Civil Disobedience Against East Hawaii

WHT has a poll on their website, which states this question:

“Is civil disobedience the only remaining way to get West Hawaii residents’ needs and concerns heard and acted upon by the Hawaii County government?”

Hunter Bishop blogged about this poll here. Not surprisingly, the poll question is getting severely ridiculed. Even my comment got severely criticized :

“Lets present the facts as they are. Hilo has all these brand spanking new roads. While on the flip side due to years of neglect, the rest of the island specifically Waimea, Puna,and Kona are stuck in a traffic nightmare.”

“The Kim administration HAS BEEN asleep at the wheel as so far in getting any roads built here in West Hawaii.For example, one roadway project should’ve started in 2002. But instead it took until 2007 to break ground on it.”

Below is the response I made to the people who criticized my comment:

“Dave, Hilo City doesn’t have traffic problems like the Kona side does. I can recall one instance I was stuck in traffic in Hilo, it was on Puainako Street. The rest of the time, it was a hell of a lot easier to drive around Hilo than Kona.

Yes, I’ve lived here 31 years (almost 32 years).Even though half that time was a child, it doesn’t cover the fact that I wasn’t aware of the problems. Hell I’ve been writing letters to the editor since I was freshman in high school.

Kevin, I still blame Hilo politicians for the Hokulia bypass,Alii Highway debacles. In both cases Hawaii County screwed up. In the Hokulia bypass debacle Hawaii County gave a sweetheart deal to Oceanside in exchange to develop Hokulia.In the case of Alii Parkway, the county has too easily conceded to the NIMBYS who have fought the construction of this road. Overall Mayor Kim’s administration has shown a total lack of backbone to getting things done.”

On a related note, I voted yes to the poll question. The poll results are running 49% yes and 41% no with 11% not sure.