2010-03-05 TPD ENVISION - Laserfiche WebLink

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DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your comments, Mr. Koehnen. Would you care to leave a copy of your statements with the Commission so we can all be given a copy of that? KOEHNEN: Yes. DOMINGO: I truly, I listen to you and I can visualize Downtown from its past. You know, I’ve come into public office in 1976 and since that very time Downtown development has been an issue. And today, in as many years has gone by, it’s still being an issue. And your comments are valid, and I truly appreciate your thoughts on that. KOEHNEN: Thank you, Commissioner Domingo. WOODWARD: All right, any further questions? Okay, thank you, gentlemen, you may be seated. And I’m sure we all appreciate your testimony. But I did forget at the beginning, we have quite a few people signed up, 6 on this agenda item and 13 on the next. We’d like to have everybody get a chance to give their testimony, hopefully before lunch time, which means please limit your testimony to three minutes. The buzzer will go off after three minutes; and if you’re still speaking I will politely ask you to summarize so we can give everybody chance to be heard. Thank you. The next two people would be Megan Kurohara and Charlene Masuhara. I think I have that right, or I tried. All right, first I’ll need to swear you in. If you could raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth today before the Windward Planning Commission? MASUHARA: I do. KUROHARA: Yes, I do. WOODWARD: Okay. And whoever is going to start, if you’ll give us your name and address, and then you may begin. KUROHARA: Okay, hi. My name is Megan Kurohara and I live at 1286 Kilikina Street. So today I’m speaking on behalf of the Hilo High School Key Club and a Student Action Committee called EnVision Now. Growing up I’ve always heard about how vibrant Hilo used to be. On Friday nights everyone would be Downtown. That was a gathering place and the heart of Hilo. However, as a child I went Downtown for dance classes, but that’s about it. The vibrancy I heard about wasn’t really there, and instead I saw dirty sidewalks, empty store windows and homeless people have replaced it. Last school year the Hilo High School Key Club volunteered at a community meeting hosted by EnVision Hilo 2025; and we immediately took an interest in their revitalization effort. Over the last year we formed a student action committee called EnVision Now to help put the words of E2025’s plan into play. We feel that this effort is important because over the years people have lost a sense of pride and ownership of our Downtown. Like the broken window philosophy, if a broken window remains unfixed for a period of time, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Our town wasn’t 5 EXHIBIT B