I’m saddened to share with you photos of a place that isn’t anymore. \u00a0The International Market Place in Honolulu has been torn down to make way for an upscale mega-mall.<\/p>\n

Oahu is not my favorite Hawaiian island mostly because it’s dominated by Honolulu, a large busy tropical city similar to many others around the world. \u00a0But within this city there was a nice place, a island of shady banyan trees. \u00a0Here you could talk to pleasant people running small cart-shops, you could buy inexpensive gifts, or patronize hole-in-the-wall restaurants where you could have a nice meal, or a place to sit, rest, and cool down.<\/p>\n

When we visited Honolulu last fall we found the site of the International Market Place boarded up, and when peeping through a crack in this tall wall of plywood saw a massive hole-in-the-ground dozens of feet deep. \u00a0What will take its place? \u00a0A large shopping complex with the kind of shops you’d find on Rodeo drive in Los Angeles or Caesar’s Forums in Las Vegas. \u00a0Boring and uninteresting places to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t