08-21-2008, 02:47 PM
Aloha,
The closest I've found to an official planning definition of 'rural' is "lot size larger than half an acre." This is also what one of the planning consultants for the CDP said when I asked the question at a presentation.
So vast areas of what we would mostly all call 'suburban', all over North America (and here) and going back decades, is actually 'rural'!
Just kidding...well, sort of. That really is a planning definition of 'rural' - lot size, that's all it is. Which is why "planning" as we know it is not much help in our situation.
Historically rural was, as someone has pointed out, largely to do with very local self-sufficiency.
Also, historically, very little mobility. Rural life was life around the homestead or small rural town. Period. I would say most residents of most plantation camps would have qualified, at least until the train tracks were replaced by roads and a majority of working families could afford cars. My maternal grandfather grew up in a historical rural context in the "old country" (until he immigrated to the USA).
I consider most of Puna suburban. Sub-urban, that is, living outside the urban core (Hilo) but dependent on it for most of life's necessities, often on a daily basis.
In other words, I think 'rural' and 'suburban' have mostly to do with movement patterns.
Rural goes to town maybe once a week for church, market, some shopping for luxury items not available elsewhere, a special town treat of some kind. Otherwise, they're at home(stead or small village/town), or very close to it.
Suburban goes to town many times a week, sometimes even multiple times a day, gets most essentials of life there, would not last two days happily (or two weeks alive ;-) without making that trip (a.k.a. "commute").
While there are pockets of partial rural self-sufficiency in Puna, some more so than others, I would guess they represent a small fraction of Puna's population.
These days rural seems mostly a real estate marketing term applied to suburban sprawl lots that still have a lot of empties around them. Or maybe just to lots larger than half an acre...
The closest I've found to an official planning definition of 'rural' is "lot size larger than half an acre." This is also what one of the planning consultants for the CDP said when I asked the question at a presentation.
So vast areas of what we would mostly all call 'suburban', all over North America (and here) and going back decades, is actually 'rural'!
Just kidding...well, sort of. That really is a planning definition of 'rural' - lot size, that's all it is. Which is why "planning" as we know it is not much help in our situation.
Historically rural was, as someone has pointed out, largely to do with very local self-sufficiency.
Also, historically, very little mobility. Rural life was life around the homestead or small rural town. Period. I would say most residents of most plantation camps would have qualified, at least until the train tracks were replaced by roads and a majority of working families could afford cars. My maternal grandfather grew up in a historical rural context in the "old country" (until he immigrated to the USA).
I consider most of Puna suburban. Sub-urban, that is, living outside the urban core (Hilo) but dependent on it for most of life's necessities, often on a daily basis.
In other words, I think 'rural' and 'suburban' have mostly to do with movement patterns.
Rural goes to town maybe once a week for church, market, some shopping for luxury items not available elsewhere, a special town treat of some kind. Otherwise, they're at home(stead or small village/town), or very close to it.
Suburban goes to town many times a week, sometimes even multiple times a day, gets most essentials of life there, would not last two days happily (or two weeks alive ;-) without making that trip (a.k.a. "commute").
While there are pockets of partial rural self-sufficiency in Puna, some more so than others, I would guess they represent a small fraction of Puna's population.
These days rural seems mostly a real estate marketing term applied to suburban sprawl lots that still have a lot of empties around them. Or maybe just to lots larger than half an acre...