The kooky chick who dropped the F-bomb
in last week's Kauai County Council meeting was apparently trying to
scam people with a fake long-term rental after county planners shut
down her illegal Anahola homestay.
An alert on Craigslist warned
prospective tenants:
DO
NOT PAY A $2500.- DEPOSIT ON THE LISTING WITH THE ABOVE TITLE, THE
PERSON WHO PLACED THE AD FOR THIS PROPERTY IS NOT THE OWNER AND HAS
NO PERMISSION TO RENT THIS HOME. IT IS CURRENTLY IN ESCROW AND BEING
SOLD.
So who is behind the Treehouse? None
other than Sean — aka "Crazy Suzy” Brown, aka “the fuck girl
at the B&B hearing,” as one reader described her — Tesla.
Perhaps this will help the Council understand why Sean/Suzy was
evicted, and it's not because of those big bad meanies at the
planning department.
On the wegoround.com website — it
boasts some 1,701 vacation rentals on Kauai, though just 455 legal
TVR certificates have been issued — Sean identifies herself as the
“very cool hostess” of the Treehouse in a long-winded spiel
that asserts:
Sometimes people stay elsewhere, but
they hang with me : -) because I take them to cool places and local
happenings. I also have some local friends who offer private hikes
that aren't open to the public and private surf lessons in uncrowded
places, and the list goes on and on...
No matter what, I assure you that
staying with me on Kauai will be a most memorable vacation for you
and your loved one or guests.
No doubt. Especially if you get on her
bad side. As the reader who tipped me noted:
After being shut down by planning ,
this piece of shit person is now trying to fleece long term renters.
She's continuing on her scammer path and is a great example of why
the county cannot let the visitor industry be run by individual
in-house rentals.
Indeed.
I recall Sue Kanoho, executive director
of the Kauai Visitors Bureau, telling me once that most of the
complaints she gets involve TVRs, an accommodation over
which she – and apparently the county — has no control.
Which is why we've got people offering
vacation rentals like this in Wainiha:
CAMPING ECO DREAM UNIT - GREAT VIEWS,
PRIVACY, FREE WIFI, MICRO-CELL, ELECTRICITY & WATER AVAILABLE.
MUST TAKE CARE OF YOUR WASTE! ONE PERSON ONLY. AVAILABLE FROM 06/15
TO 08/15 @ $ 540 PER MONTH.
Sigh.
Returning to Sue, though she was
pummeled a bit in comments recently, I've had several people tell me
that she is one of the few influential people on the island, and
perhaps the only person in the visitor industry, who is openly
talking about carrying capacity and setting limits.
But ya know, that is a message that so
many folks in government and tourism just do not want to hear. As one
commenter so astutely noted:
Tourism, including TVRs, B&Bs,
hotels, timeshares, airlines, car rentals, guidebooks, restaurants,
helicopter companies, tour boats, and on and on, is our economic oxy.
Real estate, which depends on tourism to feed its demand, is our
economic meth. We're hooked and we'll keep taking more and more until
we OD.
And sadly, there's still no residential treatment center on-island.
Before her meltdown, Sean/Suzy/Scammer told the Council:
Before her meltdown, Sean/Suzy/Scammer told the Council:
And
I implore you to look at how the County of San Francisco is handling
this on a bigger scale.
This caught my eye, because I recently
saw San Francisco being touted as a model for controlling vacation
rentals in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Business Insider estimates that 23
percent of San Francisco's available rentals were removed from the
longterm rental market by owners using Airbnb. In some
neighborhoods, 40 percent of the homes are occupied by Airbnb
tourists on any given day. In response, San Francisco may limit
property owners to just 60 days of short term rentals per year, which
would reduce their profitability and encourage some landlords to rent
the units longterm to city residents.
That's not a bad approach – especially
compared to Kauai, where folks get a vacation rental permit for life,
so long as they send in the annual registration.
But again, enforcement and political will are the key. And on Kauai, both are so frequently lacking.
Posts
32 comments:
so the face of the giveme crowd is a crook?
yessirree !!
when you consider that all the giveme crowd has been operating with no permits, Crazy Suzy was the natural choice
This is a pretty extreme case but yeah AirBnB is another blight. This gives a lot of crazies a chance to gang up on people. I even had one of you try to get me shut down behind my back at planning. I've been doing vacation rentals for 20 years. Legally. Trace it back to leading up to the "correction" of 2000. All that tech money flying around. They started throwing money at people who's property wasnt even listed. Thisi s like a fanatical witch hunt in here. Conrow you instigate it. It's muckraking.
