to call it new age speak that was in 1970 and 80 and 90 they said new age now the new kids the new kids they’re not only new age they’re like little rockets they’re looking at us as ancient history what do you mean you had a dial phone no answering machines what are you talking about every answer is at the tip of my hand we’re in a world uh now
08:02
it’s almost like us old people have to wake up and remember who we are and 40 years ago what we thought about what was going on in the world before we got i don’t want to say tricked it’s not even trick you know we these choices we make i’m sure that’s right we all have the choices right but the world is so pushing that money thing they’re solving i could solve problems too and this isn’t i want to give form here to you but there’s i’m sure we’re going to agree and
08:36
these ideas work together let me hear some of the things that you’d like to share do you think that there are areas you’d like to discuss and this is a great forum for it perfect yeah i like that painting on youtube um there’s three main things and everything else comes under the that umbrella they uh we got to get away from a tourist-based economy well let me backpedal just a little bit we have some problems like the housing um the cost of the cost of living and what i’ve done is i’ve used my
09:07
my wisdom and research and knowledge to come up with well what’s causing that you know like building more housing or giving people money are just band-aid solutions because that’s just kicking the can down the road we got to go to the cause of the problem and on maui one of the causes what we have here is that we have a tourist-based economy and anywhere on the planet where you have a tourist-based economy the locals and the workforce are challenged to survive in that economy because it skews everything you’re bringing in
09:46
outside money once again systems thinking if we had to rely on just ourselves nobody coming in nobody going out you know just the natural flow of life that we had to sustain our economy it would be entirely different but we’re bringing in money and people from other economies that function very differently and so that that throws off the housing prices and everything but i think when i hear you that i’m just breaking in for a second yeah no problem um i agree with that but when we have a
10:17
problem like now we are looking at a cause and some of these are systemic like you say be more thinking from the heart realize we’re taking in money from other places and we we’re skewing our balance but now that we’re here i mean most people listening wanna bite into solutions for example and then when i i sat with the hgea i called them i thought the hawaii i think pancakes is impossible really no oh no that’s a pink panther i put the pink panther i figured an interruption people wouldn’t mind
10:58
because it’s so fun when you hear just a couple of notes you know who it is name that too um but the uh the fact is they said to me we we the hawaii government employees association our people don’t make a living wage what are you gonna do about it now i don’t know what others most of these people that come in are not rocket scientists any of us can claim that we’re god and know all the answers but we know together we can work at it but i said and i thought it caught some interest
11:35
if there be in the financial system a local trade credit the most important things we have are housing and food what if we could create an add-on in the financial system for local people that would offset that as well as increase the supply now and re-route certain of these problems to other than an island as an island you know you talk about you know putting up the wall and no more people can come the wall is already up it’s called financial wall except it’s on it’s on the local people so that’s what i was
12:13
talking about it’s like a way we can make that burden for local people less okay so i have a my vision on that is um somewhat conjecture um i like to watch out for that like uh this sounds like a good idea people do that all the time uh yeah this is gonna work this is a good idea looks good on paper so i’ll admit that but i believe i believe very strongly in what i’m about to say um and i think it’s mostly because by talking to people in the community through the years there’s so many people when speaking
12:54
from the heart they agree with this is that maui strength our weakness is the tourism and our strength is agriculture um i don’t know if i need to go into it but for those around the world we have incredible copious amounts of sunshine and rain our central valley which has about 41 000 farmable acres in it has some challenges because of sugar cane and because of the wind and various things but uh mahi pona was doing the best they can to deal with those challenges they’ve built they’ve planted over a million
13:30
trees do you know that yeah i do and i know that the water issue you know that’s a whole separate right and that’s one of my things so there’s three things that feed into all of this and to me it’s kind of like the basic infrastructure the other things are like they’re all good ideas you know whether it’s a uh them what you mentioned for um make all of these more affordable but you’re right you’re talking about okay so let’s say let’s say we have a 10-year
14:01
plan because it takes a while to change things to kind of you know get things turned in the right direction we’re already started in the right direction because as i’ve been watching we have at least 1100 small farms that have become over the last couple decades very abundant and it took they put a lot of work into that we have more and more eco-tourism opportunities um farm tours that took a lot of work that’s already taking it’s already taken root it’s already growing and now we have all of
