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+--- Thread: Crime in Pahoa (/showthread.php?tid=17864)
RE: Crime in Pahoa - jensurf47 - 12-04-2016
Thank you all so much for the info! I have read every link and I really appreciate the time. This forum has solidified my plan to rent/ explore the island for a year before making a decision. Mahalo!!
RE: Crime in Pahoa - Kenney - 12-04-2016
There are lots of Nurses here in HPP. It's always a commute to work, but do-able. I moved here because I didn't want to do the long commute from neighborhoods beyond Pahoa. Aside from a couple tiny Dr. Offices, Urgent Care and one Clinic, in Pahoa and Kea'au, all RN work in this area is in Hilo.
You won't have any problem finding work. Experienced Nurses are always needed. I have never been without work here if I wanted it.
Good luck finding your place just right!
RE: Crime in Pahoa - jensurf47 - 12-04-2016
Thank you Kenney! I have 24 years of experience as an RN and I work in the ED - looking forward to getting my Hawaii License [
] and working in Hilo!
RE: Crime in Pahoa - VancouverIslander - 12-04-2016
There's a lot of good advice being dispensed here. Rent first is a good one, preferably in the neighbourhood you are interested in. Leilani is considered one of the nicest subdivisions in Puna by many people, but of course opinions vary. There is some crime. You don't leave your house vacant for long periods of time (days) without someone watching it for you. It's a good idea to have a dog to make sure people respect the no trespassing signs. My mainland home is in one of the safest places in North America, you can literally leave the house unlocked for weeks and go on holidays (or at least we could until our foster daughter needed to move back in with us and it turned out she had developed a drug habit and robbed us and now we had to change the locks and are in the habit of locking our doors when we go out again). Our place in Eden Roc we could probably leave unlocked most days, but there are enough thieves that we'd lock up when we go out. Our tenants there right now have had one thief attempt to get in in a year and a half. The two previous tenants reported no problems. The worst theft we had was our 'caretaker' who took some building materials and a generator, but there were some extenuating circumstances there.
There are a number of odd characters out there, and some gravitate to Pahoa. I'd suspect you'd have fewer in Leilani. Smile and nod, but it's probably good to not get to know them. It's important to have good neighbours. They are the people that will keep an eye on the street and give the 'stink eye' to anyone who doesn't belong or looks like they are doing recon work for a thief. I don't know if this advice is universally useful in all of Puna, but I know it's good for Eden Roc, Fern Forest and Hawaiian Acres, and it's probably good for others as well.
A funny story, when we first bought our place a girl in a gas station asked us where we were from, and we told her about our mainland home and that we'd bought in Eden Roc. Her eyes got a bit wide and said she thought it was too scary to go out there. I asked some friends in the neighbourhood about it and they said when they first moved there, it was a bit on the scary side Bonnie said single women would usually get an escort when they drove in just to be on the safe side. Now it's much better.
Traffic from Hilo to Pahoa can be pretty bad at rush hour. Not SoCal bad, but it can take a while during peak hours. I'm sure others will have an accurate time on how long it takes from each subdivision. I've never found it too bad coming from up Volcano way on Hwy 11. It does slow down a fair bit as you get to the Kea'au intersection and comes slowly in to Hilo after that, but not the almost dead stop of LA at rush hour.
A lot of newcomers don't last more than a year. For some, they can't handle being a long way from family and friends. For some, it's just too different. Being white is being a minority in Hilo, and for some, it's just too much, while others are just fine with it. There's not a lot in the way of night life, but there is a lot of culture if you look for it, and a lot of outdoor activities. The Island almost shuts down after dark, and if your job allows, you get used to living with the natural rhythm of the diurnal cycle. Wake up with the birds, go to sleep with the chorus of the coqui frogs. Go on YouTube and google coqui frogs and Puna to see if you like it or if it would drive you crazy. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBSQ7sah3I
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
RE: Crime in Pahoa - jensurf47 - 12-05-2016
Thank you for the thoughtful reply Mike. We are looking forward to exploring the Big Island and will take all the advice we have been so graciously given and put it to good use. Mahalo for your time!
RE: Crime in Pahoa - Justin - 12-05-2016
My wife and I moved to Leilani about six years ago. We looked in HPP and Hawaiian Acres, but picked Leilani because it was closest to "town", it had the best roads, and it had dedicated cable internet. We work from home, so this was important. We also have a Verizon-based mi-fi for when the cable goes down (much less frequent in the last 2-3 years than the first 2-3 years).
Upper Leilani, the part closest to Highway 130, is only 5-10 minutes from Pahoa. The area from Maile to Moku is in Leilani Phase 2, and the part from 130 to Maile is Leilani Phase 1. Phase 1 has less building restrictions, but unpaved roads. Best as I can tell, being closer to a corner or on/near a "busy" street is better in terms of theft. Reason being, if you're on a street where there is hardly any traffic, no one is going to see any snoopers, unless you have a close neighbor. In that vein, we initially didn't like that our house is visible from the street, but now we kind of like it, as it is a double-edged sword. If the house and driveway are in plain view, people driving past will notice when there is an out-of-place car there.
With cable, there is now the option for having a remote security system that could allow you to arm/disarm/view your house from your cell phone at any time. Our alarm has gone off a couple of times, but they were thankfully all false alarms or contractors that didn't get to the keypad soon enough.
In terms of traffic, I drove from Leilani into Hilo last week to take my parents to the airport. We left at 8:30 and were in town by 9:00, without a hint of traffic. Having lived in Los Angeles and San Diego beforehand, Pahoa-Hilo traffic is laughable, but it still sucks when it does pop up, as it's frustrating to be stuck with so few cars on the road. It also sucks when there is an accident, as there are no real alternatives to Highway 130 (plenty on Punaweb if you want to read about that).
We rented a house in Leilani 6 years ago when looking for homes, and made sure to go into town for lunch, dinner, shopping, etc., just to make sure we felt there was enough infrastructure. If you're going into Hilo only 3 times a week, that might be helpful in terms of using your commute home to stock up on "Hilo" items that you can't get in Pahoa, such as furniture, big bulk items, and so on.
Finally, I never have felt unsafe in Pahoa. There are definitely some interesting characters, but pretty much everyone I've met is harmless - just odd birds here and there. Best of luck on your house hunting.
RE: Crime in Pahoa - kalakoa - 12-05-2016
there are no real alternatives to Highway 130
No fake ones, either.
RE: Crime in Pahoa - Kapoho Joe - 12-06-2016
I always chuckle when the local 'toughs' wear the shirt that says "Straight Outta Puna" as if Puna was anyway relatable to Compton.
RE: Crime in Pahoa - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 12-06-2016
the local 'toughs' wear the shirt that says "Straight Outta Puna"
A more appropriate catchphrase for those guys might be:
Straight To DVD
“There's no such thing, unfortunately, anymore as facts." Trump spokeswoman Scottie Hughes
RE: Crime in Pahoa - kalakoa - 12-06-2016
Straight To DVD
...because streaming requires broaband...