quote:
Originally posted by MarkD
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I imagine that TVR areas could be expanded or even new ones created, if public sentiment supported that and compelled legislative action. I am not virulently anti-TVR.
I just find sentiment here on Punatalk almost 100% no TVR regulation, and I think alternative views ought to be aired. Is the following really feasible?
"Imagine the housing crisis if thousands of people reliant on this tourist industry start losing work because of the disappearance of tourism."
I don't recall Hawaii ever having a problem housing all its tourists. TVRs were virtually non-existent 25 years ago. Hotels have always handled Hawaii's visitors (there are thousands of rooms).
Hotels have high fixed costs, including large infrastructure requiring periodic refurbishment and high employee costs.
A possible outcome in the TVR trend statewide--if it continues to expand--is some hotels essentially being put out of business. This would be a rather amazing story.
Perhaps in 50 years giant buildings sitting vacant along Hawaii shorelines. Maybe we can put the homeless in the closed hotels. (The rooms are not that suitable as normal rentals; they mostly do not have kitchens and are hard to convert that way.) Should this be a concern?
Sometimes MarkD you do come up with some pretty strange thoughts... There have been times when insufficient accommodations were available for the tourists - in the sense you intended, back years ago there would be occasional calls for people to open their homes (in Honolulu - at a time when that was practically your only option) when the number of tourists exceeded the hotel rooms on Oanu. But in another sense, it occurs every year during he Merrie Monarch festival: if you don't have your hotel room reserved a year in advance, you are SOL. There are no small number of attendees who commute over from Kona because there is absolutely nothing available in Hilo.
Do you really think that that the TVR areas would be expanded, under any circumstances? The current zoning laws are made for large scale investors - who can spend a decade or more of litigation and extortion in hopes of getting a large parcel rezoned and it's value increased by hundreds of percent - and no small number go broke in the attempt. You are dreaming if you think a small number of TVR operators could get something done to expand the TVR areas.
And there are visitors, like myself, who would much prefer almost anything to the conventional, sterile, cookie-cutter hotel room. There are more than enough visitors who are happy with hotel rooms that the current hotels aren't in any danger of going out of business - but, of course, they would prefer to be the only game in town...
This is just another case of the unions and a small number of chronic whiners and malcontents crying to the Council and the idiot council members doing their bidding at the expense of the larger community.
And, just for the record, I don't operate a TVR, have never operated a TVR, and don't ever expect to operate one... But I'm getting thoroughly sick of our political leaders jumping at every possible opportunity to shut down economic activity on our island while bemoaning the plight of the poor and homeless.... and claiming that they need to raise our taxes because there isn't enough economic activity to pay for all the government they think we need...