14:35
the things being planted in the central valley and i i i ask people to go to mahi pono’s website and see everything that they’ve done it’s hard to tell from the road um they’re selling their produce in the stores and it’s under the label maui harvest so we are on our way and most people agree that we want food security and that we not only could have food security for us but the exporters but as you can see it’s going to take a few more years yet i’m also noticing there’s
15:07
a place i took pictures that i’m going to put on my website a store called tutu’s pantry in kihei it’s in the rainbow mall it’s all value-added maui products chocolate honey coffee kukui nut products massage oils cooking oils everything soaps and um so my vision is to steer everything into agriculture and agricultural products and then the arts which you and i know very well the arts we have more um uh what do you call those whether people put their art stores what do they call those
15:48
galleries yeah our salaries per capita than any place on the planet because we attract maui’s energies naturally attracts artists and musicians and so on and focus on all of that whereas the the tourism associations um they usually focus on bringing in more tourists and then we had this international airport put in because the state wanted more money from maui and that’s a whole other subject but if we focus on that we can gradually steer the economy that way and then it’s not the tourist-based economy and i really feel
16:24
when it comes this is the one thing that’s come up a lot lately and you’ve probably heard this too manage tourism um so what is that once again i don’t have all the answers i can think of a few things but um that’s where we need to get working groups and task forces to flesh out all the different angles on it and discuss it maybe bring in some experts and see what other people have done and start to manage our tourism differently rather than just letting it be rather than dollars or number of bodies
16:58
a matter of dollars per square tourist dollars per square visitor and and they can improve the quality of the experience here it’s pretty high all right i mean when i hear no well can’t have your brother come in because you can’t find a room for less than 1300 at night what kind of crazy it’s not helping the local house prices to have it that high it’s nuts and here the rental rates go up 41 in a year you and i know that’s the g factor that’s not god that’s greed
17:34
and uh those it’s beyond my uncle and allowing people from outside you know in 2020 there was a rash of buyers even worse than ever that’s when the prices really jumped um from that don’t that that don’t consider this their um their main residence so um why is that being allowed i mean the taxes should be really high on people who don’t don’t live here that don’t file taxes in hawaii and that would help with that like you know there’s lots of ideas about what could be done to prevent that
18:09
kind of and this is a nice place to bring them up i think because if people will look at what we’re doing here with these interviews they may see real answers and also the realize that they have to be involved because you are only as effective as right really really that’s what i always encourage people to do is and i talk about that on my website and oh by the way i made a little booklet called my vision for maui and it’s on my website what’s your web address please alana k for mayor
18:46
dot info alana k for4 yeah premiere dot info and um there’s a tab on there my vision um and you can download a pdf of the book it can also be bought a soft cover on amazon for like four bucks um five dollars i think um so i do mention in there that we need to return the narrative i mean if you start talking about something you don’t always need a law and you can’t you can’t i always say you can’t um legislate morality or behavior yeah i always say if you don’t act from what is right
19:29
no one’s going to be able to move your your uh robert yeah know your rudder so i just thought you know let’s start the conversation i did an interview with um kavika hoke yeah rabbit holes and it’s interesting that you’re hearing these young kids get involved in i thought about him and i thought yeah what what is he where is he but i guess he’s got i’m glad to see there are people that are thinking i maybe want to interview candidates all these years look at me how many years i’ve been
20:03
doing this 26 years and nobody picks up the ball to interview right now during the primaries we should know who these people are that’s what i said in the kca forum i said really people study your candidates do your research on the issue so you know who to vote for yeah and that’s so critical if we just keep voting for somebody because their name is familiar what we’re getting sorry people who are in office um we’re getting um these lifetime politicians um and i feel like it’s the younger people
20:43
and the freshness not to i mean i mean we bring a lot of wisdom okay but i mean um if you’ve been in government for 20 30 years i think that’s a little too long and the average age is going up have you noticed that there’s been a young people i have not seen enough young people involved and i want to make an aggressive reach you know especially now with things are so important the fact that we have same day voting what a gift that is our gift to making yeah the young people don’t like to get
