2017-04-18 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case

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what’s going on in it. And talk about how we have our generation and generation, I mistakenly nd had a nine-year old daughter that’s going to be ten on the 22 of May, and talk about a delight in life to have is the next generation, to watch them, to see them grow. The biggest thing is that when I first surfed – I’m from Hōnaunau – when I first surfed, I surfed at Ke‘ei, which is down in Kealakekua Bay. The second place I surfed, and surf pretty much almost every day that I can, is Kahalu‘u. And talk about the feelings that you get on a daily basis when you go out into that water. And you know that there is just extra terricular \[phonetic\] activity, if you want to put it that way, however you want to put it. But it’s, it’s an energy that we all come from, and that we have to submit to; and it’s the energy of love. And that’s why we are all here today is because you either love your paycheck or you love your sister or brother or family or, me my daughter, my family. I remember when Kona was a very quiet town. I remember before Costco was even here, you know, just remember when Pine Trees was what it was. I remember just being out there thinking, you know, well, there is a lot of people that need work, they need money, you know, let’s try to do this. But then you bring the unions in to build stuff, and then a lot of local people like myself don’t get any payback or anything. We were wondering, oh, not only are the beaches packed but then what do we do? We don’t even have our own timeshares to sit in, you know, why our beaches are filled with people coming for timeshares. I mean, the whole timeshare mentality is just to take, I mean, timeshares as they are are already super expensive and you get a very short amount of time. It’s not very kosher. So it’s like, first of all bad place to even build; second of all there is other spots; third of all they should have been scientists or people running the grounds everywhere even before Pine Trees was built, and go, oh, my God, there is so many grave sites everywhere. Because almost every day that they were building out there, they ran into graves. I get feedback from people that are working there because they have no other choice. And they are like, wow, yeah, they just build it up and fill it in and just, or whatever. And it’s just like, listen, we are all connected 100 percent from the Japanese to the Australians to the Africans; all of us are the same. And for you to let even in a sense your own sacred land, say you are from Pennsylvania, there is no “Polynesian Hawaiian” blood in you, it’s still your kuleana. It’s everyone’s. We are all of our brother’s keepers. And in order for you to sleep well at night for the rest of your life, you want to do things based upon love actions. And if anything I’ve learned from my own child in raising her and seeing her on a daily basis, is how real is love. So, I love to surf out there. I know that if they build there, it’s going to cause more issues. As it is, you’ve got evacuation for already, Ali‘i Drive, it’s already peaking. You add 300 units, that’s going to be 1,000 more people if not 2,000 potential families in those condos, driving up and down Ali‘i Drive. You already get people hit by cars, trying to walk, run. Ironman already is a crisis; they don’t, they used to give 60,000 for the pier, now it’s only 30. The pier was just rebuilt, used taxpayers’ money to rebuild the pier. I mean everything, you know, it’s like you guys have to realize this is not games. And La‘aloa that’s all named the sacred place. And the fact that the Outrigger Hotel is not even in functioning; that should let you know that there is something going on with the whole peak. You guys don’t want to curse yourselves for the rest of your life, curse your generation. I’m a firm believer in “knocking on wood” and “karma” and all that. You call it what you want, but you sow love, you reap love; you sow medium, you reap medium; you sow whatever, you are going to get whatever yourself, your family. All I know is I hope with every bit of my being in me that this is not built there, that we just don’t even build timeshares in Hawai‘i. If you are going to build something, choose a different place, allow people to buy into it, and then whether they want to decide to vacate, rent their condo, that’s up to them. Just this morning I heard of the bill, coming in, to allow Airbnb to collect taxes. So overall I love that place. I think 6 2017-04-18 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case