Hawaii ranked worst state to make a living

[Wao nahele kane]

Kalakoa,
I saw all the signs over on Oahu just last week, "Keep the country, country", "No New City", etc. Oahu blows away the Big Island aesthetically speaking beach and mountain terrain wise, incredible topography to say the least. Beautiful Island on the greater East coast side but no need to mention the interior and south side of the island. I haven't yet visited the West side but hope to on the next visit there.

In reality, Hawaii's growth is slow relative to other States, so Puna's growth rate deemed fastest isn't saying much on a national level and even less when one considers that it's not based on an actual growth in a traditional sense but rather increasing occupancies of parcels that have been available for occupancy for half a century already. If someone slapped in a new subdivision complete with $500k homes (cheap by Oahu standards)here in Puna... that developer would go belly up and the properties would end up taken over by the lending party.

[rainyjim]

Despite your 'if' assertions, comparison to Oahu, and the mainland ... Here we are

Still the fastest growing in the state

Why? Because they built the subdivisions and people are coming...

So back at ya - nice try!

[Wao nahele kane]

Rainyjim... Then you're all set to make a large scale investment then because that's what I was referencing (go back and read it again), toss in a shopping mall, commercial business center and a few 1000 parcel subdivisions with $500k homes on them ("BUILD IT"). Land development isn't building.
Nice try but you were off track from the get go.

As per actual growth... Honolulu has Puna beat hands down. When was the last time you saw a high-rise crane operating in Puna? I saw a couple over in Honolulu as we drove the hell out of there as quick as possible.

[rainyjim]

Wait a tick,

Whats this about a 50 million dollar park in HPP?

And a whole new business center in Keaau?

Oh wait those must not count because they don't support your opinion...oh yeah, I forgot.

[Wao nahele kane]

Go take a trip to Oahu... there's a whole heck of a lot more growing wise out there.

[Wao nahele kane]

Let me refresh your memory rainjim...
"When one considers the places least likely to be inundated by lava (the northerly slopes of the Mauna Kea and above) there isn't a whole lot of land to develop to mainland standards here on the Big Island. No large scale investment will take place here beyond a few Waikaloas here and there and therefore no big cities will form South of Mauna Kea.

"If you build it, they will come." does not apply to Puna."

This means Puna will never be like Honolulu "big cities" and just because you build something regarding a "large scale" investment does not mean it will become occupied here. Shipman Business Park is still mostly vacant several years after its creation and that was not a "large scale investment", small potatoes in the realm of property development and construction investments.

Hell... the cost and scale of the Kapiolani Hospital addition and renovation project alone blows away everything combined in Puna over the past 2 or more decades growth scale and financial investment wise.

That also means that just because a dirt road is paved it doesn't translate to mass people inundating the area and moving in or new developments being put in. Just because something is provided here does not mean it will be capitalized upon. Very few people, and keep in mind that 40,000 to even giving you the golden egg of a future 100,000 people isn't many people in an area the size of Puna. Puna will never be a Honolulu as long as Kilauea continues to breath. Sometime in the near future Kilauea will send lava across 130 and Puna's population will stop growing and decline while many business in the area will pull out for decades thereafter. Any and all "growth" here is a fleeting occurrence and certainly not large scale by any means. I specifically chose this area to live because I knew its growth potential was minimal and fleeting at best compared to other warm climate regions around the nation.

[shockwave rider]

There are major urban centers in the path of far more dangerous volcanoes than ours, Seattle comes to mind, so I don't Kilauea is what is going to keep this part of Hawaii from urbanizing.

[Wao nahele kane]

Seattle and Mount Rainier/Baker on its, as I recall, once every 250,000 year eruption cycle? An eruption that won't reach Seattle but its ash fall might if the prevailing winds just happen to be coming from an odd East or South East direction respectively? I doubt Seattle would be harmed much from a Mount Rainier/Baker eruption but maybe a lahar in the rivers could cause a bit of havoc and Tacoma might get some bad lahars rushing through some of its local rivers from Raindog, maybe.

Remember, it isn't Seattle or Tacoma that has property insurance problems and loan restrictions due to volcanic activity, that is exclusive to the Big Islands LZ 1 - 2 and a great deal of that is in Puna. That alone does indeed impede development in Puna.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

For everyone who wants to start farming vegetables there's an even scheduled August 15 on Oahu:
The Dirt on Soilless Agriculture
An all-day conference focused on soilless agriculture solutions that affect Hawai‘i presented by Mari’s Gardens

http://www.marisgardensevents.com

[bananahead]

I worked a 40 hour 5 day week indoor union job for many years when I lived in NorCal. Now back in Hawaii, I 'work' ONLY as much as I have too. Im sure we are at bottom of list for 'workaholics' too, or people going 'postal'... etc.

My take...

Kauai... everyone goes to sleep and island dies at 7PM, no jobs besides some tourist/farmer stuff

Oahu... too crowded and for 9-5/ 5 days week guys, way too much fun/nightlife/beach to work 40 hours unless needed, but this island obviously has most of the bigger $$ 'indoor' jobs.. but also alot of hotel related ones too. rent sucks up most, the only island where you may need 2 jobs to live...

Molokai... no jobs... ie In 2008 community members successfully opposed the development company Molokai Ranch's attempt to expand through the "Save La'au Point" movement. As a result, on March 24, 2008 what was then the island's largest employer decided to shut down all operations including hotels, movie theater, restaurants, and golf course, etc. Molokai has Hawaii's highest unemployment rate...

Maui.... lots of hotel/golf related jobs, not much else, not cheap to rent buy

Lanai... Pineapple all pau, some golf, little bit of tourist...

BI
Kohala.... some jobs, mostly low pay hotel type jobs taken by Filipinos, nonUS citizens, etc., or landscaping tourist related...
Kona... lots of lower pay coffee house, restaurant, bigbox/mall, tourist related jobs, some airport some fishing but nothing really high paying compared to many states or Oahu
Kau... they shot themselves in head, killed the cattle, killed the sugar, and killed the NASA crap.. they deserve it... best job, Malama Market or Punaluu Bakery, or taking tourists 4X4ing to GreenSands
Puna... lots of farming, farmers market stuff, no good county jobs unless non-haole... what do you expect when you have only 11 traffic signals in 500 square miles of land... (city of Honolulu has over 800 alone).. no one pays taxes for growing pakalolo or housing / entertaining WWOOFers for $25/week either.. so no count
Hilo... most gov/county jobs, but not easy for haole, no hotel jobs, no golf stuff either, some farming, some university/hospital some tourist some airport
Hamakua.... farming then zip (not zipline... nada)

Kahoolawe.... just kidding

Vegas.. has the most jobs, but lacks beaches, coconut trees, waterfalls, live green plants, and outdoor fun, is 100% lame unless you work the streets, mix drinks, or just want a crappy one-dimensional unparadise-like seedy lame life

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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha