Have you checked out The Hot Seat? It's our opinion-page blog that brings in your elected leaders and people in the news and lets you ask the questions during a live online chat.

On The Hot Seat last week was Big Island Mayor Harry Kim.

Here is an excerpt from that session. (Names of questioners below are screen names given during our online chat.)

Chris: I traveled to the Big Island recently and was shocked at what I saw. Massive shoreline developments seemed to be going up all over. Recently, the headlines warned about another massive development proposed for the coastline near the energy lab. What are your solutions to keep the Big Island from becoming one huge gated resort?

Mayor Harry Kim: For those of us who call this island home, gated communities and all they stand for are what we are against.

The area you are referring to, I think, is some of the North Kona and South Kohala districts. This would be the area most all visitors are exposed to when coming to the island of Hawai'i, especially through the Kona airport.

Unfortunately, almost all, if not all, of the resorts and developments that you are seeing were zoned sometime during the 1970s and maybe the 1980s.

On the positive side, I think we can demonstrate that very few zonings for hotels or resort developments have been approved in the last few years. It has been the goal of this administration to identify several miles of coastline in this same area of North Kona and South Kohala to be reserved for the people of Hawai'i and not for development of any kind.

We identified approximately 15 miles of coastline in North Kona and South Kohala that would be, in perpetuity, lands and coastline for the people of Hawai'i.

One of the last two pieces of the puzzle to complete this picture was the cooperation and commitment of two major landowners of that area: Ooma and Kohanaiki properties. Gratefully, I can say these two major property owners have committed all of their shoreline to the people of Hawai'i island. This is not token shoreline access, but true shoreline ownership of as much as 700 feet and more from the shoreline that would belong to the people of Hawai'i in perpetuity.

Kyle S.: What has been the earthquake's economic impact on the Big Island? And since you have a background in disaster preparedness, was the Big Island truly prepared for disaster? If not, what must be done now to make sure we are in the future?

Kim: The greatest economic impact of the earthquake to this island to specific individuals would be the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. Due to structural damage of this hotel, the management has decided to close the hotel until repairs can be totally completed. This will take as long as a year, and maybe more. The positive part about this is that most of the employees were able to be placed in a sister hotel or other hotels.

As for other economic impacts, these would be directly to individuals and all the hardships that it posed for them.

I think (strong) building code requirements truly prevented much more damage that would have been suffered.

No matter how well we responded to this earthquake, we can and must get better. Point one on this was that communication to the public was not satisfactory due to the power failure to the radio stations, and this now has been mitigated by county government providing funds for all radio stations to have auxiliary power.

In summary, one of the most important elements here is for people to protect themselves financially. No one has earthquake insurance. The only way to address this is to generate support for a national, federally funded insurance program, and this is what we have been trying to work on with our congressional people for years — for Hawai'i's people and for the people of the rest of the United States.

Steve Doyle: All of the Hawaiian islands are under increasing pressure to build more housing and affordable rentals for its citizens, with the seemingly competing interests of developers to maximize their profits by investing in luxury homes and gated communities for the off-island wealthy.

I recognize that you were not mayor during the Hokuli'a fiasco and the ensuing lawsuits in Circuit Court and the Hawai'i Supreme Court, but you have no doubt heard the many questions about "urban" projects being constructed on agricultural land, along with the concerns of environmentalists and Hawaiian cultural practitioners.

Since these issues are becoming more immediate with each passing day, what is your administration's position on development on the Big Island? And would a more proactive state Land Use Commission be effective?

Kim: All developers here, I assure you, are met with individually in regard to their participation and involvement in trying to understand what the focus is for this island. True efforts are made to work with them to try to do development that does focus on making this a nice place to live, and not just a nice place to visit or a playland for the rich.

In regard to the Land Use Commission, yes, involvement by them and participation as far as what our goals are for this island must be an ongoing communication. However, I must point out that one of the greatest problems of the LUC is the bureaucracy of going through the LUC procedures regarding the use of lands.

Wankine: I am a resident of Hawaiian Paradise Park in the Puna District. We sometimes feel that we are the "poor stepchildren" of the county. When we complain about the lack of county services, we are either told to be patient or reminded that most of us live in "substandard" subdivisions. The county has been happy to let us build here and to take our tax money all these years, but slow to provide services. Now that the population growth of the county is concentrated here, what do you propose to do to help improve services in Puna?

Kim: There is no denying the needs of the Puna district. Telling you to be patient would not be a very good answer under any circumstances, and we have never used that.

Almost all of the major subdivisions in Puna were zoned shortly after statehood. This would be in the early 1960s. Almost all of the subdivisions did not have any of the infrastructure of roads, power, water and facilities of parks and schools. Sadly, this situation remains the same for a lot of those subdivisions today. Please note that these are private subdivisions. We are trying to find ways that county government can go into the private sector and provide some assistance.

In fairness, unfortunately, if you look at the amount of money collected from almost a totally agriculturally zoned subdivision, revenues from the Puna district have never in the past many years equated to the expenditures in that district. This is not an excuse, but strictly information of finances.

Puna has been identified as having the fastest growing area on the island of Hawai'i in regard to building permits for residential homes and the fastest growing population on the island of Hawai'i for the past few years.

Since it is the highest priority as you can see now, new fire stations and police stations are being planned or are under construction at this time.

The most important issue here is to know that Puna is perhaps the most short of all the districts, per population, as far as infrastructure and government services.

Lisa: What are your thoughts on the Superferry? Do you think that the Superferry will be good for the Big Island? Are you concerned about invasive species being transported island to island? It will be nice to have an alternative method to flying but not at the price of our environment.

Kim: I have always supported the growth of alternative transportation means for Hawai'i's people. It never seemed right for Hawai'i's people to depend on only air travel to go to other islands. I have supported the development of a ferry system from as far back as I can remember as providing another alternative for Hawai'i's people. This should not be interpreted to be at the price of the environment or disregard of problems of traffic or invasive species. This means we must be sure to address these problems.

Jo: I read that many residents live on the opposite side of the island than where they work. Do you see any type of mass transit in the future for the Big Island?

Kim: Mass transit always seems to be an easy solution until one assesses the cost. O'ahu is a perfect example of that. On this island, the expansion of the mass-transit system has been a high priority for more than the reason of people going to the opposite side of the island for work. It also addresses all the reasons of getting people to not use their private automobiles and to provide them alternatives.

As you may know, the county government of Hawai'i has made all mass-transit rides free of charge effective October 2005. The only thing I see for this island for the foreseeable future would be to expand the bus mass-transit system, and this is being done as fast as we can acquire buses.

Jeff C.: What are your future political aspirations? Are you going to run for governor and has the Democratic party approached you regarding running for that office or any other office?

Kim: I never had political aspirations, and I still don't. I think I wound up here by default. And yes, the Democratic party has complimented me with inquiries about running for the office of governor.