Are Hawaii residents mad because vacation rentals aren’t kicking in their share of state taxes?

No. That’s not what you hear. That’s not what people post online about the strangers coming and going at the house next door or the all-night parties down the street in the house that used to be a home for actual neighbors, not transients. That’s not what they talk about with their friends when they say, “I don’t even know whose car is parked in front of my house!”

It’s not, “Make them pay!” It’s “Make them stop!” Nobody who lives with these illegal hostels on their street or across the fence is worried much about them paying taxes. Nobody who has to jockey for parking or deal with the lights on all night or watch as strangers take pictures of their backyard plants is asking for money.

They want their peace and privacy back. They want actual neighbors to be their neighbors, people they can get to know, who can cat-sit for them when they go on trips and who will call them at work when they see something amiss and say, “Hey, Barbara, you left your side gate open. Want me to close it for you?”

Hawaii residents want tourists to go back to all the vast prime beachfront that our kupuna saw taken away and paved over, built up and maximized for tourism. That was the unspoken deal, that we would give up Waikiki and Poipu and Lahaina and Wailea to the tourist machine but keep the country country and the neighborhoods neighborhoods. The deal has now been broken.

The plea to politicians has been to get a handle on this siege of our little neighborhoods where we used to know everybody and everybody’s dog. The part about the vacation rental owners not paying taxes is annoying, sure, but annoying in a “to top it all off” way.

That house with all those strangers coming and going used to be where a nice family lived. And to top it off, the owner probably isn’t paying taxes.

Those tourists scraping their rolling suitcases up and down the stairs in the unit above the garage next door make us crazy. And to top it off, the owner probably isn’t paying taxes.

Who are all these people walking down the street taking pictures and talking loud? Don’t they realize that actual people still live here? Meanwhile my kid can’t find an affordable place to rent that isn’t a two-hour commute from her job. And to top it off, the owner probably isn’t paying taxes.

It’s the same thing as the Wainiha residents on Kauai wanting to manage the flood of tourists that is certain to swamp their little community when the road is open. It’s the same thing as the Pahoa residents wanting somebody to get a hold of the lava tourists tromping through what used to be a quiet, isolated place.

When you take money from an illegal business, that’s like a kickback, right? Or like money to look the other way. Is the state really that broke? Lawmakers need to listen to all the voters who just want their neighborhoods back.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.