Save Our Kaka'ako?

[turtlegirl]

So, I bought a cheap car off of a kid who flunked out of college and now has to go back to New Jersy to face his angry dad. (Tee Hee!)

The bumper sticker on it says "Save our Kaka'ako". I think I spelled that right. What needs to be saved, exactly?

I looked online and found reference to Kaka'ako Park in town, and it seems pretty nice and saved. Do developers want to tear down the park or something? The car is ancient - is this maybe an old issue?

What does Kaka'ako need to be saved from?

[1stwahine]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

What does Kaka'ako need to be saved from?

Developers.

Kaka'ako used to be a community of small businesses. Mom and Pop shops. Lots of people lived in the area too. Slowly but surely everything started to be widened for the betterment of "PROGRESS!"

Sumehing lil dat.

Auntie Lynn

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Developers want to move in to build highrise, high density condos with full on shopping malls and parking lots on the bottom floors....all the way down to the waterfront. Anything for the almighty buck.

At present, Kakaako is filthy, floods when it rains, no parking, potholes, no curbs, very few sidewalks, lots of very old, dilapidated buildings and everyone loves it as it is. It's no longer a very big area, but what little is left has it's redeeming qualities.

[timkona]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Isn't that where the Children's Discovery Center is? Cool Place. Nice Park.

Heard it's the old landfill.

Reminds me of a Talking Heads song. "There was a factory. Now its all covered in daisy's"

[tutusue]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

My office was in Kakaako from '95-'07. Yep, the area is long in the tooth but that's it's charm. Once Hamada Store closed that was the end of an era in Kakaako for me. Glad I moved.

And, the potholes...Oh...gawd...the potholes!

[Honoruru]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Kaka‘ako used to be a major residential area during the early 20th Century. Many memories there. But that changed after the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor. Residents were forced to move out to make way for the industrial war effort. The result is what we now think of as Kaka‘ako--lots of small industrial businesses, warehouses, mom and pop stores, auto repair shops, etc.

Then a second wave of change began with the demise of Honolulu Iron Works, the replacing of that area with Restaurant Row, and the establishment of a state-sponsored agency to oversee the renewal of an area that was considered to be urban blight. The result is what we are seeing now--lots of high-rise luxury condominiums, grandiose plans for future development, and a blank slate as to what is to happen.

There has been a lot of good that has happened with this re-development effort, but also some questionable ideas. Kaka‘ako is a neighborhood that's very much in transition, and searching for a new identity.

What's to save? Whatever you think is worth saving.

[turtlegirl]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Wow, guys, thanks so much for all this info!! I agree with my bumper sticker, for now. Looking forward to checking it out! Please keep the Kaka'ako stories coming - my car is representin', and I'm underinformed!

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Developers want to move in to build highrise, high density condos with full on shopping malls and parking lots on the bottom floors....all the way down to the waterfront. Anything for the almighty buck.

I'm sure that's what prompted the bumper sticker. It had the community in quite an uproar.

Something needs to be done with the place, but not selling it out to the highest bidder.

[dick]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

At present, Kakaako is filthy, floods when it rains, no parking, potholes, no curbs, very few sidewalks, lots of very old, dilapidated buildings and everyone loves it as it is. It's no longer a very big area, but what little is left has it's redeeming qualities.

Well, that depends on what part of Kakaako you're talking about. It's a big area (essentially Ala Moana (Piikoi St.) heading Ewa to South St.), and a lot of it does not fit that dilapidated description. Sure, there are some surly areas, but at the same time there are a lot of really nice areas as well.

[mel]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Kaka'ako as Dick said is a big area, generally going Ewa of Piikoi Street all the way to where Punchbowl Street ends near the Federal Building and Restaurant Row. The mauka-makai border is generally regarded as the area makai of Kapiolani Blvd. all the way down to the waterfront.

Major features of Kakaa'ko include the many developed areas that include the Ward Theater Complexes, Ward Centre, Ward Warehouse, the Sport Authority store complex, several new high rises along Ala Moana Blvd., South Street and Kapiolani Blvd. It also includes the last remnants of the mixed use commercial-industrial areas highlighted by the previously mentioned potholed roads, no parking, small Mom & Pops businesses. The makai area near the shorline include the Kakaako Waterfront Park (built over a landfill), Children's Discovery Center, Kewalo Boat Harbor and park area, University of Hawaii Medical Center and some car dealerships.

Major areas of controversy are the Queen Street area near the Office Depot Store and going towards Ward Ave. Many small businesses are fighting the HCDA efforts to redevelop the area. General Growth properties would love to develop more of the area and get rid of the small businesses that were there for many years.

Recently resolved was the effort by the HCDA to develop the area near Kewalo and the waterfront park with glitzy condos and high end retail. The community went up in arms against it and the development plans are shelved for now.

One of the most controversial issues to come up for many of the small busiensses in the area is the routing of the $6.4 billion mass transit line. That will probably be extremely disruptive as the city and developers clamor over where to lay the tracks and whose private property they can buy or take using eminent domain.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

That area was also the site of a mass burial back in 1853 so the area is ripe with haunted stories. Having worked in Kakaako for almost a quarter century I've heard a ton of em including some from The Gas Company's building at 515 Kamakee Street in Kakaako.

There were even three springs that fed into Kakaako that eventually dried up as development occured above in the Punchbowl/Makiki area.

I remember when the first Nauru Towers came up, I would see the construction workers pound pile after pile into the soft ground. One after another those long cement piles would disappear until they hit solid rock, I heard the developer ran into financial difficulties because they didn't factor in the cost of that many piles used to shore up the ground for those glass towers.

[turtlegirl]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

General Growth Properties is on the move!

Did anyone else read today's Advertiser? The front page says "Redrawing Kaka'ako Skyline". Apparently the plan is to add lots of retail and up to 4,300 residential units in highrises.

Ick.

[kani-lehua]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

yep read the article and saw it on the news. check out this link for the area as pictured and remembered: http://www.oralhistory.hawaii.edu/pa...y/kakaako.html

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Major areas of controversy are the Queen Street area near the Office Depot Store and going towards Ward Ave. Many small businesses are fighting the HCDA efforts to redevelop the area. General Growth properties would love to develop more of the area and get rid of the small businesses that were there for many years.

Well, some of those "small businesses" are seedy bars that attract many a low-life element (not the least of which are drug dealers) to the area from late at night all the way to the wee hours of the morning. It would be nice if those bars (scattered throughout the area) were replaced by more desireable and classy tenants. But it's hard for restaurants and the like to make a go of it unless you have a greater residential and retail/commercial presence to generate more foot traffic in the area.

I think the concept of having more people calling Kaka'ako "home" is a good one, if you want to turn the area into a more gentrified neighborhood than what it currently is now. Problem is, do we want this greater residential presence to come in the form of 400 ft. high-rise condos? Hopefully, GGP's plans will be scaled down and a more sensible plan can be put forward that will improve and enhance the ambience of Kaka'ako without turning it into another concrete jungle.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Save Our Kaka'ako?

Well, some of those "small businesses" are seedy bars that attract many a low-life element (not the least of which are drug dealers) to the area from late at night all the way to the wee hours of the morning.

But some of us call it...home...ahhh. Okay so I moved on. '

Kakaako definately needs to be upgraded. I called that area the Dead Zone in the past because of it's seedy nature.