Kudos for trying to protect neighborhoods
Let’s hear it for County Councilmembers Karen Eoff and Dru Kanuha for giving time and consideration to the ever-increasing problem of short-term rentals in local residential neighborhoods.
I am surrounded by these rentals. One is rented only occasionally and the owner lives on the property. While annoying, this seems to work out. On the other side is a charming house that has gone the way of Airbnb and has an almost constant turnover of new renters who are “on vacation and ready to party.”
The problem is the owner who is attempting to manage this property from California and who has no idea of the character of the people who are living in his house. The police help when they can. And it is to be noted that new subdivisions have conditions that prohibit these short-term rentals in their CC&Rs so this problem will linger with the long-established neighborhoods and degrade them accordingly.
If someone needs to rent a property in order to retain it, let it be a long-term renter who has some affinity for the island and the neighborhood. Greed is what is driving this entire operation.
Cathy Sinclair
Kailua-Kona
In defense of DMV
Unlike the experiences of Ms. Davis and Walsh in their recent letters to the editor, all of my several interactions with the Department of Motor Vehicles have always been very satisfactory, both for routine and non-routine business.
In one of the latter situations, a communication error by an employee created a difficult situation for me. I explained my plight to supervisors. I did not attack the employee, which would have been totally inappropriate, but rather asked for help. And boy, did they respond, and superbly!
I don’t know Ms. Davis nor the subject of her ire when she said “this woman” who shouldn’t, with “her attitude,” be working at the DMV. Nor do I know Ms. Walsh, who laments about the same employee with “her poor display of people skills while accompanied by her love of putting individuals down.”
I can sense the frustration of both Ms. Davis and Walsh, but there are more effective ways to address such situations with aloha, rather than through such letters to the editor, which may make the writers feel good, but are unlikely to generate positive change.
A good way to get redress for their purported mistreatment is to take up the issues with decorum, directly with DMV. I guarantee they’ll get results and smiles.
Disclosure: I do not work for, nor have I worked for DMV!
Sohrab F. Dorabji
Keauhou