First off, Sue Kanoho is an honest, hard working and good person. I am one of many who can attest to her character and integrity. Kauai is lucky to have her and the many people she has touched are better off to have known her. Fact.
The bashing of tourism must stop. It has been brought up before...but of the major economic drivers on the f*cking planet, tourism leaves the smallest environmental footprint and produces the most money per event. Particularly on Kauai, where our tourists are generally wealthy and spend bucks. There isn't a place where the benefit of tourism isn't felt. Unless of course you are a welfare grabber or a rich person who could give a sh*t about a local economy.
In Hawaii we are so immersed in the State/Fed/County handouts that we have forgotten, that all money received by somebody, has been made by another person. There ain't no free money. Somebody created it.
I am open to ideas on another economic driver for the island. But until there is a replacement, the anti-tourist, anti-PMRF, Anti- Big Ag folks should take a break. geez? Did I just bring in JoAnn, Da Hoos and Mason?
Many of us who have been here a while know who gots what and how they got it. And hypocrites abound, big time realtors, attorneys, etc who yesterday are grabbing every penny left on the table and repelling into every corner of the island to make the bucks...and voila! Now that they got the bucks, they are "environmentalists" Gag me with Tim Bynum's Bank Account, Batman, life changes us all, but to forget one's roots and disrespect the opportunity of others is a true characteristic of the Devil incarnate.
I don't need no tourist, I do gots and my own kala...but the island will crash like a meth addict if we cut the big bucks tourism brings in.
The County Council, God Bless them....are so imbued in government that they have forgotten that most people rely on our visitors...from the waiter, fisherman, farmer, realtor, airline pilot etc...and yes folks, even the government relies on tourist bucks. You have never seen anything until you see a small community lose it's income. Crime, violence and mental depression. Ultimately, the county loses its tax base and we become a Tonga or Marshall Islands. Real examples of what "no bucks" can be. Talk about a pig as a neighbor? How about the pig being your life savings, meal ticket and housemate...not to mention the floods of Pampers floating everywhere on the shoreline. Pampers must be in the "Care" packages big Ol' Uncle Sam sends.
Lay off the tourist industry and lay the f*ck off Sue Kanoho...she is a real lady.
The Garden Island Paper may cover trivial events, but the hard f*cking fist of life is putting some rice in your bowl, educating your kids and trying to find a little love in this world. Do not be lulled by "new agers", who say they do not need the money...but watch the f*ck out if you steal their Yoga Mat or unintentionally scratch their Lexus/RoadRanger at a "Farmer's Market" parking lot...then you will see the real long teeth of "peaceful Kauai". Just the Bucks, Ma'am, Just the Bucks.
Yeah Joan, you made me rent on Air BnB!!
joan reports the truth., she started nothing. the scammers did. weren't it for Joan, the rest of us would never know about all the bullshit going on. finally the people are becoming aware and are doing something about it. too bad that pisses you off.
@3:31 I agree for the most part. Bitch and moan, but laying down in the middle of the road to stop "progress", whether you like it or not is just going to get you tire marks. It is flat out stupid to think tourism and growth are going to be curtailed by these little "bashings" and dirt digging commentaries. Bash all you want but until true activism and DOING something in the way of politics and becoming involved IN the process instead of fighting it from the outside, you are screwed. OH my - TVR's, how awful - get real - or at least find some real issues and educate so that people can make a real difference. Tickets to the whiners' show don't product anything but anger, frustration and zero change.
whine whine whine, we got no place to live, we dont care if you were born and raised here or if you come from this place, move over for more tourists, quit whining . I wanna show aloha here on Kauai.
Renting campsites with shit buckets is fricken lowlife, can we get some enforcement here, or will others start letting tourists shit in buckets in their yards?Like um B&B with or without the bucket, ma'am? Nevamind, just holdit, holy shit.
I've noticed that some folks 'eat up' the words and experience of Shiva on Agricultural Issues. These folks believe they are following a government policy that is working.
Here is hoping we don't start experiencing Shiva Sanitation 101. All of a sudden a bucket with a biodegradable big save bag doesn't look so bad.
