New Payday loans to open in Pahoa

[jrbotti]

This will become a non-issue since the pay-day loan company is opening the Pahoa shop on Monday, June 7th, 2011. Whether or not we agree with this type of business, IT HAS ARRIVED!

[Kelena]

Then once again, we have been ineffective in preserving the character of the community and, instead, are letting the "free market" (e.g., the market for usurious loans) socially engineer what Pahoa will become. We took our eye off the ball. Again.

[Cagary]

I'd like to know exactly what you would like to see happen to this business. Would you like it somehow zoned out of the area? On a personal level, what do you plan to do about it?

Like it or not, Pahoa is growing and growing fast. It won't be long before Walmart and McDonald's start eyeing this area. Are you going to be alright when these and other similar businesses come to town?

Should there be some kind of committee that decides what kind of establishments property owners in Pahoa can lease to? Will these owners be given compensation because of these limits? Where will this money come from?

[Kelena]

If you are referring to me, I would say this: 1) What would I like to see happen to this business? Do you want to zone it out of the area? Answer: I would very much like this business not to come to Pahoa and to be unprofitable if it does come. It is too late to zone it, but I do think that Hawaii Island and its communities need to develop a comprehensive approach to maintaining the character and charm of the Island and which creates a difficult climate for businesses that have a deleterious effect on our communities, such as pawn shops, pay day loan and cash for gold places.

2) What do you plan to do about it on a personal level? Answer: There is not much to be done about this particular business but I am a big believer in the doctrine of enlightened self-interest espoused by Ayn Rand. I believe it is in my best interest to discourage such businesses from locating in Pahoa and that it is further in my best interest that Pahoa become a better place than it is. I want it to be the kind of place that area citizens are proud of and that visitors will want to return to. To that end, I plan to make my feelings known about this business in the hopes of influencing the community to become more discerning and selective about the future of Pahoa. My motives are purely selfish.

3) Like it or not, it is growing fast. It won't be long before Walmart and McDonald's come to town. Are you alright with that? Answer: No. There are many places in the United States where such business are not welcome or where they are made to conform their architecture, at least, to the character of the place they are invading. New Orleans, for example, fought Wal-Mart long and hard due to aesthetic concerns and a concern about its effect on the thousands of locally owned businesses in New Orleans, which contribute so much to its character. Wal-Mart won, but not without some concessions. Wal-Mart recently gave up a fight to build on a civil war battlefield. They only did so because of public pressure. McDonald's has been very good about "fitting in" to a local aesthetic, when they are asked to do so. But someone has to ask them to do so and apply some local pressure. In the meantime, we should encourage local businesses to the extent it is reasonable and practicable to do so. We need to support those businesses, to make it more reasonable. Look at happened with Border's. We now have more local book shops.

Pahoa is better off with a Verna's than a McDonald's -- a Verna's will enhance the tourist experience while a McDonald's will remind them of their home in Tacoma. We can make conscious choices that will encourage local businesses and local character, and a certain design aesthetic from all businesses.

4) Should there be a committee that decides what kind of establishments owners of property in Pahoa can lease to? Will they be given compensation because of these limits? Who will pay? Answer: Zoning, in general, is constitutional and is not generally regarded as a "taking" under the constitution such as would require compensation from the government. There are exceptions. But there is no question that, in theory, Hawaii island can regulate where particular types of businesses can be established. There should be a committee that considers permits for new businesses in light of the need to protect existing businesses (including tourism related businesses) or residences and to maintain property values. It is important, for example, to identify the characteristics of Pahoa that make it special, --and cynicism aside, there are some-- and to develop some standards to avoid depreciation of those characteristics.

Don't get me wrong: I am pro-business. But I am anti-anarchy. It is clear to me that Pahoa needs a more organized approach to zoning, aesthetics, and to assessing whether a particular business is appropriately located. That approach needs to include all opinions, such as yours. I recognize that not everyone shares my view that Hawaii Island would not be as attractive to me if it looked more like the rest of the United States. Hopefully a consensus will develop that allows us to protect the character of Pahoa, while encouraging enterprise, especially local enterprise.

