Former NAS Barbers Point Historic Homes Hacked Up and Fires Set For "Fire Seminar"

Former NAS Barbers Point Historic Homes Hacked Up and Fires Set For "Fire Seminar"

By John Bond

Almost no one, especially not the State of Hawaii Preservation Department (SHPD) or Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA) will explain why beautiful homes, listed on State and Federal lists, are being allowed to be hacked up by an out of state contractor in the "place of excellence" called Kalaeloa... formerly known as Naval Air Station Barbers Point.

The fires largely being set in a very specific area where HCDA plans a development project. Is this planned pyromania an HCDA development technique?

Houses painted with flames coming from windows, fires set all over the area in a firebug free-for-all... More and more holes hacked into the historic national register eligible home rooftops- but yet apparently "no one in authority" seems to notices anything unusual happening in "place of excellence" Kalaeloa...

The once beautiful, lush and shady tree canopied area of the former Naval Air Station where WW-II era homes were supposed to be preserved and placed on the National Historic register in is now being turned into a zombie like "Homes of Horrors' setting.

Yet one strange anomaly exists- a single two star flag officer home remains, well kept, well maintained, green mowed grass, big shady trees, trimmed hedges. Yet, the person living there doesn't seem to notice anything usual happening all around the house.

Around this oasis of a once proud and beautiful neighborhood is now a bizarre ghost house community of zombie homes, being grafittied and hacked up- not by thugs and vandals, but apparently as a "fire training seminar" project by a Florida company, according to the Honolulu Fire Department, which claims they have no involvement in it.

HCDA, the state's "development authority" apparently approves of this form of historic property destruction because it has failed to protect these homes which were recognized as historic during the original Navy BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) process and also by City contracted architectural consultants when the City planned the Honolulu rail fixed guideway corridor through this same area.

These Federal documents and the SHPD historic homes site number are all being "conveniently" ignored, why?

The red stripe is the planned HCDA roadway and the blue stripe is route of the planned rail transit fixed guideway. It is a remarkable coincidence that the vast majority of all of the fires being set in Kalaeloa are all within this same planned road and rail project route.

Obviously HCDA and SHPD, the state "preservation department" wants this once beautiful shady area, location of some of the largest trees on the former Naval Air Station to just "disappear," and "go away" and to do that requires the process of constant decimation and degradation so that the "historic integrity" is lost. 

Big shade trees and historic homes? We don't see no big stinking shade trees and historic homes! They must of all "burn up" and "gone away" one day...

Decimation and degradation by developers usually takes some time so that most don't notice what is really happening- but when developers are in a big hurry they will find ways to accelerate the loss of "historic integrity and community value" -and the nearly constant fires, nearly all during working hours, seems apparently to be the way to do it in Kalaeloa, the "place of excellence".

The very large canopy trees are also mysteriously dying from some type of "Agent Orange Disease" in this same area where the firebug torching is going on.

And to make sure they burn and die faster, the defoliating trees are being torched by firebugs repeatedly as part of "fire training" also?

This is really all about turning a previously historic community with beautiful, large Monkey Pod and Banyan Trees into a slum-like "eye-sore" that soon "must be knocked down"...

It's being done in other areas as well to Hawaiian cultural sites, trails, ponds within Kalaeloa while HCDA takes the news media and politicians down to the "Kalaeloa Heritage Park" for preservation "photo opportunities..."

Acre after acre in the same planned roadway and rail route area, the houses painted with flames coming from windows, more and more holes hacked in historic national register home rooftops, fires being set sometimes on a daily basis in the exact same locations from the week before- yet apparently "no one" notices anything in Kalaeloa, HCDA's "place of excellence"...

See new updates or related to this story here:

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/2013/10/Kalaeloa-Arson-For-Profit.html

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/2013/09/Big-Ewa-Trees-Dying.html

http://ewafield.blogspot.com/

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/

http://ewabattlefield.blogspot.com/

http://ewa-battlefield-nomination.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Save-Ewa-Field-270728152937385/

Barbers Point - Kalaeloa: Big Historic Trees Dying Off, Hacked Up, Arson Burned

Barbers Point - Kalaeloa: Big Historic Trees Dying Off, Hacked Up, Arson Burned

by John Bond

See new updates or related to this story here: 

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/2013/10/Kalaeloa-Arson-For-Profit.html

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/2013/09/Big-Ewa-Trees-Dying.html

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/2013/09/Navy-Homes-Being-Destroyed.html

Former Naval Air Station Barbers Point once had some of the largest groves of large historic Banyans and Monkey Pod Trees in all of West Oahu when the base was still in operation.