21:23
involved um and i kind of don’t blame them they were born into a world that’s pretty chaotic and confused but when i was at the college i would do anything i could to try to encourage people to develop their gifts want to be involved believe in their self i actually did a lot of legwork that took some time and some convincing to get the head of the sustainability program at the college together with the it’s got four names uh there’s a commission that don guzman used to be the head of
21:56
uh it’s like energy agriculture it’s and that’s two other things yeah environment it’s the uh it’s the nancy right now i think but anyway what they were doing was at the college kids weren’t wanting to sign up for the sustainability bachelor’s degree because they didn’t feel that there was a job for them when they graduated on maui and then as i’ve done all my interviewing for my magazine and research i find that almost nobody in our government understands island hydrology or sustainability
22:32
really it’s not just plastic bags and straws there’s a lot more to it um they just they have now established the department of agriculture right right and they’re looking for someone notice they’re not easily finding people even at great deals of money and someone that understands the system have they done i don’t know what they’ve done i always say what about the old hawaiian farmers i’ve heard so many success stories in hawaiiana in gardening i think i’d like to really
23:44
would feel myself i love getting out into the community and connecting the dots and talking to people and sharing um so i see myself as an ambassador to the community to bring people together and to get people talking about these things like we’re talking about them and that’s what kavika said too he says yes what’s needed is for us to talk about this stuff um i really want to do a lot of the idea that was sustainable aloha i would go to the schools and i’d teach kids about hydrology and things like that i wanted
24:17
to do more of it but it was hard to get it to take off hydrology meaning of liquid the way the water all the moisture flows uh the wetlands to the you know the way the clouds orographic rain and and how we’re creating heat islands with all of the building in kahului what it does is because we’re using the wrong building materials and we have all the traffic and the asphalt and everything what happens is it’s all absorbing the sun and it creates a ra it radiates the heat and then what happens is it affects our
24:55
orographic rain we make most of our rain because of the higher elevations lanai for instance doesn’t make its own rain they really struggle over there because they don’t have any higher elevations because what happens is though the moisture from the ocean goes up and then it turns into clouds and then precipitation and then it goes down down through uh you know then you’ve got your trees you’ve got everything full cycle wow i’m trying to go back to you as mayor i’m going back okay here you are right yeah
25:25
because i understand what you’re saying and these are things for us to go to but here in this emergency condition we know housing but water what i think that’s what people want to hear is really well food security i i want to talk about these things with the public and get them behind it i want to get people educated i would use my position to do that so i was trying to do that with sustainable aloha but once again like you said when you’re a smaller entity it’s kind of tough so i would do the
25:54
same thing i was trying to do with sustainable aloha get people to understand and get people to want to be involved in doing their kuleana i mean that’s what addressed me before that we all have a part in this you can’t just live here work here survive and just use the resources without understanding going back to the ahupua system where everybody had a role in society and taking care of the aina and we’ve gotten away from that where everybody’s just in the survival mode and not that like i said i can’t change
26:26
that i can’t force that change but if i start talking about it i’ve learned in life once you start talking about stuff that’s very effective so i like to believe you and i keep wondering we’re the only television station here i’ve been talking for 30 years and you talk about change i have interviewed me talking to the president of maui electric in 1995 about solar self-sustainability i was on the resource planning and the people that are in are disconnected you said it earlier the
27:01
this does not understand and coordinate there are some people and champions in our community that talk about it there’s the dick mayors and lucian and al perez and all these but the people they don’t work together either all the different groups are so clicky and i met i was really encouraging this young guy to get involved and i warned him and then he comes back to me a year later he says i’m tired of trying to do stuff here everybody’s so clicky and so that’s the thing is that the environmental
27:32
groups aren’t working together they’re not working with mahi pono mahi poi it’s not working with them the government isn’t working with the college it’s like nobody’s working together so i’d like to create that atmosphere um and then the other thing is that a mayor can present any legislation to the council so um they have the um the departments and they have the corp council at their disposal to write legislation and the next thing that would come out of that would be and you you’re going to get a
