Upper Or Lower?

[1stwahine]

I was raised in the Kalihi/Palama/Chinatown area. Now they want to change what we've all come to know as Kalihi Valley to Upper Kalihi. The rest Lower...or something like dat! Wat next?

[pancakes]

Re: Upper Or Lower?

As a former resident of Kalihi Uka(27+ years) near Ka'iulani Tract, I think Kalihi is unique, in that, it is divided into what are called the Kalihi Valley, Kalihi Uka, Kalihi Waena, and Kalihi Kai areas. Not many neighborhoods and communities in Hawaii have this distinction; eg. think of bigger valleys such as Nu'uanu and Manoa where they don't have this distinction.

I think residents of Kalihi have always known that there was an "upper" and "lower" Kalihi Valley. For it to be renamed upper and lower Kalihi Valley, I think it wouldn't be a problem because people already know where they live and are proud of it.

So, if they do change the name, what will become of Kalihi Valley Homes? Will there now be an upper and lower Kalihi Valley Homes. I dunno.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Upper Or Lower?

Lynn, so who's trying to do this? Some haole who doesn't know what -uka and -kai means?

[1stwahine]

Re: Upper Or Lower?

Lynn, so who's trying to do this? Some haole who doesn't know what -uka and -kai means?

The Kalihi Vally Neighborhood President. There were many who is against it's proposal. Both from lower and higher. One said, "What, call um' Hollywood too!" Me, Kalihi/Palama/Chinatown is as low as you can get! Our neighbors are a mixed of Micronesians,Samoans,Vietnames, Chinese, etc. Our community includeds IHS, Akepo Arms, & Madonna. Yeah, LOWER is the truth about what we have as a collective community. We all ''LOW"! NOT!

We got the same problems, they got at upper Kalihi. Some Haole wants to just create something stupid for his own egotistical purposes...to get a plaque as the one who change Kalihi Valley to Upper Kalihi. Ssssh!

[1stwahine]

Re: Upper Or Lower?

Aloha Pancakes! Welcome to Hawai'i Threads!

[Miulang]

Re: Upper Or Lower?

Eh, once dey decide to start "prettying up" da names, dat means dey getting ready to redevelop da area. Up here, dey call it "gentrification" where people wit money (the yuppies) go in, buy up all da run down property, either tear 'em down or fix 'em up, and den the housing prices in dat area start to soar! I saw it happen in Boston and now I stay seeing it happen in Seattle, too. Da oni people who lose are da low income ones.

Miulang

[pzarquon]

Re: Upper Or Lower?

Thanks for the background, Pancake. I'm not too familiar with the various "divisions" of Kalihi. (How the heck can a "Valley" be "Upper" anything?) I agree, this renaming business sounds like it's more to make things more easy to sell for realtors and developers.

Of course, it can be entertaining... A friend of mine bought a house in Waikele, but I would always call it "Upper Waipahu." She bristled at that, because of course her 'hood was better than Waipahu... but since (at the time, at least) it had the same ZIP code as, and connected thoroughly to, Waipahu, that's what it was to me.

[scrivener]

Re: Upper Or Lower?

I have been living in Kalihi for about eight years. When my students ask me where I live, if I wish to have a little bit of street cred, I say I'm from Kalihi. If mostly anyone else asks me, I say Kapalama or Kapalama Heights, not to elevate myself over my neighbors in the valley, but to distinguish one section of Kalihi from another.

I grew up in Waipahu, and believe me, PZ: those of us who grew up in REAL Waipahu are grateful the folks in Waikele insist on calling it that. Ditto for Waipio, Kunia, and Village Park. "That's not Waipahu," we say, when residents of Waipio say they live in Waipahu. I lived in West Loch for a year, and when people asked me where I lived, I said West Loch; if I said Ewa, people from Ewa would always say, "That's not Ewa!" Which is weird, because if I lived in Honouliuli, which is geographically farther away from Ewa Beach than is West Loch, nobody would have complained if I'd claimed to be from Ewa.

There's no sense in pretending that Kalihi is Kalihi is Kalihi. The upper valley is not the same as Kalihi Kai. My neighborhood is nothing like Lynn's neighborhood, for better or for worse, and that's totally fine. I mean, Lynn wears her neighborhood proudly in every post she puts up ("No Mess Wit' Me--I Live Mayor Wright's!"). If Kalihi is Kalihi, why doesn't she say "No Mess Wit' Me--I Live Kalihi?"

I don't think there's anything wrong with changing the names of anything if the residents of the locale are in favor of changing it. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting upset by it, either. If this proposed name-change upsets you, I'm assuming we can count on seeing you at the next Neighborhood Board meeting, yes?

Don't just get mad. Do something meaningful.

PS: I don't think it's very constructive at all to blame Haoles. The one boardmember who voted against the name-change looks pretty haole to me. I'm haole, and I would have voted against it.