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Let's build a giant pedestrian bridge over the lava river (or more practically, 1/2 mile north of the river, a viewing platform). We can have giant hands holding it up.
Like the new bridge in Da Nang, Vietnam. (photo 4 is stunning)
https://www.boredpanda.com/creative-desi...rce=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
Think tourists will come to Hawaii Island for this?
Bet if our eruption was most anywhere in Asia officials would be on a project like this ASAP. They get well engineered projects done fast. In months.
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Think tourists will come to Hawaii Island for this?
Will the tourists spend more than County receives in disaster funds...
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http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2018/07/2...no-damage/
"It's crucial that we understand how our communities and our local economy are being affected by the Kilauea eruptions and earthquakes," Schatz said in a statement Tuesday. "This is one of many steps the federal government can take to help these communities."
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"It's crucial that we understand how our communities and our local economy are being affected by the Kilauea eruptions and earthquakes,"
PEOPLE DON’T HAVE HOUSES!
BUSINESSES DON’T HAVE CUSTOMERS!
“Generalized intelligence and mental alertness are the most powerful enemies of dictatorship and at the same time the basic conditions of effective democracy.” - Aldous Huxley
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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HOTPE @ 17:19:49 07/30/2018-
kalakoa @ 14:40:59 07/30/2018-
Those two comments are an accurate description of the real problems
here and now.
The politicians and bureaucrats are getting an endless cornucopia
of Federal funds, the economy is being savaged by a long term natural
disaster.
And no one in County or State government has the wit, desire, honesty or competency
to act appropriately, and serve the broad needs and requirements of the
ordinary people of this island.
That is what really saddens and enrages one observing this natural disaster
topped by a governmental disaster.
There are moments when one thinks that martial law (run and imposed from
the outside) is needed for all of Hawai'i County, at least.
This person thinks that County and State governments are NOT CAPABLE of
of "governing" in the midst of this emergency. Period.[8]
We now return you to your normally scheduled programming.
Thank you.
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The state and local politicians and bureaucrats seem to believe that government is the only business that matters. Just wait. When the economy begins to collapse and their tax revenues drop, their response will be to raise taxes on the survivors and not make it easier for people to build businesses . . . or anything else. It's the only way they know.
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Chunkster @ 07:08:07 007/31/2018-
An emphatic "Yes" to your comment.
"It's the only way they know"
Yes, living in a petri dish in the middle of the Pacific.
They have lost the old Native exploratory, risk taking culture.
I've had some adventures or misadventures with County and State.
A good primer for understanding Hawai'i and Hawaii is Lewis Carroll
of Alice in Wonderland fame.
Then the Absurdists.
Then some local version of Machiavelli.
This commenter is going back to try finding out why the AfD has done so well
electorily in areas of the former DDR.
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Your one-party state comparison rings true, punaticbychoice. (If that's what you were getting at) I'm NOT a Republican, but it doesn't take a genius to know that decades of monopoly rule by a single political entity is not healthy. Entrenched interests control everything here.
Having visited the old DDR before and after reunification, I see what you're getting at. Private joke, I guess, but the current electoral tendencies of the Ossies make sense in a perverse way if you realize that there is actually nostalgia for certain elements of life under the old system. Remember, the DDR had the highest material standard of living in the entire Communist world and everyone had a job and a tolerably decent place to live. At least we have the option to leave when we want if we have the resources to do so.
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Off-topic but relevant:
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2018/07/3...rovements/
Now, after the second round of bids, the price has gone up almost $800,000. ... Bill Kucharski, director of DEM, said the cost bump wasn't the result of a negotiating tactic or penny pinching gone wrong, but rather that of legal requirements dictating the county's standard operating procedure.
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HereOnThePrimalEdge - I don't know if this has been suggested before, but doesn't the County benefit by the lava flow being perceived as a dangerous emergency situation? One that requires Federal dollars to manage an ongoing disaster? Wouldn't opening a County lava viewing area in effect say, if the danger has lessened enough that busloads of tourists can be transported to the edge of the molten flow, then maybe it's become normalized enough into routine County operating procedure, and perhaps Federal intervention (and dollars) can be phased out.
Of course, it's the County and State that benefit from an ongoing emergency response scenario, not restaurants in Pahoa, or Jack's Tours, or any other number of private businesses trying to stay afloat without visitor dollars that might be spent if visitors could look at lava.
^This - there is financial incentive for the County in justifying the need for heavy-handed control tactics (as well as getting to extend government powers under the emergency proclamation). But don't worry, the first round of tax increases is already approved, with more to follow to pay for the lack of business tax revenue and the lawsuits currently being formulated against the County. We'll all pay for it in the end, not them, so why worry?
