11-22-2010, 05:14 AM
This is the nature of Puna. It is what it is. It is the cheapest land in Hawaii and back when I first bought almost anyone could afford it and many low budget characters did, as was evident from the extremely variable character of many neighborhoods. This makes building in Puna a gamble. My neighbor to the south is a strange character who quickly put up a few token strands of barbed wire and multiple no trespassing signs as soon as I began clearing my property, as well as angrily accusing me of trespassing, which I did not do. Boy I really began to regret my naivety in thinking this was a place for me. However after that some much more desirable neighbors built on the other side and up on the corner.
Neighborhoods in Puna are in flux. Properties in Eden Roc used to sell for only 3 or 4 thousand dollars an acre. With such low prices ya gotta know you'll get some strange neighbors.
I say this not for the sake of criticism but to avoid being a yes-man who only reinforces the viewpoints of a closed community. There is a reason some people pay 10 times as much for a small plot in a gated community. They get something for their money. If I were wealthy I might be tempted. Meanwhile I am glad of what I have got.
Punawebbers seem to be mostly transplanted mainlanders, often recently arrived. At any rate the traditional long term Puna residents are almost totally unrepresented. There is a sense of settlers moving into a foreign land. As such the settlers bear the brunt of conflict between the different cultures. It sounds like the original posters had their head on straight and had some sense that these things could happen. For that matter I am guilty of assuming that the builders of the other house are people who belong to that "other" cultural group of wild west types who bought cheap land so they could build without permits and live like they were in the third world. They could just as easily be mainland investors who decided they could no longer flip the property and are renting it out as absentee slumlords.
Not sure of my point except that Puna is like kimchee. It has a very strong and distinctive flavor that will not appeal to everyone and that often takes a while to appreciate.
Neighborhoods in Puna are in flux. Properties in Eden Roc used to sell for only 3 or 4 thousand dollars an acre. With such low prices ya gotta know you'll get some strange neighbors.
I say this not for the sake of criticism but to avoid being a yes-man who only reinforces the viewpoints of a closed community. There is a reason some people pay 10 times as much for a small plot in a gated community. They get something for their money. If I were wealthy I might be tempted. Meanwhile I am glad of what I have got.
Punawebbers seem to be mostly transplanted mainlanders, often recently arrived. At any rate the traditional long term Puna residents are almost totally unrepresented. There is a sense of settlers moving into a foreign land. As such the settlers bear the brunt of conflict between the different cultures. It sounds like the original posters had their head on straight and had some sense that these things could happen. For that matter I am guilty of assuming that the builders of the other house are people who belong to that "other" cultural group of wild west types who bought cheap land so they could build without permits and live like they were in the third world. They could just as easily be mainland investors who decided they could no longer flip the property and are renting it out as absentee slumlords.
Not sure of my point except that Puna is like kimchee. It has a very strong and distinctive flavor that will not appeal to everyone and that often takes a while to appreciate.