28:02
common answer from a few people like robin knox or lucy and danae we need to do integrated water resource management which recognizes the hydrologic cycle that’s a whole subject but it’s really super important because our eo aquifer has been in danger since the 1990s essentially nothing’s been done about it that is just a shock of all shocks because it was dangerous when i first come to the island they talk about the rising saline level i cannot believe how they play hot potato with these crazy issues amazing
28:38
they like to blame climate change and they also don’t understand i interviewed these people extensively david taylor and then the next guy i don’t know who’s in there now they do not understand island hydrology they think that the answer and there’s millions of dollars spent every year for things that are getting us nowhere um looking for new water sources they don’t understand that what we have to stop doing is damaging the source that we already have we’re damaging it we’re neglecting it
29:10
how could they not know that they know i don’t know and then when i say he they say oh this is what they say in our government offices and people need to be aware of this because you always think oh somebody’s handling it the state took over control of the eo aquifer and i and i’ve talked extensively with charlie ice who is one of the head honchos at the commission on water resource management on the state level and um so i know what has and has not been done all they did was get the county of maui
29:43
to stop they closed off two wells that were brackish in the like the navajo area for anybody that’s the four rivers the big rivers um but they haven’t done anything and on the replenishment side the replenishment side is where we protect the orographic rain cycle by making sure we don’t over build they haven’t done um they keep building that new civic center they’re putting in wailuku yeah is over the eo aquifer and once again you’re preventing when the rain is coming down it’s supposed to
30:24
seep in the ground and keep recharging the aquifer it’s already built over now you’re going to build more stuff over it they clearly don’t understand well it’s shocking it is shocking that they don’t understand this i’ll give you another one that i only heard of the other day and i a month ago and i felt wow did you know that the the weight of gravity on columns of certain size um putting certain crystals underneath can have enough weight and structure to power a whole building a multi-story building that
31:06
power can be generated from natural forces we as people haven’t used natural forms to solve the problems we’re looking for all these things when the problems are right here i know it’s it’s the g word again it’s the greed it’s because the people don’t want to give up what the money they’re making off of certain things and when you’re talking about energy and using natural things you know um i didn’t care too much for arakawa but he did a couple things that were
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really important as another one i want to bring back is he tried to get the county of maui to um well i guess you i’m not exactly sure what the procedure is but there’s this company called energia have you do you remember that i do it would have cost like 20 million dollars but how long can we keep throwing stuff in the landfill here what they do is they take all of the trash and they turn it into power now i have other spins on that and the way they were doing it and what happened maybe for
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another show but energia tried and they kept getting their contract extended because there are certain elements that weren’t being able to be completed and the public is screaming for answers and i think the big problem that i see in general is that we don’t have terribly many long-term thinkers right no one’s looking over the horizon when in 1990 we were talking about the 20-year energy future that here we are we’re way past that when i say solar no one thinks of me as solar no one we
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have to look over the horizon now right even we’re not going to be here in 30 years or whatever but i would like to see what our mayor you know whoever be the mayor with maybe it’s you is going to deal with an agriculture department and this is such a large force now coming on in the council to have a major committee for environment and you can things like they’re doing and now agriculture we’re creating another the new mayor has to be prepared i’m afraid from what i’ve seen
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i don’t really know richard bisson maybe you do a little bit i’ve been in forums with them in meet and greets but i’m concerned that mike victorino is listening to the same old voices of course because because i consider for example this an emergency if i have a 270 that’s someone at the county this is an emergency and people aren’t using emergency funds to handle emergencies when i hear them say oh we don’t have enough money for those 23 metal boxes that are additional housing
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solution 23 boxes you don’t have enough money for that you know if they can house thousands of refugees why can’t we put up tents in the trains and create a safe place because these parking lots we need a lot of that stuff so as mayor i’m putting words in your mouth that’s what i need yeah okay you don’t have the word balls doesn’t go with you but right no no no no i’ve been i’ve been described as having balls i have been so don’t worry about it uh someone who isn’t afraid to take an