Today under the administrative control of HCDA, they appear to be dying from what some have called (half in jest?) "Agent Orange Disease"... meaning that their death may be going through an acceleration process...

Now that this valuable land is slated for big development, who needs big trees?

One might think that large canopy trees would be a great land and property asset, especially out in hot and sunny Ewa where they provide great shade and lower ground temperatures. But to some land developers who only think in terms of square foot values or maintenance issues, large trees are a big problem that they really want to have go away.

The nostalgic days of large yards around homes that made up this former Navy housing area are over. Packing in lots of buildings and a few small palm trees would be much more profitable. 

How to do it without bulldozing down large canopy trees that doesn't make for good TV news?

Perhaps a slow "Agent Orange Disease" way? Or "allow" wood cutters in to hack up trees and prune them back to near death?

Or what if someone came in and did a really good job of setting off high intensity "grass fires" and the trees all "eventually died" from the inferno?

Big Tree Hugging Paranoia?

I recently asked the Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA) representative at a local neighborhood board meeting about the seeming rapid demise of large trees all around the former Navy base now called Kalaeloa (the "place of excellence" according to HCDA's plan for the area), and the large number of tree trimmers out and about cutting down very large historic trees because they were apparently "in the way."

I was told that HCDA doesn't have anything in their "place of excellence plan" for large trees, so they didn't have any problem seeing the big trees go away.

This is apparently because these large canopy trees are "not native," so it is O.K under the "HCDA plan" to make them into charcoal and wood chips.

Out of curiosity I took a look at the history of the very large trees along Roosevelt Avenue in what was a former large Navy housing area using Google Earth, which has a neat History Feature that allows going back, in a certain range of time- usually about 10 years with available color imagery.

What I saw was quite an accelerated die off of large trees in the area, just along Roosevelt Avenue in the past 9 years. Some appeared to be doing just fine, but others just "disappeared" especially starting around 2008 when the big land deals started happening.

I then drove out to the same area to take some photos of these same trees and could count at least 13 large canopy trees missing and at least 5 or more close to death, compared to 2004 (the Navy base closed in 1999).

Here's the comparison of overhead images:

Here's the on the ground view of hacked up trees and arson burns. This is really a very small sampling of what is out there and NOT further in off the road which is generally blocked off:

A lack of regular watering or some mysterious tree disease is likely not the cause of death as other trees appear to be doing just fine.

You don't really know what you've got until it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

From "Big Yellow Taxi" (Didn't a certain well known politician used to drive a big yellow taxi?)

 This Federal property is owned by the US Navy, under the administration of HCDA-Kalaeloa.

http://ewafield.blogspot.com/

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/

http://ewabattlefield.blogspot.com/

http://ewa-battlefield-nomination.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Save-Ewa-Field-270728152937385/

BRAC! NAS Barbers Point Base Realignment And Closure A Twisted Tale

BRAC! NAS Barbers Point Base Realignment And Closure A Twisted Tale

Just about as ugly as it sounds, the BRAC of Naval Air Station Barbers Point has been probably the most UGLY BRAC ever done in the United States...

It's a very TWISTED TALE (Bill the Cat would understand) with political land deals that former Congressional representative and Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie called the "originator, the initiator" of this type of land sale...

Many believe today that the whole affair was the worst deal ever made by the "naive" US Navy and some officers 'regretted" they were pushed into it by certain politicians.

Engineered in the back rooms by Navy real estate insiders and Hawaii's political bosses, this incredible deal involving thousands of acres of public tax-payer owned land has abled some to make vast, spectacular profits in just a few years...

Some articles written by William Cole, Honolulu Advertiser...

Navy renovation plans model for cooperative projects   -  July 4, 2003

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Jul/04/ln/ln13a.html

"I think we'll be the model for projects to come all across the nation," U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, said.

The Navy is selling or leasing the 34 acres on Ford Island, 400 acres at Iroquois Point/Pu'uloa, 130 acres at Kalaeloa, 515 acres at Waikele Naval Magazine, and 6.6 acres at Halawa Landing.

