Lahaina residents and their supporters hold signs and flags at the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at a news conference about a petition asking Hawaii Gov. Josh Green to delay plans to reopen a portion of West Maui to tourism starting this weekend.
Though many residents say they are not ready, others say they need tourism so they can work in hotels and restaurants to earn a living. Paltin urged the governor to decide on when to reopen after consulting residents in an “open and transparent way.” “It’s my job as governor to support them, to be thoughtful about all people and to make sure Maui survives, because people will otherwise go bankrupt and have to leave the island, have to move out of Maui,” he said. “Local people — these are middle-class people that lived in Lahaina — will have to leave if they don’t have jobs.”
A few weeks after the fire, the tourism industry began urging travelers to respectfully visit parts of Maui unaffected by the blaze, like Wailea and Makena. Then last month Green announced that West Maui — a long expanse of coastline encompassing Lahaina and hotels and condos to its north — would reopen to tourists on Oct. 8.
Green said people who aren’t ready to go back to work won’t need to. He said they would continue to receive benefits and housing.
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