Aloha. I am a citizen who is really concerned that after many years, politicians have still failed to choose a site for a new Oʻahu landfill.
This has to stop!
We citizens need to take action!
In that spirit, allow me to offer three new possible landfill locations:
- The Hawaiʻi Convention Center
- Aloha Stadium
- The State Capitol
The convention center site has a head start. It is already a dump even though it opened less than 30 years ago.
The roof is shot, but that’s not all. The roof leaks are contagious. There are now leaks throughout the building, with water seeping into other parts of the building where cracks, rust and calcium are leaching from the concrete.
No official is saying so, but we citizens know from living in Hawaiʻi what this really means: beyond repair.
Why waste time, hopes, dreams and taxpayer money? Build on the convention center’s head start. Bury it in garbage.
My grandma’s brother had this disease called progeria where, starting small in kid time, you begin real fast to turn into an old man. There is no known cure.
Already A Dump
The convention center has construction progeria.
Besides, there are already people working there with landfill experience. A high-level tourism official is known by many as both a trash talker and a garbage mouth.
Like the convention center, the Aloha Stadium site also has a head start because it’s already a heaping pile of garbage.
The Hawaiʻi Convention Center in slightly happier, less leaky times, nine years ago. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2016)
In this case it has been officially declared garbage with many words and plans about tearing the stadium down.
Put It To Work Instead Of Tearing It Down
Why bother, when we can bury it along with more trash? It would be a beacon brightly illuminating the stadium’s historical motto: If it’s broke, don’t fix it.
Another advantage: The site is so big, empty and desolate, it’s like a dump waiting to happen. Brighten it up. Bring those long dead parking lots back to life by covering them over with live garbage.
Plus, there is a rail stop right across the street. The many empty Skyline rail cars could be put to good use by converting them to garbage-freight cars.
Skyline: Collecting people and garbage since 2025.
Opponents might raise two objections to this new stadium plan. One is that it says nothing about building a new stadium.
Aloha Stadium is well past its Pro Bowl prime, but why tear it down if we can haul our garbage there? (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2022)
That is not my concern. I am not a dreamer.
The other is that this alternative says nothing about the “Entertainment District,” the crown jewel that’s supposed to go up around that stadium.
To that, I say, “Yes! There will be an entertainment district. One even bigger and better. It will be for the children of Hawaiʻi.
A Keiki Entertainment District garbage theme park with garbage trucks at the center of it all.
Keiki love garbage trucks. Becoming a garbage collector is every kid’s dream.
”Pops,” I said to my dad as we watched the garbage truck crew work its way through our alley and into our bins. “I am going to be a garbage man when I grow up.”
That was long ago. The dream lives on.
Think of the excitement. From the Lilo and Stench Observation Deck, keiki watching the line of yellow ʻōpala trucks majestically rumbling down Salt Lake Boulevard, turning into the gateway and past the sign reading: “E Komo Mai. Welcome to Aloha Stadium Memorial Landfill and Keiki Entertainment District — Doctor Josh Green, governor”
A Perfect Tribute
The Capitol is turning to junk, too.
According to the state comptroller, “The internal guts of the building, the mechanical and the electrical systems, are beyond their life and need to be replaced so that we prevent any sort of potential major building failure and shut down.”
Hundreds of millions of dollars. So what? Our one-of-a-kind State Capitol is too important to give up on. But solve both problems. Make it dual-purpose for government and trash.
The Capitol borders Iolani Palace, but that’s no problem. Show me a rule that says a landfill can’t be built next to a palace.
The Capitol building is already due for major repairs that will temporarily shut it down. Garbage out, garbage in? (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2022)
A Capitol landfill would be a perfect tribute to the help the legislators have been in solving this landfill location issue. Last session, the legislators set out to make the problem harder to solve. And they succeeded. Auwē! they proclaimed. No site over an aquifer because the garbage might leak.
The Capitol is already full of experienced seepage managers who can help. For years its entrance pools leaked. For years the state tried to fix them but failed. The problem was never solved. The water disappeared because the pools disappeared. No more leaks because no more water.
Instead, the pools were covered with glass tiles. Was this unfixed, now-dolled-up space a sign of a failure?
Not so! As State Comptroller Keith Regan announced, the waterless was now “an incredible piece of artwork” and “part of the new transformative process at the Capitol.”
Calling a failure a transformation — that’s the kind of positive thinking we need for the landfill search.
All I am saying is give leaks a chance.
These three choices are all tempting, so how do we select the best one?
It’s simple. Hold a state lottery. The winner gets to pick.
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