Unpopular Opinion: Hawaiʻi Feels More Mainland Than Ever

Hawaii is just like the mainland. So I was sitting in traffic in another part of the island the other day and I thought even though this is Hawaii, it's not that different. And I feel I'm well qualified to talk about this topic today because I'm kind of half from Hawaii and half from the mainland. I was in the Coast Guard, lived different places, born in mainland. My dad born and raised here. I went to intermediate and high school here. So in today's video we're going to go to a bunch of different areas from east to west on Oahu and talk about how this is kind of just like anywhere else on the mainland. Any mainland city, same same. But I know that that's triggering. So along the way we're going to acknowledge, no, Hawaii is Hawaii, Oahu is Oahu, it is unique. This is not just like the mainland. Derek, you're crazy. I'll acknowledge that along the way. We're in the greater Hawaii area. You may know if you watch the channel long enough, I was in the medical field. Most of the physicians that I heard talk about where they live, they live somewhere between Kahala. So you see the back of Diamond Head over there. Somewhere between like town, east part of Honolulu, east part of the actual dense city to east Honolulu, which is Hawaii Kai. And so there you have Port Lock. There's famous people who, you know, have lived on that peninsula and I mean, obviously look at what we have here, right? There's not really two sides of the tracks over here. I mean, maybe a little, but not much. It's kind of one thing and you have this and this is available for those who this is their speed and this is their vibe and this is what they want. Hawaii Kai is a little bit like the, like a Newport, Sausalito, if you're used to those west coast cities, a little bit of bougie town, a little bit of tennis, golf, long bike rides on a triathlon kind of bike. Let's acknowledge the obvious. I mean, look at that. We're right next to the ocean. We're right next to the most beautiful ocean in the world, which does make this unique. You can't achieve this in Denver. You can't achieve this in Nashville. Island and mountains and people fishing and parasailing, but every city has its sort of, Oh, a lot of the doctors live over there and there's a country club and every city has that. And that's what this is for a while. White collar elevated sort of town. And you have those elsewhere. My dad lived in Nashville and it's right next to Brentwood, Tennessee. That's where a lot of the country singers live. And Leanne Rimes has a home in the Franklin greater like Franklin area. Justin Timberlake, Chris Stapleton, even Nashville has that. And then Nashville has the other side of the tracks and multiple sides of multiple tracks. Right? So we're going to go east to west today. We're going to acknowledge a few different areas where in my experience, I've seen other mainland cities kind of be just like this, just like in most mainland cities. We have a university. A lot of mainland cities have multiple. We have multiple. You have university of Hawaii, you have Chaminade, HPU, where universities typically are. It's a little more liberal. It's a little more blue. It's not just a university thing, but also like a densely populated city thing. And so over here, you can see the skyline of all the buildings in town. It's more blue on that side of town in the city part of our island. That's not unique to Hawaii or unique to Oahu. That's more of a product of kind of just the American sprawl or just the way things develop when humans live close together versus far apart. I used to live in the Bay area and in Berkeley, California, it was cool. University of California, Berkeley was right there. And so just like most mainland cities, we're not unique. Now, we are unique in that you go to UH Wahine volleyball game and they're fanning tea leaves and Hawaii is just different. But in a lot of ways, it's kind of just like any other city. You may not like a densely populated university focused liberal town if your politics are more or less taxes and freedom and whatever. But this is a good place to come for some cool food, some Greek food, good coffee, some avocado toast. The point of this video is that we offer everything just like any other great city. We kind of have it all. So let's go check out some more of the city center. Just like any other mainland city, major city, we have the artsy fartsy kind of district. So we're in Kaka'ako. The identity of this part wasn't really like that when we were kids as much. It's morphed a bit. It's evolved and devolved in certain ways, but you literally have street art as a part of the identity of this part of town. You have colorful buildings and apartments and flats and studios. I've never been to New York, but what is the part of New York? The Bronx? Brooklyn is the... Let me know in the comments section. My understanding of like a Brooklyn would be you still got a lot of New Yorkers from Brooklyn. I don't think the majority of the people that live in this area are originally from