HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0032.045 2006-2008 Murashige, Laura
From: Gillian Culff & Kiyoshi Najita [laughingwater@turquoise.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 6:38 AM
To: counciltestimony@co. hawaii. hi. us
Subject: Supercenter Testimony
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Dear County Council Members,
I am writing to express my strong feelings about Supercenter stores.
7as it is, Big Box stores are having a powerful impact on this island.
In Hilo, the building of Walmart had an almost instant, demonstrable and destructive
impact on the stores downtown. What was once a bustling town center is now, in many areas,
a run-down ghost town.
Big chain stores have driven out business that had been in Hilo for decades.
Kona has become the land of industrial centers and big box stores.
These stores and industrial centers only serve to encourage a culture based on cars,
rather than foot traffic, adding to congestion, pollution, global warming, wasted fossil
fuels and the steady elimination of street culture from our daily lives. The only area of
Kona which remains walkable and charming is packed with tourist shops, most of which are
useless to people who live here.
Supercenters will only serve to exacerbate current problems in both Hilo and Kona. They
drive out small businesses, take over land that could be used for other things--and in the
case of Hilo, land that belongs to the Hawaiian people!--and add more generic, mass
produced ugliness to our landscape.
Please support a ban on Supercenters on Hawaii Island. Let's protect not only our island
environment, but our local businesses and community culture as well.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Gillian Culff
Kamuela
COllltfl: IVO.
Ref. Toe
Ref. Date SEP 21 2007
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