Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Property is a cultural as well as a legal regime, and so is real estate development. Laws regarding property regimes combine with what Carol M. Rose calls “property as story telling” to create new configurations of residential space. Real estate development is the product of legal regimes and market forces, but development also entails persuasive narratives that see the place in compelling ways that make people comfortable with the new living spaces and link them with important cultural ideas about home and family. This paper continues my research into the ways that legal property regimes combine with narratives about property to create new residential space. It looks at the ways these narrative emerged to convince people that suburban tract development was the best way for people to see the future of the land that was to become a suburban tract primarily single-family home development called Kapolei. Kapolei emerged (and continues to emerge) at a time when there is much criticism of these tract developments. My previous work has looked at the ways condominiums, a new property regime, became sacred space. The paper stresses the ways that the concept of “Second City” has been used as a visual and aural metaphor to convince others that these kinds of developments were still the model. The narratives do so by linking Kapolei to a legitimate past and an acceptable future.