Steelyp

Steelyp t1_j6daer2 wrote

Reply to The sea cliffs of Moloka’i Hawaii [OC] [6003 x 4007] by crankyape1534

Great shot! We were in Maui and I regret not getting over there but just didn’t have the time. The guide books mentioned that the last decade or so has been tough for Moloka’i. Here’s an excerpt - would love to know how true it is:

The island has a perpetually dismal economy. Most residents are on some kind of government assistance. Though the island’s nickname is “the friendly island,” you may find just the opposite. Though residents are very friendly with each other (the only repetitive motion injury residents are likely to suffer is from drivers constantly waving at each other), many (though by no means all) tend to be pretty reserved with visitors. The grumpy reputation is, to a certain extent, for effect. Most residents here don’t want many visitors and don’t want a friendly reputation, even if they are nice to you on a one-to-one basis. The belief is that community stink eye can help keep the island from being developed and its resources depleted. (It’s a favorite island of many visitors because of its undeveloped nature, but many complain of feeling unwelcome.) "No Trespassing" signs are conspicuously few. You either belong somewhere or you don’t, and residents don’t need signs to tell them that.

Local residents had a nasty little war going on with the island’s largest landowner, Moloka‘i Ranch, which owns over a third of the island (mostly on the drier western half). When the ranch built a pipeline to carry water to another part of the island, vandals destroyed it. While the ranch suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses from their operations, residents stopped them from doing any development. As a last ditch effort to save the business, Moloka‘i Ranch threw a Hail Mary. They proposed developing a 500-acre strip of land at La‘au Point on the extreme southwestern tip. They agreed to use proceeds from the sale of luxury lots at the otherwise inaccessible land to rebuild the long-closed Sheraton resort and to set aside 50,000 acres (over three-quarters of all their land holdings) for conservation. But residents opposed them. Handmade Save La‘au signs went up all over the island, and local activists influenced the land use commission to turn down Moloka‘i Ranch’s plans.

So in 2008 the company essentially quit the island. They closed their two remaining resorts, shut down the gas station and movie complex in Maunaloa and closed off access to their third of the island. After being thwarted in their quest to build windmills on the island and send the electricity to O‘ahu in 2014, the war now seems pretty much over… and both sides lost. There is a little activity taking place on their land, but Maunaloa is still a ghost town with only a private general store open next to Moloka‘i Ranch's office. Most other buildings have been abandoned and vandalized. The owner put the property on the market in 2017, and it can all be yours for a mere quarter billion dollars.

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Steelyp t1_iuhw7fe wrote

Reply to comment by olympiamow in Wet spot and crack in foundation after heavy rain by madstar

Absolutely insane to me how important gutters are. As a first time home owner we had a bad hail storm and insurance replaced the roof. But because everyone was getting new roofs there was a lot of shortages/timing issues. Our roof went on but the gutters took another few days to get installed. Murphys Law appeared and a big rain happened and my god my entire house was full of water.

Turns out the previous renovations weren’t done very well and the water was running off the roof down into cracks and plaster and it just poured into our walls and ceilings. After a court case with the roofing company and further insurance claims it ended up being a $80k repair which turned into a $120k renovation. Fuck me gutters are important. Just one of them being directed the wrong way or clogged can cause some serious long term damage.

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