Time to begin discussing Puna lava viewing site

[MarkD]

Hot air balloons - excellent idea, HOTPE

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AaronM:
Wow Mark. People are still living in shelters, tents and vehicles and you think the County should spend time and money figuring out how to pander to the tourism industry?

Thanks for nothing pal.

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Lemmie see if I got this straight (and AaronM wasn't the only one to comment this way):

Lava viewing in HVNP is fine. We all welcome that.

But not in Puna because of the widespread devastation to Puna homes. Built in Zone 1 lava flow terrain.

Which posters on other threads repeatedly derided as foolish decision-making (so much so that I opined that such sentiment was inappropriate at this time.)

I'll reverse my view: If the state and county had acted wisely and never allowed these subdivisions, we might not be having this discussion.

The lava would be spewing in an uninhabited area and officials could move promptly to set up viewing. (Well, maybe not Hawaii County officials moving promptly, but capable officials in most any municipality would have done this.)

Why? Because aside from the destruction of homes, this lava event has 1) shut down HVNP and 2) indirectly affected a large part of East Hawaii.

Result: Major economic losses to thousands of people in East Hawaii. Business owners. Their employees. People with rent due and mortgages and food bills to pay.

What about them? Don't they count for anything?

By the way, when HVNP reopens, do you think the visitor count will magically bounce back to 5,000 a day? With no more lava viewing from Jagger outlook because the level in the Halamaumau crater has dropped? With the valued coastal recreation area at the Kapoho tidepools gone?

Many East Hawaii visitors came for both HVNP and Puna shoreline recreation.

East Hawaii's economic woes are growing by the day. We need any help or advantage we can get. Fissure 8 lava viewing should be considered even when HVNP opens.

[glassnumbers]

anti development efforts makes sense in many places, preserving the land. The anti-tourist thing though never made any sense to me. Go drive around Kona or Kohala, then drive around literally any other part of the island. You'll see a huge difference, because Kona is the main tourist spot, so funds are constantly sent there to keep it shiny. Without the tourists, what would Hawai'i's economy be based upon, what's the alternative? Anti development kind of painted everyone on the island into a corner tourism-wise, as there isn't any industry for any other commercial enterprise available that could provide the same income.

I don't like to trot this out because it's what people talk about when they are super high, but lets be real. Imagine if cannabis were legal to just be grown here in Hawai'i. We'd no longer be almost totally dependent on tourism, our crops could make enough money to supplement the tourist income. Plus, it's Hawai'i, the kind of tourists that tend to visit here are also tourists that tend to be willing to at least try cannabis, especially if it's legal. Basically what I'm saying is that legalizing cannabis would not only make Hawai'i no longer what, 90, 80% dependent on tourism, it would also boost tourism itself.

Aloha

[MarkD]

It's not an anti-tourist thing: a significant number of Kapoho property owners had B&Bs. Tourists helped the livelihoods of many people in Puna, even the guy in the parking lot of Ahalanui Park who used to sell coconuts to visitors.

I'm still trying to figure out the logic of my critics. It seems that logic is in short supply.

[Rob Tucker]

One mistake a lot of people make here is thinking other people should agree with them. Keep your expectations low and you won't get so upset.

Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator

[glassnumbers]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkD

It's not an anti-tourist thing: a significant number of Kapoho property owners had B&Bs. Tourists helped the livelihoods of many people in Puna, even the guy in the parking lot of Ahalanui Park who used to sell coconuts to visitors.

I'm still trying to figure out the logic of my critics. It seems that logic is in short supply.

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It could be the kind of thing that moves people to buy caskets that cost thousands of dollars just to house a dead body. Grief over traumatic events tends to scramble peoples logic circuits.

Aloha

[PaulW]

To fix this we (the island) need money. Tourists bring money.
Those who are anti-tourist are entitled to their opinions but do they realize what they're doing to their neighbors?

The best thing any tourist island anywhere can do after a natural disaster is get the tourists back.

[terracore]

"You do realize that tourism is the only industry we have"

Not true. We have telescopes and telescope construction.

Oh wait. My bad, nevermind.

[punaticbychoice]

HOTPE @ 08:38:33 06/10/2018-
Hot air balloon- not a bad idea.
I have some idea of how to inflate balloon.
But won't insult anyone right now.
Besides, you couldn't get them in the same time and place
to do something constructive anyway.[:o)]

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I have some idea of how to inflate balloon.

If that can't be coordinated, there might be a local fuel source available, maybe even at an economically fire-sale price in the future - - pentane. Lot's of it too.

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[Punatic007]

I hugely appreciate the presence of the Nat'l Guard and HPD and their check points. Many Puna folks including me are in and out of our homes at a moments notice due to the proximity of the lava and/or the dangerous fumes. Looting is a real problem, keeping out the criminal by allowing residents only is a Godsend to so many of us here.