here. It's a cool pocket. You know, maybe someone dropped out of UH Manoa. Now they're local because they've been living in Kaka'ako for the last two years. Part of the theme of this video is I'm supposed to say, well, nah, it is uniquely Hawaii because, but like this is maybe the least Hawaii part of this video, but still it's Kaka'ako. So all local kids have memories of sliding down the hill on cardboard over there and walking on the waterfront or maybe bringing bentos to the ocean on the Makai side of Kaka'ako. You know what? I'm having a hard time saying like, this is still Hawaii though. Because even if you come to Kaka'ako for food, I mean, you have Haranas. Shout outs to Haranas Hawaiian food, but you know, right down here is a Texas barbecue and then there's a Mexican place right there. And that's what Kaka'ako is. It's kind of this worldly, young, liberal, hipster, definitely some ear gauges around here. Some yoga happening. You have parts of any city that are just like this. You know what I'm saying? In San Francisco, this is Oakland. And you know what? Just like any other city, and this is not unique to Kaka'ako, although it may be focused here. You have houseless people. All throughout town, Waikiki, Blaisdell Park, you have houseless issues because Hawaii is so expensive and there is a big class divide and a lot of poverty, and it is a struggle here. It's a problem. Not unique to Hawaii. And you know what I would say? Unique to Hawaii? This is probably the best place to be that, right? When I was in Seattle, I saw people who were homeless. In Denver, I saw it and that'd be rough, right? Imagine if you live in Arizona or Vegas, how hot it would get. This is probably one of the best places to be houseless and you have quite a bit of it too. So just like most cities and my experience living in San Francisco, there's a downtown older part. We call it downtown here on Oahu and in Hawaii. And San Francisco, that area was the Fai Dai, the financial district. In any city where there's this cluster of things, it's busy during the day, the parking is crazy. When I was in San Francisco, I remember I went to meet a jujitsu friend. It was $20 for every 15 minutes that I parked. It was insane. It's not quite that much here, but same. Parking... We're illegally parked right now. We got to get out of here. Another trait of a place like this is it dies down in the evening. Everyone starts leaving 2, 3, 4 o'clock. It'll be dead here by 6 o'clock. And then it comes back alive with certain restaurants, bars, and like the Hawaii theater in the evening, especially on the weekends. But that afternoon rush hour traffic time, it's pretty much a dead place. Now, there are some residential places and we've sold quite a few units here and there and around here. There are people that live down here, but just not a lot. Kind of dies down at night. The next place we're going to go, we've done it on this channel before, and the question is going to be, is this town, is this part of the city or is it something else? But most other cities have a place just like this, so let's go check it out. We're standing in Karihi. Karihi is this blue collar. There's a little bit of grit, you know, different grit to this part of Honolulu. And to some people, Karihi's not town. To some people, Karihi is town. We broached that topic and asked that question on another video, so tell us if you know Hawaii or you're from Hawaii or you're on the mainland and from Hawaii, whatever. Is Karihi town? For me, I actually think of Karihi as Karihi. It's a separate thing. But as we stand here and watch Honolulu sprawl from east to west, it definitely feels like the city or town. So when I lived in California, we had like West Oakland, Port of Oakland, and then there was Richmond. Leave us a comment if you've seen Coach Carter before. Those neighborhoods are shaped by and influenced by and reminiscent of this time where these cities were growing up and becoming cities and the industrial revolution had gone into the 1900s. And I'm sure San Francisco was a much different place and Oakland was a much different place. They were a certain sleepy, quiet sort of city. And then all this industry had to come, especially through the port. And so you see the Coast Guard base over there. There's a dry dock for ships there, there's fishing boats there, Aloha Tower. So what is the movie Coach Carter? Movie Coach Carter is this movie centered on a basketball team in Richmond, California. And I used to be in the Coast Guard and we inspected ships at the port of Richmond and facilities at the port of Richmond. And so I understand when I first got stationed in California, I went to go get a dog and I was calling the lady and she's like, yeah, you turn left here, you turn right here. And there were bars on windows. There may have been 55 gallon drums with fires in it. And it was like Richmond, if you want the smoke, you can find it, you know. And he has some of those vibes too. It can be a little rough. Let's just put it, say it like it is. It can be rough around here. You