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View: News / Letters to the Editor / Editorial Cartoons / Legal Actions
Others would have us believe that the only group standing in the way of complete restoration is the group that uses the beach. Nonsense. If we spent $50 million restoring the whole thing and building an Olympic-sized freshwater pool for competitions, no one would use it. Why? There is no parking available.
Evanita Midkiff
Honolulu Advertiser
August 2004
- December 9, 2004
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
- Restore arch, beach for war memorial
In its Dec. 5 editorial, the Star-Bulletin asserted that if the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium is not brought back to its original condition, the memory of our World War I veterans would be disrespected. Nothing could be further from the truth. more
Rick Bernstein
Kaimana Beach Coalition
- December 7, 2004
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
- Natatorium facade won't be torn down
Contrary to the statement your Dec. 5 editorial makes, Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann will not "tear down" the Waikiki War Memorial at Kaimana Beach. more
Kristine Woodall
Honolulu
- December 7, 2004
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
- Preserve the arch, restore the beach
After seeing the city pour money and time into the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium, and seeing little result, I have lost any hope that the city can deal with the situation. Is the city so overwhelmed with money that it must throw money into this bottomless pit? more
Mark Terry
Honolulu
- December 7, 2004
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
- Replace structure with new monument
Why not raze the structure, clean up the site to park-like standards and erect a very nice monument -- a memorial to the World War I veterans to whom the natatorium is dedicated. more
Herbert Ingram
Wichita, Kansas
Frequent Hawaii visitor
- December 6, 2004
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
- City's changed position on Natatorium work
On Dec. 3 the Star-Bulletin chronicled Mufi Hannemann's strong statements about halting the city's $6 million repair job at the Waikiki Natatorium. Since then, Managing Director Ben Lee has stated that despite the mayor-elect's intentions, the city will move forward with the project. The public should know that Lee's position contradicts a previous pledge made by city officials. more
Dr. Andrew Rossiter
Director, Waikiki Aquarium
- December 6, 2004
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
- Restoring Natatorium is principled course
Thank you so much for refocusing the public's attention on the core issues of honor and stewardship. One statement in the editorial powerfully summed up the situation: "That is has become an eyesore is a shameful testimony to the ineffectiveness of elected officials and to a community quick to forget the sacrifices of a generation." more
Donna Ching
Honolulu
- October 24, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Please stop wasting money on Natatorium
I was born and raised in Hawai'i, and although I am sad to see what has become of a favorite place that was part of my teen and young adult years, I cannot see sinking 6.2 million taxpayer dollars into what is a too-expensive and lost cause. So much money has already been sunk into this facility with, really, nothing to show for it. It's just too late. more
A. Matsuda
Honolulu
- October 21, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Natatorium has long been problem, danger
Decades later, people still debate the fate of a crumbling pool. At a time when funds are scarce and open space and beaches are scarcer, it is not a reasonable option to keep the pool. It is a dangerous liability that Honolulu cannot afford. Give the space back to the beach, open the public restrooms and even put in a vending machine selling chocolate-covered bananas for nostalgia. more
Carol Ataki Wyban
Kurtistown, Big Island
- October 20, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Plan for Natatorium doesn't make sense
I understand Mayor Harris, who has little time left on his term, has arbitrarily elected to proceed with restoration of the War Memorial Natatorium immediately by inserting more than 80 cement pilings into the pool area. Shouldn't there be a total plan before permanent structures are imbedded into the beach? Shouldn't the plan be acceptable and affordable to the electorate? more
Barbara Hanson
Waikiki
- September 18, 2004
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
- Let's rethink ways to honor WWI dead
