Bill: Place Markers To Indicate Obama’s Life In Hawaii

The legislation proposes that sites like Punahou School and Island Snow be recognized.

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Senate Bill 2031 at the Hawaii State Legislature would require the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to place markers throughout the state to indicate “significant sites” in the life of Barack Obama, the Hawaii-born U.S. president.

President Obama, who once worked at Baskin-Robbins, at Pearl Harbor in 2016. Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat

Those sites include but are not limited to places where the 44th POTUS lived, played and worked while growing up here:

  • 6085 Kalanianaole Highway;
  • Baskin-Robbins on King Street;
  • Island Snow;
  • Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children;
  • Koko Crater Trail;
  • Noelani Elementary School;
  • Punahou Circle Apartments;
  • Punahou School; and
  • Sandy Beach.

The dollar amount in the bill is currently blank, as is common at this point in the legislative session, but would come from the State Historic Preservation Division in DLNR.

SB 2031, which has a hearing set for Thursday afternoon, is sponsored by Sens. Stanley Chang, Roz Baker, Dru Kanuha, Brian Taniguchi and Glenn Wakai — all Democrats, just like Obama.

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