10-03-2009, 12:33 PM
Emily's response was not written by someone in the Council side of the County Hdqtrs, IMO. It wasn't RJ's voice either, and you, WAX, sound like another voice from the Executive Branch.
No one is trying to stop people from living in tents that are here and truly in a bind. People, as we all know, have been doing it for years with no problems from the county authorities (can't speak for DHHL). As I asked when I went before the council twice testifying on this bill, why was it just being done for Puna when neither Puna nor Kau have any homeless shelters whatsoever? I told the council that the bill seemed like they were just trying to get off the hook for NOT having any place for the homeless to go. Why don't they make some funds available to the subdivisions to find creative ways to help some of the homeless in our community? We could probably find ways to use some of the crumbling, foreclosed homes, FCS!
Imagine this ad in High Times magazine: Wonderful oceanview lot in Royal Gardens on the Big Island of Hawaii where you can live in a tent for up to three years!!! That's similar to some ads that ran in such magazines in the 60s, 70s and 80s, only offering other "irregular" practices as the offspring of our then-city fathers sold lots in the substandard Puna subdivisions (including the father of the local MJ-hanging judge!) Opening up Puna to the world at large "for tent-living in Paradise" would multiply beyond belief the social problems our subdivisions now have to deal with, WITH NO TAX DOLLARS to help them. And what do you think such people would start doing once they REALLY run out of resources after landing here?
Many of the cases we currently are having to deal with are destitute, often disabled (particularly mentally DA, since we have no places for them since the Reagan Administration!), some are families with numerous children and just a single female caregiver fending for themselves in a place they thought was Paradise, until it started raining! Have you seen that blonde lady with like 3 or 4 little towheads hanging onto her skirts, hitchhiking everywhere. Know where she was living? In MacKenzie Park! Don't know where she is these days.
County officials tell the subdivisions it is up to the subdivisions to enforce the rules; police can't because it is a civil complaint. Nanawale has 34 cases right now of illegal structures. So the community association has to take dues its members pay for road and property maintenance and running their facilities to pay for lawyers, over and over and over again. Because it's not just one letter, or two letters, or three letters....and that's not even getting to court yet.
In addition, there are not enough people at the county to investigate and enforce structure violation complaints already on the books! The county guy told me his office is already 4 to 5 YEARS in arrears.
Have you read the conditions in the bill? Anyone with the $$$ and savvy to meet the many conditions set in the tent bill could build a real structure! And in a lot less than 3 years! Tents like that pictured in Tiffany's blog on this issue would still be against Tent Bill 130!
Get out of your comfortable office, WAX, and start dealing with the real world. You're hiding behind Emily, who I give credit for being honest in the moment and at least learning on the job. Would that EVERYONE in our county leadership would do the same!
No one is trying to stop people from living in tents that are here and truly in a bind. People, as we all know, have been doing it for years with no problems from the county authorities (can't speak for DHHL). As I asked when I went before the council twice testifying on this bill, why was it just being done for Puna when neither Puna nor Kau have any homeless shelters whatsoever? I told the council that the bill seemed like they were just trying to get off the hook for NOT having any place for the homeless to go. Why don't they make some funds available to the subdivisions to find creative ways to help some of the homeless in our community? We could probably find ways to use some of the crumbling, foreclosed homes, FCS!
Imagine this ad in High Times magazine: Wonderful oceanview lot in Royal Gardens on the Big Island of Hawaii where you can live in a tent for up to three years!!! That's similar to some ads that ran in such magazines in the 60s, 70s and 80s, only offering other "irregular" practices as the offspring of our then-city fathers sold lots in the substandard Puna subdivisions (including the father of the local MJ-hanging judge!) Opening up Puna to the world at large "for tent-living in Paradise" would multiply beyond belief the social problems our subdivisions now have to deal with, WITH NO TAX DOLLARS to help them. And what do you think such people would start doing once they REALLY run out of resources after landing here?
Many of the cases we currently are having to deal with are destitute, often disabled (particularly mentally DA, since we have no places for them since the Reagan Administration!), some are families with numerous children and just a single female caregiver fending for themselves in a place they thought was Paradise, until it started raining! Have you seen that blonde lady with like 3 or 4 little towheads hanging onto her skirts, hitchhiking everywhere. Know where she was living? In MacKenzie Park! Don't know where she is these days.
County officials tell the subdivisions it is up to the subdivisions to enforce the rules; police can't because it is a civil complaint. Nanawale has 34 cases right now of illegal structures. So the community association has to take dues its members pay for road and property maintenance and running their facilities to pay for lawyers, over and over and over again. Because it's not just one letter, or two letters, or three letters....and that's not even getting to court yet.
In addition, there are not enough people at the county to investigate and enforce structure violation complaints already on the books! The county guy told me his office is already 4 to 5 YEARS in arrears.
Have you read the conditions in the bill? Anyone with the $$$ and savvy to meet the many conditions set in the tent bill could build a real structure! And in a lot less than 3 years! Tents like that pictured in Tiffany's blog on this issue would still be against Tent Bill 130!
Get out of your comfortable office, WAX, and start dealing with the real world. You're hiding behind Emily, who I give credit for being honest in the moment and at least learning on the job. Would that EVERYONE in our county leadership would do the same!