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+--- Thread: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) (/showthread.php?tid=17999)
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Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - AKpilot - 01-21-2017
Reading everyone's discussion regarding a "Beat Cop" in Pahoa brings up something I have wondered for the past little while.
I used to spend half the year in and around Pahoa about 5-6 years ago. It was my haunt for a solid 2 years. I adored it and proudly called myself a Punatic! It had this wonderful goofy, quirky, country feel to it. Lopsided sidewalks, Hippy shops, pizza joints, a marvouls Italian restaurant with mismatched tables and plates a grocery store reminiscent of the little grocery stores of my childhood. I was occasional approached by a polite guy or gal wondering if I wanted some Pakalolo, but they never hassled me. Pahoa positively bustled! I was no downtown Hilo, but I remember every store front was occupied.
Back then I made a few trips to Honokaa and it was a dead as a doormat. Most storefronts vacant and some even abandoned.
Now I live near Honokaa and the place is growing leaps and bounds. We are pulling to gather as a community in ways I am so proud of. We are beating the dust out our little town and good things are on the horizon.
I have been shocked at my trips to Pahoa before and after the Lava flow. The heart seems to have disappeared from little Pahoa. It seems like old Honokaa, sad, forgotten and lost. I don't feel unsafe there, but I have lived in the bad parts of a few major metropolisis.
What do you guys think happened?
AKpilot
We're all here, because we're not all there!
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - punaticbychoice - 01-21-2017
Money, political savvy, and a more stable area- lava wise, etc,,,,.
Just compare those factors. For example:
Honoka'a / Hamakua- Hawai'i County Council. Dominic Yagong, Valerie Poindexter.
Pahoa / Puna - Emily Neaole, Fred Blas, etc,,,,,,,,.
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - Linchpin - 01-21-2017
I have not been to Honokaa in over a year, and even then was on a Sunday when most things were closed up. I had imagined it to be a nice place on the average day/evening though, maybe me and the family will make our way up there soon enough.
As for Pahoa, I can only tell you that I stayed out of town other than for banking.
When I first moved to Pahoa (Lielani), I thought I would love the town and made every attempt to patronize the shops there. That changed pretty quick.
Driving down the main drag was like a slalom course with the constant fear that someone was just going to fall over in front of your vehicle from being too damned high or their legs just giving out under the weight of their own mental ineptness. Nowhere to park! Sure, you could pull down this alley or that side street. But when the only available parking space is littered with the broken glass of the last poor bastard that parked there... no thanks, I think I'll keep going. And if you did find a place to park you'd have to walk through the most vile cloud of cigarette smoke and body odor to get to any of the shops. The food at the eateries was completely inconsistent from one meal to the next. And if I had a nickel for every time I turned someone down asking for pocket change or wanting me to give them and their filthy dog a ride to Kalapana then I could afford to live in Waimea. But at least the book store was a nice place.
I'm sure the place had its charm at one time. But it would seem to me that the only charm left is in the nostalgia of those who remember such days.
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - bluesboy - 01-21-2017
they're both pretty good. pahoa is a bit more happenin'.
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - randomq - 01-23-2017
The body odor thing drives a lot of people away. If you can beg for money for a latte, you can beg for a bar of soap... We live in a rain-forest, the water is free.
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - Slow Walker - 01-23-2017
quote:
Originally posted by AKpilot
Reading everyone's discussion regarding a "Beat Cop" in Pahoa brings up something I have wondered for the past little while.
I used to spend half the year in and around Pahoa about 5-6 years ago. It was my haunt for a solid 2 years. I adored it and proudly called myself a Punatic! It had this wonderful goofy, quirky, country feel to it. Lopsided sidewalks, Hippy shops, pizza joints, a marvouls Italian restaurant with mismatched tables and plates a grocery store reminiscent of the little grocery stores of my childhood. I was occasional approached by a polite guy or gal wondering if I wanted some Pakalolo, but they never hassled me. Pahoa positively bustled! I was no downtown Hilo, but I remember every store front was occupied.
Back then I made a few trips to Honokaa and it was a dead as a doormat. Most storefronts vacant and some even abandoned.
Now I live near Honokaa and the place is growing leaps and bounds. We are pulling to gather as a community in ways I am so proud of. We are beating the dust out our little town and good things are on the horizon.
I have been shocked at my trips to Pahoa before and after the Lava flow. The heart seems to have disappeared from little Pahoa. It seems like old Honokaa, sad, forgotten and lost. I don't feel unsafe there, but I have lived in the bad parts of a few major metropolisis.
What do you guys think happened?
AKpilot
We're all here, because we're not all there!
Your problem is easy to solve. If can Can If no can No Can.
If you like Pahoa please come by... If you dont like Pahoa pass us by.
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - Linchpin - 01-24-2017
quote:Just what exactly was his problem that can so easily be solved with a can? A can of what?
Originally posted by Slow Walker
quote:
Originally posted by AKpilot
Reading everyone's discussion regarding a "Beat Cop" in Pahoa brings up something I have wondered for the past little while.
I used to spend half the year in and around Pahoa about 5-6 years ago. It was my haunt for a solid 2 years. I adored it and proudly called myself a Punatic! It had this wonderful goofy, quirky, country feel to it. Lopsided sidewalks, Hippy shops, pizza joints, a marvouls Italian restaurant with mismatched tables and plates a grocery store reminiscent of the little grocery stores of my childhood. I was occasional approached by a polite guy or gal wondering if I wanted some Pakalolo, but they never hassled me. Pahoa positively bustled! I was no downtown Hilo, but I remember every store front was occupied.
Back then I made a few trips to Honokaa and it was a dead as a doormat. Most storefronts vacant and some even abandoned.
Now I live near Honokaa and the place is growing leaps and bounds. We are pulling to gather as a community in ways I am so proud of. We are beating the dust out our little town and good things are on the horizon.
I have been shocked at my trips to Pahoa before and after the Lava flow. The heart seems to have disappeared from little Pahoa. It seems like old Honokaa, sad, forgotten and lost. I don't feel unsafe there, but I have lived in the bad parts of a few major metropolisis.
What do you guys think happened?
AKpilot
We're all here, because we're not all there!
Your problem is easy to solve. If can Can If no can No Can.
If you like Pahoa please come by... If you dont like Pahoa pass us by.
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - Chas - 01-24-2017
quote:
Originally posted by Linchpin
Just what exactly was his problem that can so easily be solved with a can? A can of what?
He "can" solve his problem by employing the "can/no can" principle.
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RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - reni - 01-24-2017
"Now I live near Honokaa and the place is growing leaps and bounds. We are pulling to gather as a community in ways I am so proud of. We are beating the dust out our little town and good things are on the horizon.
I have been shocked at my trips to Pahoa before and after the Lava flow. The heart seems to have disappeared from little Pahoa. It seems like old Honokaa, sad, forgotten and lost."
We lived at the top of Ahualoa for many years, Honokaa was a great little town! The sewer project did quite a bit of damage to the viability of it's small businesses . The road of course was disrupted and the tourist trade was cut off. Many of the small businesses could not remain afloat. I agree that Honokaa town is making a comeback and I am so happy to see it thrive once again.
Both Pahoa and Honokaa have the quaint historical structures but I would say the similarities end there.
RE: Downtown Pahoa vs Honokaa (what's the difference?) - kalakoa - 01-25-2017
Honokaa is a little town with hardy any commerce
Economic reality underscored with a "no-development" CDP posture.
Honokaa and the surrounding area's land values are 3 plus times greater than the general value of land throughout Puna.
Which valuation follows the lava zoning (by some "amazing coincidence").