I just moved from hawaii. Lived there the past 3-4 years.
And hell no, its not paradise. Its a nice place for a vacation, but living there sucks (unless you live in Hawaii Kai and have a crap load of money).
Most areas in hawaii have crime problems like you would see in the mainland, and generally people aren't any more friendly than anywhere else. In fact, if your white (haole), then there are quite a few local people who wil be more inclined to give you problems. I would highly recommend it for a place to visit for 2 weeks, but to live there...hell no. At least I wouldn't.