In this instance, I think it is in Pahoa's and Puna's best interest to throw up every legal roadblock to the establishment of such a business. Such a business is deleterious to the community and, on the day it opens, will diminish Puna.

[punafish]

Peter Apo, a Hawaii businessman and respected kupuna, has a local perspective that's worth considering. To wit:

“Development, like any other economic activity, is a neutral activity–until the specific business model begins to unfold. Only then does it become clear how the development will affect the community’s sense of place and whether it will result in a quality of life step forward or backward for those who have to live in and around it.”

Peter's model is configured as a triangle and described as such:

“At one corner write Economic Activity (in this case you can say Development). At the second corner write Place. And the third corner should say Host Community. The challenge I see is that most business models are so economic activity-centric with narrowly defined measures of success that they often succeed at the expense of the Place and the Host Community. For instance, our visitor industry business model was very lineal in its maturation process. Visitor Industry. Visitor. The model rushes to accommodate all the creature comforts of the visitor and in the process begins to change the place into looking like the place the visitor was trying to escape from. Changes to the place are in some cases so profound that entire communities undergo a dramatic “sense of place” conversion. One chilling effect is that people who work there can no longer afford to live there.”

Peter says that to determine whether any development activity is "pono", it should be filtered through what he calls "the pono prism"--by asking the following questions:

1) How does the activity make Hawaii a better place?

2) How does the activity create opportunities for prosperity for all segments of the community?

3) How does the activity help connect the community’s past to its future?

4) How does the activity bring dignity to the community and the people who live around it?

5) How does the activity insure that the people who live in and around it can continue to live there?

More questions that answers, but certainly food for thought.

[Kelena]

Peter's approach is very thoughtful. I will have to disagree with him in one regard. Peter suggests that the visitor to Puna wishes Puna to resemble the place from which the visitor sought to escape.

I have had a lot of contact with visitors to Puna. Unlike most visitors to Hawaii, and Oahu in particular, this is a very savvy group of visitors who are looking for an other-worldly experience. I was just such a visitor once (and still am from time to time!). What that visitor wants is NOT what they escaped from, but something to escape to. They want a place with character --and characters-- that scarcely resembles what they left behind, but which has some of the conveniences they left behind within driving distance, in a different district!

That place is called Puna.

Keep it Puna.

Malama Puna.

Pay Day loan place, no good bruddah.

[punafish]

"Peter suggests that the visitor to Puna wishes Puna to resemble the place from which the visitor sought to escape."

Kelena, I assume you're referring to this quote:

"The model rushes to accommodate all the creature comforts of the visitor and in the process begins to change the place into looking like the place the visitor was trying to escape from."

My interpretation is that Peter agrees with you. He's criticizing the traditional model used in Hawaii's tourism industry (i.e. making it look like the mainland), not at all suggesting that visitors who come here wish Hawaii to resemble the place they came from. That's the essence of the problem as he--and we--see it: homogenization of Hawaii leads to a loss of what he calls "sense of place". The result is it devalues the Hawaii experience both for visitors and for the host community, a "lose-lose" situation all around. (Except for businesses like Payday Loans, of course.)

[mailesomaha]

I've noticed that my instruction on how to install an Ecco-Temp L5 semi-indoors has been removed.....Nevertheless, we dealt with the installation because we build water closets and showers for people who have none; there are alot of them!

The most compelling reason was that, much like the payday loan marketing base, Hilo Propane charges $400 for the L5 while it can be ordered on Amazon.com for $115.

Many companies on the Big Island are pulling the same type of thing and they are considered to be reputable. I don't see the difference.

Displacement/substitution is the only cure.

[Cagary]

What is the shipping cost for the $115 unit from Amazon?

[csgray]

Shipping probably still isn't $285 from Amazon.

Carol