Our city fathers never would have intentionally built a saltwater pool on the beach, had they known it would be impossible to maintain. A saltwater pool was the only technology available at time. We now have beautiful freshwater pools in Manoa, Makiki and Kailua, just to name a few. If we must have a swimming pool to remember the sacrifices of our World War I dead, why not make it a new, state-of-the-art freshwater pool? more
Amy Conners
Honolulu
- September 10, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Natatorium repair defies frugality, common sense
Forty years ago the Waikiki Natatorium of my youth was in general disrepair. Other than youth braver than I who would cannonball into the water, I never saw anyone swim in the bright green water that obscured the bottom. A swimmer, I imagined, would meet with a shallow coral bottom or with sea monsters slithering in this algae soup. more
John W. Nakao
'Aiea
- September 9, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Once more into murky waters we swim
In the years of wrangling about the Natatorium, nobody ever mentioned that the large boulder with the bronze plaque sitting in the park fronting the Natatorium is the real memorial. On the plaque are the names of those from Hawai'i who died in World War I. more
Edward L. Bonomi
- September 1, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Natatorium can be altered
Contrary to the Harris administration's assertions, historic preservation laws would not prevent the creation of a War Memorial Beach at the Natatorium site along the lines proposed by the Kaimana Beach Coalition to replace the crumbling, outdated and unhealthy pool. more
James J. Bickerton
Honolulu
- September 2004
Honolulu Magazine
- Re: Short Term Memorial Loss
Since your article, the Harris administration has announced plans to spend $6.1 million to repair the Natatorium seawalls and pool deck. The 10-month project will not create a new swimming pool. When the project is complete, the complex will again be locked up. more
Rick Bernstein
Honolulu
- August 31, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- It's time we stopped wasting more millions
If this "bit by bit" repair is allowed to go on for the future years, we are going to be looking at millions and millions, and since the salt air will continue to tear at the structure forever, we will have to set aside money every few years for the continued upkeep of this memorial. There is no end to this repair bill. For what? more
Bob Buscombe
Honolulu
- August 26, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Dearth of parking condemns renovation
Your Aug. 16 editorial on the Natatorium was right on! Tear it down and restore the beach. Preserve the facade for a memorial. Others would have us believe that the only group standing in the way of complete restoration is the group that uses the beach. Nonsense.
If we spent $50 million restoring the whole thing and building an Olympic-sized freshwater pool for competitions, no one would use it. Why? There is no parking available.
Evanita Midkiff
Kahala
- August 16, 2004
Honolulu Advertiser
- Fond memories, but pool's time has come
I remember going for my junior lifesaving merit badge as a Boy Scout at St. Augustine's in 1950. Every day we jumped from the towers at the Natatorium and swam laps. (Anyone from Troop 51 out there?) Those days are gone, and so is the Natatorium.
Six million dollars to do a partial restoration, and the whole thing is falling apart. Making the Natatorium what it was is like making us who used it 55 years ago young again.
Clear the area, plant some explosives in it and destroy it. Make it a contiguous part of the shoreline with a small plaque on the shore that acknowledges its existence.
Fritz Amtsberg
Honolulu
- August 5, 1999
Honolulu Advertiser
- New memorial would replace existing ones
We already have a befitting memorial for those veterans who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Wouldn't it be a good thing to honor those veterans who died in World War I and World War II with a new memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol?
This new memorial would replace the natatorium and the memorial at Punchbowl and King streets. more
Lester Nakata
- July 14, 1999
Midweek
- Mufi's Switch
The Harris Administration should get over its stubborn insistence that the natatorium project proceed in full, and instead bow to the will of the public and its own financial limitations by reducing the scope of the project. more
Mufi Hannemann
Councilmember
- July 3, 1999
Honolulu Advertiser
- Natatorium: swimming in pool could be dangerous
- June 9, 1999
Honolulu Weekly
- Natatorium lawsuit
The Kaimana Beach Coalition lawsuit challenging the attorney general's opinion that the Natatorium swimming pool, by statutory definition, is not a swimming pool, is underway... The case has been continued until June 18 at 9 a.m., when it will be heard by Judge Gail Nakatani. more
Rick Bernstein
Kaimana Beach Coalition
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