10-05-2008, 05:07 AM
I bought in Eden Roc on the spur of the moment without knowing the neighbors, except that my best friend was buying the property right next door. How bad could it be? It has been both good and bad. My friend sold his property. The people who bought are good people and I am glad to have them as neighbors. The people two lots down on the corner are also good people and I am very glad to have them around too. The neighbor on the other side is a local guy who may resent me because I am Haole, because I bought the property he wanted but couldn't afford, or merely because he is a strange recluse for whom things haven't gone well in life. At any rate he is is very stand-offish and unfriendly, even to the point of being threatening. It makes for an uncomfortable situation.
All in all, it could be better and it could be worse. I can't complain too much because I frankly did not evaluate the neighborhood before I bought. I simply bought because it was so cheap. There are good people here but there are also people with problems who will share their problems with you. After all, this is not the best land, with no view, no soil, and the potential to get inundated with lava, so most people with options would have bought elsewhere at least in the past. Now, as the population increases, well to do baby boomers have petty much bought up all the affordable good land and there is an influx of regular folks moving into Puna. They are finding the original inhabitants to be a mixture of regular folks, decent poor folks, and people who couldn't function anywhere else. Unfortunately this last segment of the population includes some bad people. Traditionally, people who moved to Puna knew what they were getting into but there does now seem to be an influx of people attracted to Puna by the price (as always) but without any knowlege of Puna's unique challanges and benefits, or without any knowlege of Puna in particular and Hawaii in general.
I have come out OK in that I have some good neighbors and the one strange neighbor seems content to leave me alone if I leave him alone, but I was definitely naiive about the social challanges. Raising a child would be one of those challanges.
All in all, it could be better and it could be worse. I can't complain too much because I frankly did not evaluate the neighborhood before I bought. I simply bought because it was so cheap. There are good people here but there are also people with problems who will share their problems with you. After all, this is not the best land, with no view, no soil, and the potential to get inundated with lava, so most people with options would have bought elsewhere at least in the past. Now, as the population increases, well to do baby boomers have petty much bought up all the affordable good land and there is an influx of regular folks moving into Puna. They are finding the original inhabitants to be a mixture of regular folks, decent poor folks, and people who couldn't function anywhere else. Unfortunately this last segment of the population includes some bad people. Traditionally, people who moved to Puna knew what they were getting into but there does now seem to be an influx of people attracted to Puna by the price (as always) but without any knowlege of Puna's unique challanges and benefits, or without any knowlege of Puna in particular and Hawaii in general.
I have come out OK in that I have some good neighbors and the one strange neighbor seems content to leave me alone if I leave him alone, but I was definitely naiive about the social challanges. Raising a child would be one of those challanges.