At the ceremonial signing of a master developer agreement last month with Fluor, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie said Hawai'i was the "originator, the initiator" of the type of land sale and lease deal that is expected to be a model for similar projects across the country.

Navy aircraft carrier at Pearl Harbor more likely  - July 14, 2003

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Jul/14/mn/mn01a.html

(Barbers Point - Kalaeloa "almost" becomes base for carrier wing...)

Officials say the runways at Kalaeloa could be used without the base being reactivated, as a hybrid use in tandem with Hickam and with the goal of minimizing noise for communities around Kalaeloa.

Typically, an air wing embarks four times with a carrier for training during a two-year cycle of training and deployment, the 1999 study said.

2,000 military homes to go on rental market  - August 18, 2003

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Aug/18/ln/ln01a.html

The Navy said the market value of Ford Island Properties' leasehold interest at Ford Island was appraised to be worth $61 million, and the value of 499 acres at Kalaeloa was appraised to be worth $75 million.

In an $84 million development deal that began in 2003, the Navy leased or sold five underused properties in exchange for in-kind construction and infrastructure repairs on Ford Island.

The deal then with Ford Island Properties was unprecedented and was made possible through special legislation passed by Congress in 1999.

The Navy gave the developer 65-year leases at Iroquois Point and Pu'uloa, the 40-acre parcel on Ford Island and the 6.6-acre Halawa Landing.

The developers also were allowed to purchase 695 acres of housing at Kalaeloa after three years and were given rights to the 515-acre former Waikele Naval Magazine.

Navy to hand over 499 Kalaeloa acres to private builder - January 19, 2008

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Jan/19/ln/hawaii801190361.html

Approximately 2,000 former Navy homes at Iroquois Point and Barbers Point are being made available to military personnel and civilians as part of an $80 million land sale and lease that also involves millions being spent for refurbishment of the base housing.

(This land was later resold for approximately $300 Million...)

http://ewafield.blogspot.com/

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/

http://ewabattlefield.blogspot.com/

http://ewa-battlefield-nomination.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Save-Ewa-Field-270728152937385/

 

Barbers Point - NAS Barbers Point, Today Called Kalaeloa

Barbers Point - NAS Barbers Point, Today Called Kalaeloa

by John Bond

I am not a Navy veteran, but as a military dependent in the 60's-70's, and later doing some photo-journalism projects in Ewa, I had the chance to see the former naval air station while it was still in operation.

The cover photo for this Barbers Point blog was chosen because it represents my own view of Barbers Point as a civilian and curious local historian of Ewa's history.

It was taken from a Navy diesel engine in the mid 1990's, which during the 1940's through 1960's had hauled ammunition and supplies around the Navy rail yards at places like Pearl Harbor, Lualualei and West Loch. By this point it was being operated by the Hawaiian Railway Society and the reason why I got to ride out front on the catwalk to get some nice pictures.

The photo is a nice memory for me of NAS Barbers Point, or "Barbers," as it was taken when the base was still a well kept and maintained naval air base, but slated for closure under a Federal process called BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure).

BRAC became, unfortunately, as ugly as the acronym sounds...

The train bell in the photo has great symbolism as the Navy uses bells in ceremonies to mark the change of commands and the passing of Navy comrades moving on to serve the "great commander in chief in Heaven" (probably no longer officially permitted to say this anymore...)

The Lockheed P-2 Neptune seen in the background was fortunately saved and taken over to the Kaneohe side and sits out front somewhere near the Marine air base front gate. The Navy now currently operates, for the past several decades, the four engine Lockheed P-3 Orion, (soon to be phased out) which can still be seen doing touch and go landings at what NASBP is now called- Kalaeloa Airport - John Rogers Field.

Today the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has their headquarters offices on the same location where the P-2 Neptune once reposed. They also have an indoor pistol range there as well as a detention area. The street name is still called Enterprise after the famous WW-II aircraft carrier CV-6 USS Enterprise.

But other things about NASBP and BRAC have not quite been so happy... more soon.

http://ewafield.blogspot.com/

http://barbers-point.blogspot.com/

http://ewabattlefield.blogspot.com/

http://ewa-battlefield-nomination.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Save-Ewa-Field-270728152937385/