Reticulating Splines

I took this photograph at Crane Park in the Kaimuki-Kapahulu district where I grew up. The conditions here have greatly worsened since I was a child (thanks largely to errors of the previous administration) - the facilities are unkempt and in decay and the amount of people setting up residence here has increased tenfold. Poverty and homelessness are still largely ignored problems in this neighborhood, health care remains unattainable for many who are in dire need of it, and drug abuse has grown increasingly rampant (methamphetamine in particular is an epidemic in Honolulu and has become much more widely used in the last decade by people of all demographics and walks of life). From an outsider’s perspective, this is the Honolulu that is overlookable - Waikiki is a mere five minutes away by car, and outer Kaimuki is just a connecting point between town and the beach. However, this is the reality I grew up in and which hundreds of people pass through everyday. Scenes like this are commonplace, but sadly, it’s easier to just block it out and pretend it’s not there. I doubt many visitors even process things like this.

You will never see an image like this in a brochure for Hawaii; it’s much better for our tourism industry and economy if we push these people as far from the public eye as possible. Our local government would rather spend money on ridiculous things such as new “graffiti-proof trash cans” and bus stop pillars which are impossible for the homeless to sleep on than aiding its impoverished citizens because those renovations are perceived as improvements in a community which is so heavily dependent on its ability to draw in tourists. How do you think this person feels about what the large majority deems important in our society? More importantly, is anyone even asking him?