We want to stay ADVERTISING We want to stay No one put a gun to our heads to buy Puna property, but the county and the State of Hawaii enticed us. Before the state propagated albizia trees, lower Puna was
We want to stay
No one put a gun to our heads to buy Puna property, but the county and the State of Hawaii enticed us. Before the state propagated albizia trees, lower Puna was barren lava. The state planted the trees which caused the latest disaster so that Puna will be verdant and desirable to prospective residents.
The county then approved substandard subdivisions with no infrastructure to make Puna affordable. Puna was the state’s answer to affordable housing.
By making housing affordable for developers in Puna, it relieved itself of the burden of providing housing, and it increased Hawaii county’s tax base.
There are over 25,000 of us in lower Puna. If displaced, our seniors and lower-income residents will fill the already crowded affordable housing complexes. The demand for the creation of low-income housing will be immense, just to keep the working poor off the streets — a consequence that the state wanted to avoid when it made Puna desirable and affordable.
I invite you to come to Puna and meet the people. Yes, we have “hippies,” but most of us are just like you: 40 percent of us are Hawaiians or part-Hawaiians, with ancestral lands.
A lot of us are farmers who need affordable land. When we are displaced, expect prices of your local produce to skyrocket, and expect a decline in the state coffers for the taxes our farmers pay when they export their flowers or produce out of state.
Most of us commute into Hilo to study or work, and some even commute to Waikoloa. If we are displaced, we will drive the housing market in Hilo higher, making it less affordable for your children to stay here, and we will congest your streets, making your commute longer.
Keeping us in Puna benefits everyone because what affects Puna affects us all.
Joy San Buenaventura
Puna
Not a bad transfer
Recently, an FAA worker from O’Hare airport in Chicago went on a rampage by setting on fire certain FAA equipment, causing massive flight delays for several days at the airport. Apparently, he did this out of anger because he was being “transferred to Hawaii.”
My goodness! People all over the world would jump at such an opportunity to come to Hawaii, whether for vacation, contest prize, conventions, even job transfers.
Yes, I’m sure that there is an underlying problem to this incident, but to go ballistic over being transferred to Hawaii?
Rick LaMontagne
Volcano
