Talk:Aina Haina, Hawaii

Aina Haina was part of the first near suburb developed in the late 1940s. The trolley line, and later the bus, ran a circuit through the valley. At that time, housing in Hawaii was developed around ethnic and racial lines. In part this was an offshoot of the plantation days, when pineapple and sugar cane were king. While Kalanianaole Highway serves as Aina Haina's southern boundary, the neighborhood is also bounded by Hawaii Loa ridge--also part of the Hind lands, but developed later, in the early 1980s--to the East, and Waialae Iki ridge to the West.

The developer's intent was to provide returning veterans from World War II the opportunity to buy homes. Aina Haina is not an unincorporated town, but rather a neighborhood which now encompases all of Wailupe valley. (The old Hind Dairy lands included only the front of the valley.) Japanese-, Chinese-, Filipino-Americans, along with Hawaiians, other Pacific Islanders, Portuguese and a few Jewish families, populated this valley over time. There were Hawaiian families employed by the dairy long before the commercial development for housing began after WW II. They built their homes at the upper end of the valley, where it was much cooler than the arid flatlands.

Across from Aina Haina, on the ocean side of Kalanianaole Highway, is located the more upscale area known as the Wailupe peninsula. There, only Caucasians, both veterans and professionals, built homes more elaborate than those in Aina Haina. Any veterans of color who expressed an interest were quickly directed to Aina Haina.

The shopping center at the mouth of the valley was the location of the first McDonald's in the Hawaiian Islands.