11-20-2007, 09:38 AM
Rob,
'It's not that we want ...actually able to do so we will be ignored.'
You're absolutely correct with this premise. Looking back now, what would, despite all it glaring deficiencies, Puna be like now had not the highway been re-configured? (eventhough it took nine years to do so.) That was simply a stroke of luck since when the decision to redesign came through in '93 Puna had no clout what-so-ever and we can thank old Ben for it.
The point is, the demographics now indicate that Puna will continue to develope dispite an overall economy which will continute to suffer more from inflation.
More individuals from the mainland and elsewhere will arrive here fleeing what they view as a potential socialogical convulsion in the making, and, in my viewpoint, the population of Puna will continue to rally while services and amenities lag. These are simple facts.
Puna's population base is expanding exponentially (like the Albezia). My daily trips into the Township to the hardware or Subway or some other business convince me we are under the gun demographically. There really is no comparison I can recall. Here we have a mostly rural community which is seized by growth at the opening bell of an obvious recession and quite disimilar to major growth cycles in the past elsewhere, where the suburbanization accompanied an expanding economy ... and here's the catch, despite the down-sizing being anticipated on the mainland as the reality of recession is finally realized, it may come to pass that this Island's unique location may become the linch-pin which continues to attract the population base from elsewhere while the economy retracts.
And here I see a potential hazzard in Puna... and one I feel we need to internalize in terms of probability. The potential of more immigration coupled with a falling rate of exchange, eventual $100/barrel (and, according to Hugo Chevez, who predicted $100.00 dollar, at some point even higher is comming), and the broader inflation which must soon follow will increase not only homelessness but overall discretionary spending. (This may, to some degree be offset by the depths of the pockets of those who relocate here in the future, yet I feel it's safe to assume that their overall discretionary income will retract at some point also.)
The potential exists where we could enter a senerio whereby we were, to a greater or lesser extent, left adrift with a higher population base dependent upon services which even now are at a dearth to be provided adequately. Cases in point are, of course, simply one small clinic to handle Pahoa and eviorns and a highway which took nearly a decade from start to it's 'supposed' finished date, yet I might add it is far from completed and any group looking to better the lives of the average Punatic should count as one of it's primary araes of concern and focus, that of requiring the state and county to complete construction rather than, as was done, mounting a campaign which attempted to convince the citizenry that the highway had actually been completed.
Let's look at the highway ... since it's the lifeline to Puna. The public transportation available is abysmal. Two or three buses per day simply doesn't cut it when one tabulates even a cursory estimation of the amount of property taxes the Department of Revenue is collecting. Various cities have shown that the more buses available the more citizens are apt to ride them. And, we need dedicated bus 'pull-offs' where school buses and public busses can load and unload school chldren and passangers safely (and out of the rain), without impeding traffic on the highway.
Also, and to me this is paramount, is the pressing need for traffic lights at the more dangerous intersections (it's so obvious), i.e., Orchidland and Makuu and the developing need for a light at the Makuu Market is becomming obvious also since the market shows every indication that it is going to continue to expand, hence the volumne of traffic going in and out of that business will increase.
This cross section, while the Makuu Market is open, is a lethal accident waiting to happen. People are just going to have to realize that the days of being able to zoom from Kalapana to Keaau are over and the county must install traffic lights in the name of public safety.
Within a few days after the terrible car-bus accident on the highway at the intersection which leads toward Nanawale,in which a mother and her children perished, I noticed an engineering crew out surveying, and the light was quickly installed. Is this what it's going to take at Orchidland or Makuu or the Market to have a light installed? And what does this say for effectiveness and, I might add, the morality of the county? Are we presently experiencing a policy of "Multiple Deaths Required Before Installation?" It seems that way.
As far as the money goes ... as a taxpayer, I don't want to hear how terribly expensive these systems are. I just want them installed and raise my taxes if necessary to accomplish it, afterall, that's how the system works.
The challange seems to be as much getting elected officials and departments to perform their mandate as it is anything else, and it's time to bring our beloved backwater of Puna into the Twenty First Century before we become swamped by a combination of inflation, demographics, and for the most part, bureaucratic inefficiency and oversight which has treated Puna more like a territory than as part of the whole.
What I need to hear is what are your proposed group's goals and policies. If you want to help Puna, then help Puna how ... in what ways?
