Luquin's

[leilaniguy]

So, whats up with the blockage at the front entrance of Luquin's parking lot?

[csgray]

My guess is either someone complained/threatened to sue over the giant suspension eating crater where you first drive in off the street, or they got tired of having a lot full of cars and no customers actually in the restaurant. Salvador spent a lot of money to buy that lot, he asked the other business on main street if they wanted to go in on it and they all refused, so he has been carrying the financial burden of providing the parking lot for all of downtown Pahoa for years now, maybe he just got sick of it.

Carol

[lavalava]

Ahhh, sitting at Boogie Woogies sidewalk tables, enjoying a slice and watching all the rental cars taking that driveway too fast. Their faces are priceless!!

[Tink]

There goes the downtown entertainment!!

Are you a human being, or a human doing?

[justthefacts]

I like to go there at night , dinner so now how do you enter ? on the side only ?

[csgray]

The back entrance across from the community center is ungated, and the sign they put out fronts says to use that entrance.

Carol

[pahoated]

Might be to get ready for the detour, so people become accustomed to not walk aimlessly out of that parking lot and cross the street. It was a convenient way to use that parking for general parking and then just cut across the street through the open gate. It's like all shortcuts, they get too busy for their own good.

"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"

[Rene Siracusa]

Only one business owner in Pahoa chipped in to cover parking lot expenses: Pahoa Puna Buy & Sell.

[shave_ice]

Really he is concerned with the parking? How about the drunkards that are arguing and fighting in front of the Akebono theatre on a daily basis. Today there was a guy taking a piss in the parking lot in full view of the Boys and Girls Club. Classy. I'd be more concerned with that rather than tourists temporarily parking there.

[csgray]

It's not the tourists who fill up Luquin's lot so there is no parking for their customers, it's people who live here, unless they've greatly diversified the rent-a-car fleet. We've been unable to find a spot for our car on a Friday or Saturday night, and then walked into the restaurant after parking past the community center and been almost the only table in the place. It costs a lot of money to buy and maintain a parking lot in Pahoa, commercial real estate in Pahoa Village costs almost as much as the same size piece of land in downtown Hilo. That is not a public parking lot, it is private property which the owner bought to provide parking for customers for his business, the other businesses were offered a chance to share in that cost to provide parking for their customers as well, and most refused. It is unfair for people to expect Luquin's to provide free parking for all the businesses on that strip.

The drunk people who hang out and do things like pee in public are a problem all through "downtown" Pahoa, not just that parking lot. Luquin's is just one of many businesses who have to deal with those guys, trying to just use the community center bathroom is like running a gauntlet. If the cops walked through downtown a couple of random times a day for a month it would really change things, now they don't even drive through unless someone calls them. Tiffany Hunt used to post how long it took them to respond to her call when she caught shoplifters in the act of stealing from her.


Carol