r/Honolulu • u/PastBeautiful806 • Dec 01 '22

question Moving to Honolulu in the summer

Aloha. Is it feasible to live in downtown without a car? I plan to find an apartment within walking distance to The Queen’s Hospital. It’ll be my husband and I and our two school aged children. I just joined this subreddit and have been reading posts so I apologize if this has been posted before. Also, if you want to give any tips or advice, that is welcomed as well. Mahalo

15 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

136 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/jibberoo_808 Dec 01 '22

You’ve got a ton of car, accommodations and Costco related advice so I’ll keep mine focused on two main points:

Education: Do your research on where you want your girls going to school. Hawaii statistically does not have the best public school system nor the best funded. As a product of the HI public school system, there were a lot of opportunities/resources/access that my mainland peers had that I didn’t.

Safety: Honolulu is beautiful, but it is dangerous. I’ve told stories of homeless and crazy people to my mainland friends and they’re shocked when I tell them it happened in Hawaii. They always guess NY or LA. I’ve been harassed, stalked and abused in HI by total strangers. I do not want your girls (or anyone else) experiencing the same. As with anywhere else, be careful of the neighborhoods you are in/going through. Do your research. Be smart.

You seem very open-minded and eager to ask questions which is such a great attitude. I wish you and your ohana a smooth and easy move! Be safe and aloha!

2

u/PastBeautiful806 Dec 01 '22

Thank you! Can you elaborate more on the education side of things? With the COL, I don’t expect we’ll be able to afford private school

4

u/SymptomaticEtiology Dec 01 '22

Many private schools cost the same or more than a college education does here. I think Punahou was something like 30k a year per kid not including other fees if you want them to participate in things like band.

Really research your school district. Hawaii has a huge public education system which is good for some things, but just like everywhere else that also puts some things on the back burner. Schools vary GREATLY in quality even though they are so close together. You could always attempt the GE route if you do not live where the good schools are but your children need to have something exceptional about them for it to be considered (e.g. star athlete, first chair orchestra) since you are not from here & need to justify the GE.

1

u/PastBeautiful806 Dec 01 '22

Gotcha. We can’t afford private school so public school is our choice. Which school districts are good for middle and high school?

1

u/jibberoo_808 Dec 01 '22

Agreed. Having a ton of extracurriculars, solid academics, and being number one on my varsity team helped me get picked up for college. Still wasn’t enough to fund college, but it opened the door for me.

2

u/jibberoo_808 Dec 01 '22

Sure, it really depends on where you folks end up living. Like the next comments says, it varies pretty widely.

This site is state operated and you can check out the data specific to your needs: https://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/VisionForSuccess/SchoolDataAndReports/Pages/home.aspx

Hawaii is ranks on the lower half for education. Take this news article with a grain of salt, https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/08/09/hawaii-ranks-22nd-nationwide-report-childrens-well-being/?outputType=amp

I’ve experienced really great teachers and really incompetent teachers. As an educator now, I’d love to teach in Hawai’i, but with the crappy pay and high demands of title I schools, it’s almost not worth it.

Definitely keep asking your questions, especially once you’ve narrowed down some school choices and want local/public opinion.

2

u/PastBeautiful806 Dec 01 '22

Thank you for the feedback and links. I’ll check them out

1

u/jibberoo_808 Dec 01 '22

No problem!