Star-Bulletin revisits Puna real estate
Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 09:27AM More articles on Puna real estate appear in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin (here and here) that seem to be more substantial follow-ups to previous articles that appeared in the New York Times and by the same writer in the Star-Bulletin itself. Focusing largely on insurance problems, the articles make one fleeting reference to public safety issues that might freak out potential homeowners more than the threat of lava if the problem were fleshed out. (Maybe that will come in the next article.)
Somewhere in these stories it ought to be pointed out that you can't rely on the police or fire departments to be at your door promptly when you call from these remote stretches of Puna. That's not a knock of police officers or firefighters, but on the slow reactions of county officials to respond to growing problems, as mentioned by Planning Director Chris Yuen.
Hawaii County currently faces an escalating public safety crisis with a dire shortage of qualified police recruits, resulting in more than 10 percent of funded police positions remaining vacant, being just one example. We can complain that plans for Pahoa's new police station are on hold while looking for a new site to replace the lava tube-laced 19-acre parcel land -- a gift from the state -- where it was supposed to be built. Only the new fire station will be built there now because of its instability. But a new police station won't do much good if there aren't enough police officers to staff it.
Incidentally, the lava zone map published with the Star-Bulletin story that often is used to determine whether a property owner can get insurance or not was the topic of discussion at a Main Street Pahoa Association meeting recently. Apparently little is known about how the hazard map was developed and a committee was assigned to look into its origins with an eye toward revising it to be less restrictive on development.
A tip of the hat to Wankine for being up early this morning and alerting me to the Star-Bulletin stories.
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Reader Comments (3)
"We have some severe problems right now, but the government tends to react to problems when they become really apparent."
If the problems are severe, why are they not already apparent to the politicians? Could it be because we don't have the sort of assertive representation on the Council that we need? Could it be that even with better representation, the rest of the Council would continue its entrenched habit of ignoring Puna's needs because of our low-rent, hippie reputation? With the population growth of the island being concentrated here, we should eventually have more clout on the council, but that won't happen unless we lose our apathy and start electing people who have the ability to forge alliances and get things done.
Of course, they say money talks. Maybe if the County gets slapped with a multi-million lawsuit over one of the safety issues, things might change. Or not.
We the community go to them and come up with some real solutions like roundabouts and ways of eliminating left hand turns on highway #130 and they all but laugh at us. Left on their own look at the wonderful job they do. The best part of it all is that nobody, I repeat, NOBODY is held accountable for these massive blunders. Hey, all you tax payers get ready to dig a little deeper the baby needs new shoes.
The Lack