On this January evening, instead of focusing on mixed-media artwork in her home studio, Laura Ruby was trying to convince her neighborhood board that a proposed pedestrian bridge across the Ala Wai Canal out of Waikīkī was bad news.
The bridge would disrupt activities at a park on the Mōʻiliʻili side where she lives, Ruby said. It would expose the community to “extreme contact with tourists, vagrants and criminal transients.” It would be too expensive. It would be too tall.
Then she pulled out the big guns: Before the planning goes any further, Ruby said, it needs more environmental scrutiny…