Ban fireworks
I’m wondering if there are others like myself who would vote for a candidate who will campaign to discontinue issuing fireworks permits to individuals for Fourth of July and New Year celebrations. The good news: Counties would still issue permits for public displays.
We all have ignored the fact that fireworks negatively affect many of our neighbors. Cherry bomb-like explosions often trigger traumatic reactions for many of the thousands of veterans living among us, and firecracker smoke particles affect the health of many neighbors, especially seniors with asthma. Fearful pets shiver and hide.
Perhaps it’s time to acknowledge the karmic correlation between our successes and these health-debilitating, serenity-disturbing abuses.
Such consideration would exemplify aloha by truly honoring veterans, senior citizens and frightened pets; it would add significant meaning to “Thank you for your service.”
Kerrith H. (Kerry) King
Pahoa
Kill 108
In the wake of our volcano crisis, the Big Island’s economy needs all the help it can get. Bill 108 isn’t helping.
The bill — which would require vacation rentals outside the vacation district, general commercial districts or resort nodes to apply for a nonconforming use certificate in order to be grandfathered in — blatantly discriminates against small businesses and residents in favor of the big resorts at a time when our struggling residents need to keep every tourist dollar possible here in our local economy.
The bill should be either killed or at least postponed indefinitely.
Everyone in business on the Big Island is waking up to the fact that we are in for a rough ride, and many of us will not make it, period. This applies to both sides of the island — but especially in hard-hit East Hawaii communities such as Pahoa and Volcano, where tourist dollars have dried up.
Whether we have to wait for Kilauea to stabilize or adjust to the “new reality” of lava fountains downslope and constant earthquakes in Volcano, many businesses will be hanging by a thread for a long time. Volcano, especially, has its whole economy built on tourism, even though it’s not officially a mostly agricultural district.
If anything, we need our districts reclassified to make a diverse and resilient tourist industry easier, not to lay down another layer of bureaucratic barriers. We need to develop ecotourism, agricultural tourism and cultural tourism to offer visitors a more genuine experience, not cater to insular resorts that try to keep people confined to their complexes and ship as many of their dollars as possible back to their off-island headquarters.
Our economy, right now, is just too fragile for the luxury of kowtowing to luxury resorts.
Ira Ono
Volcano