know, housing projects and gangs and that kind of stuff happens here and it happens in every city is my point. There's probably a port or a hub, or maybe if you're landlocked and you're not in a coastal city, there's some hub where the scrap metal yard and the this and the tire graveyard and like that stuff is on a certain side of the city. And we have that too. So as far as Honolulu goes east to the metropolitan part of Oahu spanning west, we're kind of in the middle of it. There's the port, there's the airport, and then things kind of reset with Salt Lake Aiea. So I want to take you there next. I remember when I lived in California and I brought my dad to my house. First time, my dad never came to visit me until I had kids. And in my head, I didn't live in the city. I didn't live in San Francisco. I didn't live in Oakland. I lived in this place called Alameda. I didn't live in a city. But to my dad, who's an old school Hawaii boy and was currently living in Tennessee, way outside of the city, he was like, you live here. I was like, yeah, why? What's wrong? He's like, right here. Well, you live in the city, yeah? And I was like, this isn't the city. He's like, Derek, look around. And I was like, I guess it is kind of the city. But I was such a like Bay Area transplant at that point that I understood. I was conditioned to think this isn't city, not compared to like the city city. And so Salt Lake is that for Oahu. Salt Lake all the way to Pearl City, actually. Really Kalihi. So in the last segment, we were like, is Kalihi town? Is it the city? It is the city if you use mainland terms, but Kalihi is not town. Do you know any local person that thinks of Aiea or Salt Lake as town or the city or anything of the sort? Kenji's going, no, no. Nobody thinks of this as city, but try to look. If you've never been to Oahu and I just blindfold you, take you from the airport, which isn't far. I just unblindfold you right here. You're in the city, right? Look over here. Now, the difference in Salt Lake is there's not really much of an economy. There's not offices and a bunch of commercial stuff and there's no port. That's why local people don't consider it the city or town or anything. And it's just geographically removed from those things. But try to look. It's kind of city, right? And I think most big mainland cities have that. You have this like sprawl, some kind of interruption to it, whether it's a port or an industrial area or an airport or something. So like sprawl city, sprawl, resprawl, and like this is kind of the resprawl. And most big mainland cities have that. Now, on the point of, nah, it's still unique. It's still Hawaii. I don't know what I would say about that right here. There's mountains around. People drive a little better, trishakas, but other than that, there's nothing about Salt Lake that gives me like quintessential Hawaii vibes. So as we're walking from that shooting location, Kenji pointed out, they call Kapolei the second city. In that spiel, I mentioned, well, there's no like industry, there's no government buildings. I think that's why Salt Lake isn't considered a city is because you can't come here to like get your parking ticket paid or to get your new social security card or birth certificate. There isn't that city industry here. It's just a place with a bunch of big concrete buildings to live. And so ironically or weirdly, we call Kapolei the second city. But what is a city? Is it a place where you can go and do things or is it a bunch of big buildings? I've always thought like big buildings, first sign of city, but I guess to a lot of people, it's where you can go and get crap done, right? Let me know what you think. Perfect. Cue the sirens, cue the traffic. This godforsaken intersection is actually what sparked the idea for this video topic. I was sitting in traffic here and trying to turn or something and I thought to myself, we don't view Pearl City as a city. It's called Pearl City, but this is not part of town. This is all the way Z-Word. In fact, for the Department of Education, Pearl City is part of the Z-Word district. Pearl City is like the start of the West. But I was sitting here and I was thinking to my clients on the mainland, you know, I was born on the mainland, to my family on the mainland. If I brought them right here, underneath public transportation, a red light that takes sometimes two, three cycles to get through. So that's on a bad day, 15 minutes, just in this red light. All this chaos. Corner houseless people in the corner. I thought to myself, you couldn't tell someone else who's not from here that this isn't a part of the city area of an island. It's kind of just like parts of the mainland. In California, if you catch the BART all the way past Berkeley up towards Richmond, it's really far. If you catch that same train down to like Hayward, there's a college, there's grime. You can't tell me that's not city. Oahu's not all that unique in certain aspects, but then it is. I used to work at that Home Depot. This didn't used to be so chaotic. You have the mountains and the