I have a question;
If residents always assumed that their BnBs/Homestays were totally legit, (or 'someone at the Planning counter told us we didn't need a permit'), did any of them ever testify against allowing illegal TVRs outside the Visitor Destination Area?
If not, we really could have used you! Maybe by only allowing owner occupied - one or two guest BnBs years ago- we could have curbed a lot of the resentments in our neighborhoods today.
Now, many of us think homestays are just adding insult to injury.
Watching the B&B meeting going on at the council and ready to throw up listening to Joann's BS. I really hope the council realizes why we need to stop allowing more, more, and even more visitor uses in our residential areas.
10:46 AM wrote:
"Renting campsites with shit buckets is fricken lowlife, can we get some enforcement here, or will others start letting tourists shit in buckets in their yards?"
The irony is that the shit bucket sold as an "Eco Dream" is an apt icon for what uncontrolled tourism does to desirable places around the world -- physically, environmentally, culturally and, eventually, economically.
Anyone who thinks tourism isn't spiraling out of control on Kauai needs to read Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West. You can get it used on Amazon for $7 including shipping. It'll be the best seven bucks you ever spent.
http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Bargains-Tourism-Twentieth-Century-American/dp/0700610561
Joan,
As a journalist, you should always check your facts before posting libelous material. You posted an article about my scamming people with a fake long-term rental after county planners shut down my illegal Anahola homestay. This is not a fake rental and I am not scamming anyone. I am the tenant with rights to sublease (which I have had for 4+ years) and obviously I'd like to rent it out to a long-term tenant now that i cannot operate a homestay for short-term tenants. You have been "tipped" off by someone who is trying to bully me and prevent me from renting out it by accusing me of scamming and now you have printed this publicly and committed libel yourself. I kindly ask you to stop making libelous statements about me publicly which are untrue (you didn't even check!), defaming of my character and interfering with my ability to legally rent out my place to a long-term tenant.
The person who tipped you off has been reported. This person knows I have permission to rent this home, knows that I AM the tenant, knows I have been for 4+ years, knows that I have the right to sublet this property and knows I have had this right for 4+ years. All that has changed is no longer having the right to rent out to short-term tenants as this would be illegal without a permit you can't get. The Craigslist ad you have posted on your blog and many things you have said about me violate the law in 3 ways, (1) trade defamation, (2) libel for falsely accusing me of not having permission to rent this home when in fact I do have this right and (3) libel for falsely accusing me of scamming people when I am NOT and enhancing this libelous statement with links to other libelous material which also make false statements. These accusations are serious and are defaming of my character. I ask you again kindly to remove such libelous and defaming statements in your public blog.
Thank you,
Sean
An apology would be appreciated as well. What you have done to me has been very damming.
Come stay my tutu's house. It come with his and hers shit buckets. You gotta change Tutu too, but not too bad. Close to the ocean and the transfer station. Its the only B&B that let you use the house to wash your shit buckets. We got rid of the employee who was putting spy cams in the girls buckets but we kept the video to show other guests. Tutu will share her Oxy stash with the right person for a foot massage. Now go the F back to your tent u purple unicorn F-ing haole invader.
Dawson-
Perhaps you could name one economic driver (business) that has less environmental impact than tourism. There ain't none.
Without tourism, Kauai dies. Not the rich, but the young, the workers, the restaurants etc. All of us.
But then again, the unemployed and desperate poor could go "shopping" in your house soon. psst, Big Screen TV 100 bucks, no questions asked.
Dear Sean/Suzy,
I'm quite certain the person who tipped me off did not turn you in. And I do stand by what I wrote.
Still, I did use one quote that included a characterization that was unnecessarily judgmental and hurtful, and I should have edited that part out.
@5:09pm
Not sure who is the (fowl mouthed) bully here?
To 5:09
I watched you talk on Hoike way before I read Joan's blog. She didn't give you a bad name, YOU did!
In one way, I kinda see you as a sister, (cause I'm crazy too) but in another way I just have to shake my head.
Sean, we are on different sides of this issue, but for all our sakes, please
read your testimony next time.
Sean/Suzy, if you have permission to rent that Anahola house then why did you state at last council's meeting that you were evicted? Which is it??
May 27, 2015 at 5:26 PM wrote:
"Dawson-
Perhaps you could name one economic driver (business) that has less environmental impact than tourism. There ain't none.
