City Profiles / Large Cities / Honolulu, HI

Honolulu, Hawaii

Air Quality

Being thousands of ocean miles away from any other major city gives Honolulu a natural advantage when it comes to air quality. One unusual threat, however, arises from the volcanic activity at the Kilauea crater, creating pollutants not measured by the Environmental Protection Agencies Air Quality Index. In Hawaii, the Clean Air Branch of the State Department of Health monitors ambient air, which generally has lower levels of ozone and particulate matter because of an abundance of rain and wind along with the low population density and limited heavy industry on the islands.

Standard of Living

Although Honolulu has been criticized for being unaffordable, in January 2009 the state agency, The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., agreed to further funding of the Stanford Carr affordable rental development in the Kakaako neighborhood of the city. Halekauwila Place will have 201 units on 1.75 acres of leased state land and will be available to moderate- and low-income renters.