‘House of Cards’ ‘House of Cards’ ADVERTISING I appreciated your editorial cartoon about Kalapana Seaview Estates in Puna (Tribune-Herald, May 20). A friend forwarded it to me on the mainland. It’s amusing and poignant. As a homeowner in Seaview, I
‘House of Cards’
I appreciated your editorial cartoon about Kalapana Seaview Estates in Puna (Tribune-Herald, May 20). A friend forwarded it to me on the mainland. It’s amusing and poignant.
As a homeowner in Seaview, I am one of several neighbors who have been (asking) the county zoning board to do something about what we locals call the “House of Cards.”
The cartoon points out apparent contradictions in our position. I beg to differ.
The “House of Cards” happens to be the most egregious example of flaunting of local zoning laws in Kalapana Seaview Estates. This disaster of a structure (I’m using that term very loosely) sits at the center of an otherwise enjoyably eclectic village that most of us appreciate. The “House of Cards” is an uninhabitable eyesore. It can never be economically salvaged. It is dangerous. It poses as a beacon for trouble.
One can only imagine the impact the “House of Cards” has with potential home-buyers of existing residences or new construction. The “House of Cards” can only diminish the value of all our residents’ individual investments.
However, your cartoon is a collage of “photographs” of several eyesores within Seaview. Perhaps, fortunately for them, the “House of Cards” is the most visible and is our first clean-up effort. I doubt that it will be our last.
Your use of the school bus saddens me for its apparent lack of understanding. I remember when that bus was filled with about a dozen dogs; hungry, thirsty and hot, they would bark and howl for someone caring enough to save them from the Hell to which they had been committed. The dogs finally were freed, and I believe the owner moved the bus to some other unsuspecting neighborhood.
Our “yurt farm” is another problem, too. Built a dozen years ago or so as a … resort, I have no idea if anybody in the County of Hawaii in those days knew what the word zoning meant. Now the resort is closed, the place is mostly abandoned, and we are fortunate that the location is at the back of the community, out of sight and out of mind — for the moment.
All that said, I believe that the residents of Seaview Estates and the county’s elected officials are beginning to agree. We see that for any of our communities to function, thrive and even prosper and provide a healthy and enjoyable environment in which to live, we must have zoning rules. It’s time to enforce the ones we have and modify those that are not reasonable within today’s economy and lifestyles.
I thank those county officials with whom I have been communicating. Progress is being made. (I wish it could move faster.)
With my coming retirement to Hawaii, I hope that the elimination of the “House of Cards” is just the beginning.
David Currier
Kalapana Seaview Estates
