Aug
28
When cynicism is naive
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
In Hawaii, though not uniquely here, we learn to be cynics instead of learning civics, leave the tough problems to others, then criticize how they did it.
Always in this criticism there is the confident belief that if things didn’t work out just ducky, it was not because the problems were intractible, not because of lack of money or time or resources, not because legal considerations prevented the solution, but always, always, always, because those in charge were stupid or venal and the fix was in.
When cynicism passes for knowledge, people confidently spot eight out of every two instances of corrupt behavior, tarring well-meaning officials, business executives and union leaders with brushes better saved for the much smaller group of people who actually deserve it.
Governor Lingle, who arguably has herself engaged in this practice (exculpating herself in the Aloha Airlines collapse by pretending she was insufficiently informed, as if her newspaper subscription had been canceled) is the victim of it in the case of her proposal for the state to acquire Turtle Bay Resort, place some lands off-limits to development, then flip the rest.
Lingle has repeatedly said the proposal would not use taxpayer dollars, and the deal can be done in any number of ways that would leave the state coffers in the same health as before, yet cynics continue to make remarks bemoaning the fact that the state can afford to buy Turtle Bay but it can’t afford to do some other thing they’re more interested in.
Flipping Turtle Bay (once credit markets loosen up enough for such deals to be done again) is a good idea. It uses the rules of the marketplace to finance doing the right thing without tapping tax dollars. It will leave the current owner with a profit for having invested in the property. It neatly circumvents the fuzzy issue of the owner trying to develop land with permits and approvals so old that all the S’s look like F’s. It gives a future owner some room to develop some of the land further and guarantees that owner some exclusivity by showing how firmly the state believes in limiting future growth in that area. It builds in some public approval by putting residents, and employee unions, into the process. It limits the risk that project will be screwed up because officials are running it by tapping private sector expertise.
This is really very well-conceived, and deserves more serious consideration than cynical dismissal by people who haven’t even read the proposal and betray through their criticisms that they don’t understand what the proposal really is.
All of this comes up because residents of Molokai, who in other circumstances are as good as the rest of us at naive cynicism, are starting to pull together behind the idea of having Maui County (or someone) acquire Molokai Ranch.
The proposal is too new, with details not yet worked out, to say it’s a good idea or a bad one. But it’s worth a serious, calm look, in case it can work.
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