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aggressive this whole time posed a special challenge yeah like victorino i think in my opinion is such a tough issue to solve everybody’s problems he kept us safe we’re out the other end but i don’t see the vision piece i watch right now you brought up the the homelessness okay so when i when i talk about a 10-year plan to diversify our economy what i’m i can see that we would need to do some interim things to help people on an emergency basis so we have the homeless crisis we have
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all these people they need safe parking lots they need a homeless shelter down in key hey they need i always say they need better intake i was involved i was going to a lot of meetings that kelly king was having a couple years ago they were talking they were working with holly akaola because they had some funds that could be used but this is what i run into and i’ve said this at all the forums so often when these politicians i feel like they’re so distanced from it when you’re out in the community you
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understand it differently that they think that the homeless issue is people who are mentally ill or substance abusers and they don’t understand that’s not even the half of it that’s just a very small visible homeless if you’re down in kihei there are people up and down the streets every street of kihei sleeping in cars and parking lots if they can and these are working people i see pickup trucks all over with tools in the back mattress technically according to the federal government if there’s more than one
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unrelated family living in a home that’s homeless because it’s substandard housing we have i mean probably i don’t know i’d have to do some work to get the numbers i have done the work to get the numbers that approximately 50 of our population can’t afford median rent if you have it not exceed 36 of their gross income i have done that work um so i would estimate that maybe 40 35 40 of the homes are occupied by non-related people you know and i mean when you see all those cars parked
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outside of a house that’s not a used car car lot that means there’s all those people living in that house and uh that’s you know there’s so many issues you know that old expression sometimes it’s difficult to remember that your original intention was to drain the swamp when you’re up to your ass in alligators alligators and so good intentions are sometimes met with i’ll tell you what i gotta i gotta tell you something when i was i used to manage apartment buildings when i was younger i started when i was
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19. that’s what our generation used to do we were already man we were buying houses in our 20s but the economy was different then but by the time i was 23 i was managing a place that was in pending foreclosure they had tried three different people very highly high they paid them very well highly educated um the place was impending foreclosure and the court appointed receiver management company decided to put an end the paper and they hired me out of 77 applicants they said because i went to the property and i
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gave a tentative plan of action to bring the thing back to life it wasn’t there was it was across from a college and it needed massive repairs uh it was um i think there’s only eight units occupied when the the management company took it over when i got there it might have 60 units out of 160. we had to work with no money creative solutions i had to do pr in the community to get get people to give us credit even though they had lost their credit through the years because of the reputation of the
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building and um we brought it back and it’s it’s a thriving community now i see those kind of things as fun and i think that’s what it really takes you can’t take somebody who’s like i could just use a job or i like to think people have to be more involved you know management on premises or involvement the separation between administrative and the work getting done you talked about top heavy government versus a publicly involved kind of situation right you think like i think
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takes hands on you’re talking about be out in the community i want to be talking to department heads i want to be reorganizing the the workload in government i want to do all of that and what you said i’ve done establishing credit you establishing integrity and re-establishing value relationships everything that kind of a feeling like we all love each other a little bit yeah we surprised we’re going to survive and thrive around hill so yeah and also i i wrote eight books the last few years i’ve written
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eight books i’m very patient nothing is too i enjoy the process um and i personally i know the guys get up there and say well i was this and i did this and you know i haven’t heard anything about anybody’s achievements however so i invite them to come forward and tell me what in all those years you’ve been in public service what are your achievements not just your diplomas and your you know your page your your pay stubs i mean um i really feel like i’m so i’m going to boast here and say i really think
