November 21, 2004: Under the heading of “A Project That No One Needs” (how portentous!), the Maui News runs a story about pier 2C, a controversial expansion of pier 2C at Kahului Harbor which, the paper reports, no one wants – not Matson, not Goodfellows, not the canoe clubs, not the cruise ships, not even the proposed Superferry (of course, they changed their mind). “If nobody wants 2C,” said then-Mayor Alan Arakawa, “then how did we get to this point?”

The mismanagement of the harbor in the past three years, leading right up to Judge Joel August on Monday rescinding his sane request for traffic control with Superferry users, is sickening. The project has been rife with double-dealing, mismanagement, a state legislature that mocked Hawaii voters by pretending to listen to them during neighbor island hearings, and undemocratic bullheadedness by a governor whose job cannot terminate soon enough.

The controversy surrounding the pier three years ago only makes sadder the recent dislodging of the Superferry pier in relatively mild weather. Today, as three years ago, no one really knows what is going on, why the Superferry is being rammed down the throats of Mauians who don’t want it, nor why someone somewhere, in Judge Cardoza’s chambers, August’s Chambers, the Legislature, or the state house, SOMEONE doesn’t grow some common sense and sort this crap out. One would think that two controversies over the pier alone indiccates indicates something to someone, don’t they?

If not, then the monstrosity that is the Superferry will dock at the 2C barge as of December 1st. Read about the Superferry barge breaking loose last week  …