Truly Outrageous

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Hey, good news for a change!

Some of you may remember a post from my old blog which mentions the efforts of Sea Mountain V (a California-based investment firm — okay, not just Cali, 90210-Cali) to develop Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, which is in the Ka’u District on the Big Island, into an ‘eco’ resort (cough, cough) with a shopping center, 1500+ homes, and a hotel. Punalu’u is on the East side of the island, where I live, and let me tell you, this side is not the beach side, okay? We are not spoiled for choice in terms of beaches here. In fact, Punalu’u is the only easily accessed (read: without 4WD) beach in Ka’u. It’s a hugely important cultural area with plenty of unaccounted-for sites. Plus, it’s the favorite basking place for some truly fabulous endangered green sea turtles, and even the occasional hawksbill.

Anyway. Quelle surprise, it’s Hawaii, so some assholes want to build another resort. Luckily the organization Ka’u Preservation has been doing some major campaigning, and it’s starting to pay off. Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle supports the preservation of Punalu’u! That link is to the PDF of her letter to Pele Hanoa, President of Ka’u Preservation, and it’s pretty heartening reading, overall.

There’s a meeting between Ka’u Preservation and Hawaii County mayor Harry Kim to determine next steps on January 12th; once I hear about how that goes I’ll post again. In the meantime you can learn more here.

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Ha!  Turtle blogging!  Beat that!