How To Get An Emergency Access Road Built

[HiloJulie]

Someone mentioned this once before on another thread and while not trying to take any credit for this idea, I always wondered why Shipman has not built a “toll road” on its land (most of it anyway and if they need your land to build it, say bye) that goes from Hilo to Puna and back. County says they need permits? This is Shipman talking here - the bulldozers start tomorrow!

Want to get from Puna to Hilo in 15 minutes? Hop on the Shipman Toll Authority road! Back home at 4:30 in less that 20 minutes? Shipman Express Lanes is the way to go!

Only a small charge depending on what Shipman needs at any given moment. And if ANYONE including the residents, County or State giving Shipman any crap about anything - just shut it down for 24 hours! New Jersey style.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Only a small charge depending on what Shipman needs at any given moment.

Brilliant idea!
Driving home from Hilo, Shipman could keep their personal Highway 11 Industrial Park stoplight on red for an indefinite period of time, BUT add a convenient left turn lane with a long, long, long green arrow that connects directly to the Shipman Toll Road Bypass.  With an 80 mph speed limit.  So people don’t stop to steal from the farmers that lease land from them (as they said might happen).

[terracore]

The reason Shipman has given for restricting access through their land is agricultural theft, damage, and vandalism to the lands they have leased out, and the county's inability to prevent it. Unless someone comes to the table with a bond that could be tapped for restitution, or some other "guarantee" there probably won't be any discussion. As I understand it they are paying for security services as is, imagine how much that cost if there was a public right of way giving easy access for people to steal stuff, burn cars, dump rubbish, and all the other reasons why "we can't have nice things" in Puna. They don't want to be that fake Indian crying on the side of the road after watching somebody dump a refrigerator and a urine/feces soaked mattress on their property with a stolen truck they'll find in their ditch a week later burned to a crisp. Can you blame them?

[MyManao]

The reason Shipman has given for restricting access..

Shipman would do all sorts of this and that if they felt it is in their interest. But they think in generations, in hundreds of years. They look to the future, and protect their holdings for their great great grandchildren. They do not care for anyone in the here and now unless it furthers their long term goals. It is all a play for stable and forever.. when that includes expansion of their infrastructure, they'll expand. Until then.. they'll collect their rents and happily smile in anyone's face that asks them about it.. but throw their interests in with a bunch of drug addled criminals? Yeah right. Good luck with that.

Anyone thinking Puna will get anything from gov is fooling themselves. As I pointed out, their focus is on success.. and the West side offers them that. What does Puna offer?

[HiloJulie]

“As I pointed out, their focus is on success.. and the West side offers them that. What does Puna offer?”

One thing Puna offers is a landscape where an enterprising individual could move here from the mainland and simply go take pictures of it and sell them while making a goddamned good living off of it. 

Yes, the west side has that success. Tourism followed by tourism along with tourism coupled with tourism that rests on tourism and insures more tourism that will bring even more tourism. That is a billions of dollars a year industry that bitches and complains that paying a state minimum wage will bankrupt them. 

Seems to me the photographer industry is better!

But now think what tremendous economic boom a telescope could offer for the success of BOTH east and west Hawaii, as well as for the entirety of humankind!?

[MyManao]

But now think what tremendous economic boom a telescope could offer.. 

Hahaha.. OMG, Julie, Tom has really brainwashed you.. 

A telescope.. a rich man's wet dream? Lordy be Julie! What is an ice head in Puna gonna do with one of those?

[HiloJulie]

But now think what tremendous economic boom a telescope could offer.. 

Hahaha.. OMG, Julie, Tom has really brainwashed you.. 

A telescope.. a rich man's wet dream? Lordy be Julie! What is an ice head in Puna gonna do with one of those?

Maybe be afforded an education that inspires that kid to skip being an ice head altogether? Maybe allows for that kid to get a degree and well paying job other than being forced into a job of making the beds of tourists who had their wet dreams?

Or maybe even take a picture of it and sell it?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

an enterprising individual could move here from the mainland and simply go take pictures of it and sell them while making a goddamned good living off of it.

That could never happen.  Nobody would ever attempt to start any kind of photography business in Puna, there are no buyers of art here, everyone knows that you would have to ply your trade at the resort shops on the west side.  Or get into the wedding photography business, again only on the west side.  It’s entirely, completely, absolutely impossible on the east side and you’d have to be a blind man to try such a thing in East Hawaii.  And as a blind photographer it would make things even more difficult for you.


The reason Shipman has given for restricting access through their land is

The real reason is that they are a beneficiary, some would say a welfare recipient of the county tax code.  They pay nearly nothing in taxes for oceanfront property, vacant land, and ag land.  That allows them to sit only property for generations, unlike all the rest of us who pay a much higher tax rate, and even if we could afford to invest in large acreage for our children and grandchildren, we could never hold it that long at the rate we would be taxed.  We’d have to rent out the properties or sell off some of it every year to pay the taxes so the county wouldn’t sell it at auction.

The only way one family can benefit in this way, a family whose members are simply born into it, is if all of the other residents in the surrounding area pay a greater share.

[randomq]

Born into the ultimate privilege, rent-seeking into eternity...

[Punatang]

Let them eat papaya.