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Talk of Puna being anti business comes from people like Jon inflating a third party blog comment into anti business protests. If anyone will hurt business growth in Puna it will be people like Jon inflating imagined facts to fit some strange agenda.
A fact as I know it is this: Business growth in Puna has been held back for decades by business interests in Hilo who want everyone to drive to them. We need Puna businesses and jobs, not long commutes.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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Yep, its all me... I have all this power... everyone listens to me and none of them have their own opinions..
Now if I could just have that same power at home and work... [  ]
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I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
HBAT
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I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
The Wilder Side Of Hawaii
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quote:
Originally posted by Rob Tucker
A fact as I know it is this: Business growth in Puna has been held back for decades by business interests in Hilo who want everyone to drive to them. We need Puna businesses and jobs, not long commutes.
As an observer to the Puna Community Development Plan discussions, I concur with this point of view. The population growth that Puna has been experiencing has not been accompanied by commensurate economic development. Puna is seen by the Hilo power establishment as a "bedroom" community rather than a place worthy of its own economic base.
What is perhaps most galling, though, is the fact that in most places even bedroom communities have exponientially more retail, service, and other commercial activity than Puna. Even the largest proposed commercial development in Puna, the Gateway Center at the T-junction near Keaau, is closer to Hilo than it is to most of Puna and will be anchored by a KTA store. Gateway sounds like Hilo-lite to me and would only save the last four or five miles of the drive.
Meanwhile HPP remains what is quite possibly the largest community in the USA with no grocery store or any other commercial opportunities other than a couple of auto repair places and some greenhouses. And we even have several 20-acre plots of land set aside for just such purpose. What's wrong with this picture?
Cheers,
Jerry
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Jerry
Re: no grocery store in HPP - I have often wondered that myself. Does it have something to do with the HPP owners association and/or bylaws? I believe there are plans to build a park in HPP, but wouldn't a combination park/shopping area be much more useful? Parks are wonderful in big cities where people are desperate for outdoor space and green areas but here we are surrounded by such places. We are sadly in need of somewhere to get some groceries and not have to drive to Pahoa, Keaau or Hilo to do so. And I don't mean another Wiki Wiki, we need a wider selection groceries at decent prices.
Does anyone know why this seems to be impossible in HPP?
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Greg, I agree with EVERYTHING you just said! Amen.
quote:
Originally posted by Greg
There are options to fast food.
Slow food, home grown food, locally produced food. It's healthier, easy (but not for the lazy), and better for our island economy than a minimum wage franchise that depends on imported supplies.
I do agree about the free market though. They won't be getting my money.
Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany
www.eastbaypotters.com
www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
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quote:
Originally posted by Youser
Jerry
Re: no grocery store in HPP - I have often wondered that myself. Does it have something to do with the HPP owners association and/or bylaws? I believe there are plans to build a park in HPP, but wouldn't a combination park/shopping area be much more useful? Parks are wonderful in big cities where people are desperate for outdoor space and green areas but here we are surrounded by such places. We are sadly in need of somewhere to get some groceries and not have to drive to Pahoa, Keaau or Hilo to do so. And I don't mean another Wiki Wiki, we need a wider selection groceries at decent prices.
Does anyone know why this seems to be impossible in HPP?
Basicly because no one in HPP really cares enough or doesn't have the time to start the ball rolling and take it to the next level. Right now the only thing that seems to matter in HPP is road paving which is taking almost all HPP's money for the next 10 years.
I'm sure most everyone in HPP would welcome a village center. But considering the lenght of time it took to get to this point in paving roads....we may all be dead and gone by the time we get a Village center.
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For me, the biggest draw to lower Puna was the lack of development.
There's a fundamental reason that Puna remains less developed than other areas on the Island; We're on the rift of an active volcano.
Does anyone seriously think that they could drive from Pahoa to Kalapana to Kapoho without passing major resort, shopping or residential areas if this were not so?
So don't be shocked; Puna's always going to be developed at a different pace than elsewhere. Why not make it development that emphisizes our uniqueness, rather than development that destroys it?
Just because we've chosen to live with Pele, doesn't mean Walmart will ever justify it.
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quote:
Originally posted by Youser
Jerry
Re: no grocery store in HPP - I have often wondered that myself. Does it have something to do with the HPP owners association and/or bylaws? I believe there are plans to build a park in HPP, but wouldn't a combination park/shopping area be much more useful? Parks are wonderful in big cities where people are desperate for outdoor space and green areas but here we are surrounded by such places. We are sadly in need of somewhere to get some groceries and not have to drive to Pahoa, Keaau or Hilo to do so. And I don't mean another Wiki Wiki, we need a wider selection groceries at decent prices.
Does anyone know why this seems to be impossible in HPP?
Zoning and infrastructure (roads, water, etc.) come to mind as obstacles to more commerce in HPP. The current HPP Board has not, to my knowledge, placed any roadblocks to such development. The park proposal is as much for recreational facilities as green space, although I wouldn't mind more of both. As HPP builds out, a lot of the green space that seems so abundant may go bye-bye. Some in HPP see the park as a way to get the County to have more of a "stake" in HPP and eventually provide more services such as a police substation. We'll see.
Cheers,
Jerry
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quote:
Originally posted by macuu222
[br
Basicly because no one in HPP really cares enough or doesn't have the time to start the ball rolling and take it to the next level. Right now the only thing that seems to matter in HPP is road paving which is taking almost all HPP's money for the next 10 years.
I'm sure most everyone in HPP would welcome a village center. But considering the lenght of time it took to get to this point in paving roads....we may all be dead and gone by the time we get a Village center.
The road paving thing is definitely a preoccupation in HPP these days, but doesn't necessarily preclude a village center. In fact, some of the paving borders some of the 20-acre parcels. I have even heard it mentioned that a commercial developer could be induced to bring some infrastructure items such as roads and water up to a supportable standard as part of their development plan. This is commonly done in many places as standard procedure. What I don't see is our County government currently supporting such a process.
Cheers,
Jerry
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My understanding is that while HPP has identified multiple 20 acre parcels as commercial centers on their maps, the county maps do not show zoning of those areas for those purposes. I know the wheels have been started rolling for creating better alignment between the two, and I would guess that the PCDP process is part of that.
I did see one of those big parcels listed on the MLS this winter, but I don't remember the details. It is going to take a real visionary developer to create an HPP town center on one of those parcels because they aren't on the highway. A mixed use development with a grocery, gas station, mini post office and police substation, preschool, some service providers like barber/hair salon, insurance, pharmacy, medical/dental and a few little eateries would probably be able to develop critical mass to be self-sustaining. I just don't think most developers have the vision and the funding to do it. Funding for exactly this sort of project is going to be in short supply for the foreseeable future due to the Global Credit meltdown.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
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