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looking at the personalities i’m the only one that has a personality to do this but i i’m seeing this as an interesting experiment in human behavior because they go for the big guy i mean i don’t want to cry women’s i had five brothers growing up that’s probably why i’m so tough um but they do they go for these big guys and it’s like oh because you said you did you were a judge for 35 years or and then i come along and people think well she’s not tough enough you have no idea
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i am so just because i’m happy nice smiley and loving does not mean i’m not tough i am i’m like the rock of gibraltar if there’s something i believe in or i have a passion on something and and i think things out before i speak and before i make a decision too and i know that people in the community that know you need to be reminded to share their experiences with you because as little guys we’re up against these goliaths with huge money right the money yeah the value of your testimony and
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sharing is invaluable sharing an interview like this that get you up close with candidate alana kaye is priceless and we don’t have those you think that the government or that the community would demand before a primary to know who our candidates are isn’t it like the simplest things in life that really it’s like i know if i if i said i’m gonna this is the movies we’re gonna now play i’m just thinking of it now survivor someone drops you on maui and uh you have all these problems that
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you’ve gotta handle but you’re not a homeless person you have money you have all kinds of resources what’s the most important thing that you think we need to change and how might you go about it i mean that’s sort of a general question but people looking at us from a distance somehow look at us and see us all like a chess game we’re all little checkers we’re on the board anything that you view that we really need to get on i don’t know i’m drawing a blank on that
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the first thing i’m thinking of is i ran into a tourist a snow bird you know a snow where it is in the water comes here in the good right right you know what he literally listed my platform when he said what maui heard i’m running for mayor he he covered my entire platform so i feel like the like the three basic things that i’ve come up with is really you know the integrated water resource management um diversifying the economy and i know there’s one other i know what the three are i say i’m all the time
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you’re talking the same world you have an integrated resource planning and implementation model in specific areas and you’re open to to all comers and i can see you you’re someone who’s studying and looking at this whole thing as a thing a system right and i see that i am the same way i came that way i can’t here i am 30 years later going i have to run again you’re running because we what else are you going to do but you’ve got strong leader that you are and i’ve i applaud you
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people think running for office is just a light oh you’re in for real oh you have to have a thick skin because people say stuff about you i couldn’t believe the stuff people said last time it was really sick yes oh my god yeah that’s why a lot of people don’t run they’re afraid of that they’re afraid of the ridicule and they don’t want to be exposed to the public and they don’t want false things said about them and criticism that’s why a lot of people don’t run
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well you’ve put your hat in the ring and we have probably five six seven minutes to the end of the show i don’t want to cut off things that you know you would really like to tell people so let me give you the stage mainly anything that you think are really important that you’d like to i think the the the way i feel inside um that i feel the strongest about that if i could tell the public please take the time to look at some of the issues here there’s so much information on the internet um
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find out what’s really going on here kind of spot check you know some of the legislation you know check around look at the budget you know look at the county budget it’s very telling you know you can see the different pie charts that they have in there you know just spend one evening looking at the county budget with your family and look at where the money’s going and look where the priorities are um [Music] look at some of the environmental publications there’s a lot of them out
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there i can’t have time to really list them right now maybe i should put them on my website they got a lot of good information on them and study the issues get to know the issues get an education to the extent that you possibly can but please stop voting for people because their name is familiar or they have the most money or they have the most signs because if we keep doing what we’ve been doing we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting and we really need some change here on maui
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and everybody needs to be a part of that it’s like we talked about this is i feel very strongly about this people need to reclaim that community feeling that we’re all in this together and we all need to do our part everybody should be volunteering at something even if it’s a little highway cleanup every two months or something like that whatever you can do please get involved we can’t expect the government to be god and that’s part of why we have such a large budget that’s part of why