sunset in the background, depending on what time of day. After all, you're on Kamehameha Highway, not the 65 Highway or whatever. Hawaii is different. It is unique. But then you have this. It's just like any other city in a lot of ways. All right, so now we're a little further west where the suburbs kind of start. Suburbia has begun. There are no more big, tall buildings. There's not even intersections that are that bad at this point. But as you can see, suburbia, planned communities, HOAs, single family homes are the quintessential dream and achievement. And every city on the mainland has that too. Every New York and Denver and Chicago and the Home Alone family, like they were probably a little closer to the city, but it obviously sprawled, like they were in the suburbs sprawl at that point. And that kind of starts here right after Pearl City. Now, is it unique? Are the suburbs in Hawaii unique? And Derek, you cannot just say we're just like any other place. I guess so. I guess that the plants are different. There's red dirt stains. Of course, the people are going to be different and the street names. We're on Lumiaoao, Hawaiian word of the day. Yeah, it's different. This is Hawaii. It's Oahu. It's a different culture. It's a different thing. I would love to do this video with a city planner, someone from like the housing and urban development, like city blueprint or whatever. Those people, they'd probably be like, yeah, when I trained in San Francisco, when I trained in Dallas or whatever, we thought about these same things. Like how much could the sewer line support in the city versus in the suburbs and blah, blah, blah. It's kind of same, same in a lot of ways, but then it is unique. Christmas with the candy canes and the Santas, but then you have palm trees in the background and I'm here sweating, dress professional for you guys, right? Last mention, but not to be forgotten. In every city and town and place, as it sprawls further, at least the ones that I've been, right? And my experience is from Florida to Virginia to California to Hawaii. And then understanding people who come from Texas and Connecticut and all the places. So I kind of get it, you know, as you go further and further West, there's just more bradas that drive lifted trucks. If guns are a thing in your state, they might have the gun route. They're more likely to know how to tape in mud. You know what I mean? They more likely to know their way around the tool section in Home Depot. And that's, that's kind of starting in this general area. But then when you go West, like see those mountains over there, that's the West side. That's the, that's, that's the West side, you know, local union, one, eight, two tapers union and stuff like that. You just see a little bit more of that. As we get away from the city, we mentioned sort of like political climate earlier. This is probably a mix of kind of red and blue because we, we not all the way out in the country here and we also aren't in the city. So it's just a probably more balanced area. But as you go West, as you go country, I mean, it can get, it can get a little more red. You know, if all who is a circle, like we did the bottom stretch and that's where most of the population is. We didn't get into Kailua. We didn't get into the Northeast side, Punaluu, Haula. We didn't get into North shore today. Part of that is timing, but also part of that is just format because this is about how Hawaii and Oahu is just like any other place from like a city planning and, you know, from a macro perspective, but there is no place like North shore, Oahu, there is no place like Kailua. I mean, there's some beachy places on the mainland, but it's kind of unique. There is no Punaluu or Haula anywhere else. Those, uh, defy my statement that Hawaii is just like anywhere else. So we're not showing those today. Those are entirely unique, but let us know what you thought of this video. I know it's kind of triggering for me to come here and say, well, Hawaii is just like any other place. This is just like the mainland. This is unique. This is our home. It is unlike any other place in a lot of ways, but then you can see how it kind of is just like any other place. All right. And for some reason, this is your first time to the channel. Thank you for being here. This is a real estate channel. Go to coreteamhawaii.com for any real estate needs you have, especially in Hawaii. And that's for all of Hawaii because occasionally we are flying to the other islands to help people. Oftentimes we're just referring you to the people that we know can help you the best and are going to be the best match for you. Kind of similar vibes to us and skill levels like subscribe. We don't actually do the whole YouTube thing and ask for that very often, but usually if you have 20,000 subscribers, you have like a hundred thousand, 200,000 watchers and we're teetering around 35, 40,000 at this point. Actually go subscribe. I know you don't do it to many channels, but go subscribe to ours, notification bell, all that stuff. See you guys in the next one.