It's takes a little over 6 hours to drive the entire way around the island (I've done it). It's about half the size of New Jersey with a population of roughly 200,000 people. Most of the island is uninhabitable so there's lots of space for things and people to disappear. There's not a lot of violent crime, but the homelessness and drug addiction has led to lots of petty theft. After the sugar cane plantations left in the late 90s there really wasn't any industry left aside from the service industry. Yes there's some coffee and Mac nut production, but the amount of employees required is much smaller. Kona Brewing Co doesn't even produce beer here for sale here. AB/InBev owns them and produces on the mainland. Most of our food even comes from the mainland. I'm not sure how true it is but I was told less than 50% capable of employment are working while nearly 70% of the population collects some sort of government assistance. The public education here rivals Alabama and Mississippi for some of the worst in the country.
Without tourism this beautiful and amazing place would turn into the lord of the flies real fast.
On a less grim note I think I found my next project car tucked behind the remaining stalls of the Hawaii Consolidated Railway Roundhouse! Fun fact HCR was the only standard gauge (4' 8.5") railroad in Hawaii. Most of state route 19 is the the old "right-of-way."
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