JayJay
Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 17:59:16
Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 18:16:09
Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 18:42:02
'It's not that we want ...actually able to do so we will be ignored.'
You're absolutely correct with this premise. Looking back now, what would, despite all it glaring deficiencies, Puna be like now had not the highway been re-configured? (eventhough it took nine years to do so.) That was simply a stroke of luck since when the decision to redesign came through in '93 Puna had no clout what-so-ever and we can thank old Ben for it.
The point is, the demographics now indicate that Puna will continue to develope dispite an overall economy which will continute to suffer more from inflation.
More individuals from the mainland and elsewhere will arrive here fleeing what they view as a potential socialogical convulsion in the making, and, in my viewpoint, the population of Puna will continue to rally while services and amenities lag. These are simple facts.
Puna's population base is expanding exponentially (like the Albezia). My daily trips into the Township to the hardware or Subway or some other business convince me we are under the gun demographically. There really is no comparison I can recall. Here we have a mostly rural community which is seized by growth at the opening bell of an obvious recession and quite disimilar to major growth cycles in the past elsewhere, where the suburbanization accompanied an expanding economy ... and here's the catch, despite the down-sizing being anticipated on the mainland as the reality of recession is finally realized, it may come to pass that this Island's unique location may become the linch-pin which continues to attract the population base from elsewhere while the economy retracts.
And here I see a potential hazzard in Puna... and one I feel we need to internalize in terms of probability. The potential of more immigration coupled with a falling rate of exchange, eventual $100/barrel (and, according to Hugo Chevez, who predicted $100.00 dollar, at some point even higher is comming), and the broader inflation which must soon follow will increase not only homelessness but overall discretionary spending. (This may, to some degree be offset by the depths of the pockets of those who relocate here in the future, yet I feel it's safe to assume that their overall discretionary income will retract at some point also.)
The potential exists where we could enter a senerio whereby we were, to a greater or lesser extent, left adrift with a higher population base dependent upon services which even now are at a dearth to be provided adequately. Cases in point are, of course, simply one small clinic to handle Pahoa and eviorns and a highway which took nearly a decade from start to it's 'supposed' finished date, yet I might add it is far from completed and any group looking to better the lives of the average Punatic should count as one of it's primary araes of concern and focus, that of requiring the state and county to complete construction rather than, as was done, mounting a campaign which attempted to convince the citizenry that the highway had actually been completed.
Let's look at the highway ... since it's the lifeline to Puna. The public transportation available is abysmal. Two or three buses per day simply doesn't cut it when one tabulates even a cursory estimation of the amount of property taxes the Department of Revenue is collecting. Various cities have shown that the more buses available the more citizens are apt to ride them. And, we need dedicated bus 'pull-offs' where school buses and public busses can load and unload school chldren and passangers safely (and out of the rain), without impeding traffic on the highway.
Also, and to me this is paramount, is the pressing need for traffic lights at the more dangerous intersections (it's so obvious), i.e., Orchidland and Makuu and the developing need for a light at the Makuu Market is becomming obvious also since the market shows every indication that it is going to continue to expand, hence the volumne of traffic going in and out of that business will increase.
This cross section, while the Makuu Market is open, is a lethal accident waiting to happen. People are just going to have to realize that the days of being able to zoom from Kalapana to Keaau are over and the county must install traffic lights in the name of public safety.
Within a few days after the terrible car-bus accident on the highway at the intersection which leads toward Nanawale,in which a mother and her children perished, I noticed an engineering crew out surveying, and the light was quickly installed. Is this what it's going to take at Orchidland or Makuu or the Market to have a light installed? And what does this say for effectiveness and, I might add, the morality of the county? Are we presently experiencing a policy of "Multiple Deaths Required Before Installation?" It seems that way.
As far as the money goes ... as a taxpayer, I don't want to hear how terribly expensive these systems are. I just want them installed and raise my taxes if necessary to accomplish it, afterall, that's how the system works.
The challange seems to be as much getting elected officials and departments to perform their mandate as it is anything else, and it's time to bring our beloved backwater of Puna into the Twenty First Century before we become swamped by a combination of inflation, demographics, and for the most part, bureaucratic inefficiency and oversight which has treated Puna more like a territory than as part of the whole.
What I need to hear is what are your proposed group's goals and policies. If you want to help Puna, then help Puna how ... in what ways?
JayJay
Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 17:59:16
Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 18:16:09
Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 18:42:02
JayJay