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everything’s gotten so chaotic because we keep entrusting our lives to the government and we need to reclaim that as a society and we all need to ask what is it my part to do we need to start caring when there is a crisis like there was a couple years ago when you go into the store don’t hard water don’t hoard um toilet paper don’t hoard canned goods because we’re all in this together leave some for everybody else um i just felt like there’s so much there’s not enough of people realizing
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that everything is connected we have to care about the environment to care about each other we are on an island we need to think like an island and i think that from when i hear you talk you talk like an idealist and i am going to say uh i guess publicly i’m an idealist too i am putting my feet on the ground putting my butt out there again after 27 years 26 years why because i’ve been talking talking talking with all the people all these years that are supposed to be making changes happen
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but they don’t listen to me seriously it’s just jason talking about how we should promote art and music and raise money for development that won’t cost maui anything and we can solve the problems and implement them in here creative don’t do all that stuff has been here all this time and no one grips on to it well as a visionary the public is here that’s why they’re watching this show they’re sitting and watching alana kaye and jason schwartz and we’re hoping they’re gonna reach out
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and volunteer at something politics or otherwise share your goodwill and if you like what you see here share it we all of us need to know who our candidates are yeah there’s a beautiful candidate who has great ideas whether she becomes mayor or not she needs to be really applauded and supported i know that you know i only have as much power as i’m able to showcase people on media some people think oh you’re you’re not really involved in anything you’re not i’ve been putting these ideas out they
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all go together they go together people and we’ve been doing all of this and not getting paid for it just having faith you know yeah the visionaries and you got to be patient because i don’t want to believe that my visions will come true after i’m gone i’d love to see my visions come alive um and my my books are all very visionary and encouraging and they can all get that through your website for mayor the same spot uh different web address yeah well i listed all my websites on my oh it’s in the booklet yeah my
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website my websites are available for my publishing and also alana for mayor.com that info oh alana k for mayor dot info i i did one like that i did may the schwartz be with you us not everybody’s the schwartz and also maui which is where i was from the beginning can you imagine when our internet was starting i chose dreammaui.com or dreammaui.net and with maui net and all these years later they tell me my website is worth a couple of thousand dollars right because the name but this is a vision i tried to show
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maui two decades three decades ago molly mal wake up molly maui is woken up our leaders are not they’re dealing with these two years when four year cycles and they’re not dealing with the over horizon deals the way they should thank you for being part of it alana thank you i don’t want to say the last word i really want to give you the last word i’m going to wave goodbye to everyone well thank you for watching let alana take the show out no i’m good i think i said everything i
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need to say and um i love you mommy i love the people and i love maui and i want to take care of it we are very happy to have you here and thank you for stepping up and being part of this alana kaye nonpartisan choice that’s so funny for nonpartisan we’re all running for under the same thing i guess i can’t help but mention that they tell you they strip you of any kind of thing to give a voter any idea who you are what is the point on this if we don’t have a way to get up close yeah that
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might be why they did there might have been a motive in doing that but we’re good yeah it’s just that you know educate yourself on the issues and on the candidates please we really need to get people in there that are really going to work pedal to the metal boots on the ground yep well thank you everyone for joining us okay thanks no no i i don’t want to cut off your last words you are a breath of fresh air thank you for doing this you are my first interview in this season you are welcome again
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i am a believer that you know we’re in this together you have more you want to say you are welcome here okay i’ll let you know hello well thank you guys for joining us and now please watch again and you can see all this again up at maui neutral zone dot com or just put the name ilana k comma jason schwartz in youtube and watch what happens bye everyone see you again [Music] you