Without tourism, Kauai dies. Not the rich, but the young, the workers, the restaurants etc. All of us.
But then again, the unemployed and desperate poor could go "shopping" in your house soon. psst, Big Screen TV 100 bucks, no questions asked."
I have a better idea. Perhaps you could educate yourself on the long-term economic and cultural disaster that tourism has in store for Kauai. Perhaps you could learn how tourism is extractive and non-sustainable. Perhaps you could investigate how, around the world, the tourist industry inevitably destroys the very qualities that make an area desirable to tourists in the first place.
Perhaps you could. But, like millions of others whose lives are shackled to the devil's bargain of tourism, it's doubtful that you will. Instead, you'll defend it, while feeding on the scant nourishment it allows you.
Enjoy your today. Because until you wake up, take tourism by the short hairs and get it under control, you're not leaving anything for tomorrow.
Dawson- All economic drivers have a downside. But as the world turns, Tourism remains the cleanest business of all. There isn't a country in the world that wouldn't sell their virgins just to get a little taste of the economic benefit of the Tourist.
Geez, Kauai only has about a million visitors per year. Bali has 5 million residents and a third of the visitors on an island the same size....and Indonesia, Thailand France etc would literally got to war to protect the business.
What will replace tourism? Ag? Oh yeah? Can't even do that any more.
Maybe the Military, Mining, Fisheries/ Nope too big of a no no.
I guess Facebook could set up a giant office and employ 30,000 people...but then we would need better schools to fill their need for the smartest people on the planet.
I guess Kauai will be a rich retiree's dream....no traffic, no businesses, private beaches...and a lot of locals who will mow your yard for 50 cents. People need work. Work is a duty and raises the soul.
Tourism confined to zoned locations is welcome. Tourism creeping into farmlands and neighborhoods, is not!
So if I own my home and I live outside of a VDA but I am surrounded by vacation rentals, I am not allowed to rent my home out if I go on a trip, or get a roommate if times get tough? Seems like the fear of tourist in our neighborhoods is really just limiting my owner rights. Technically I am not allowed to have roommates under the counties definition of a single family home, but we know that happens every where in the world and in more homes on Kauai than the reported number of B & B's. If we want to crack down on illegal rentals in single family homes than there are a ton of homes on Kauai that are in for some regulation, including Kilauea, Kapahi, Hanamaulu where lots of illegal lock outs are happening. Who says people living in Kapahi signed up for a neighbor renting out two lock outs and multiple cars parked on the street, how is that enforcement less important than a B & B? Oh I know why, because everyone thinks tourism is the basis of all our problems and BnB's are driving up home prices so we have an affordable housing issue, and if we get rid of BnB's and TVR's we will all of a sudden have quiet neighborhoods, more affordable housing, and great neighbors. NOT! This is not the reason we are in a mess. I think people who run BNB's are finding creative ways to afford the cost of our real estate, which is only going to continue to go up. If you want to prevent speculators from buying real estate to open a BNB, than create a law that allows owner occupants only to have a BNB, maybe make a rule that you have to be a island resident for so many years before you can apply, and allow our local people a avenue that could help offset these crazy prices. Think outside the box, you may just be cutting off the younger generations ability to afford a home some day, all because you are scared of a tourist on your street.
deflect, deflect, deflect. Because BnBs outside the VDA are illegal, without a permit. why is that so difficult to understand? If you want the freedom to do a vacation rental, live in the goddamned VDA, stupid. The day one can get a permit just because the neighbor got one, will end in about one week. rather than scared, fed up is a better choice of words.
deflect, deflect, deflect. Because BnBs outside the VDA are illegal, without a permit. why is that so difficult to understand? If you want the freedom to do a vacation rental, live in the goddamned VDA, stupid. The day one can get a permit just because the neighbor got one, will end in about one week. rather than scared, fed up is a better choice of words.
"Because BnBs outside the VDA are illegal, without a permit. " .....
Please point to the law that says that.
you know what? do your own research. your question was answered last wednesday. - or do you read the newspaper.
Point to where it says I cannot have a brothel too cause the tourists who come stay here want one and i don't see much difference from a TVR to a whorehouse ?
Prostitution? Here ya go! HRS0712
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/vol14_Ch0701-0853/HRS0712/HRS_0712-1200.htm
7:42
have you read the paper lately? thanks, a bunch of people heeded your advice.
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