Kalihi is going to be transformed!
Yay!
Economic development! New jobs! More housing and parks!
Yay!
It’s going to be the next Kakaako!
Wait, what?
This week a working group assembled by Gov. David Ige unveiled a plan for Kalihi’s future. It included such hipster concepts as co-working spaces, lofts and living spaces, rugby fields and, of course, bike paths.
And things were sounding pretty good until the phrase “the next Kakaako” was laid out there. (Romy Cachola was the one who laid it, BTW. Romy is a bit of a blurter.)
Does Oahu really need another Kakaako?
(And isn’t Kailua the next Kakaako?)
Not that Kakaako’s redevelopment is bad. It’s a hip place for hip cocktails on a hot Friday night when the asphalt is radiating heat from the day. It’s become a trendy destination for taking selfies alongside all the imaginative murals. The views from some of those high-rise apartments must be sweet from the upper floors where you can’t really see the bag man peeing in the street or smell the troublesome odor from manhole covers and storm drains. Who would have ever thought Kakaako would become so glamorous?
Kakaako used to be a place where work got done.
Not just artsy, lofty, visiony work. Real work, like auto shops and commercial bakeries, welding and hammering, big warehouses, industrial noises and varnish smells.
The part of Kalihi targeted in this proposal is just like that — a place where work gets done. Even in the age of information, stuff still has to be made.
Kalihi is a large slice of land that stretches mauka to makai and includes ramshackle houses, beat-up buildings, busy little factories, murky-looking waterways and the state’s largest public-
housing projects. People who call Kalihi home speak of their place with a blend of humility and pride. It is awful. It’s awesome. It’s brutal. It’s beautiful. All at the same time.
It’s Kalihi.
It would be a shame if, in the name of buzzwords like “redevelopment” and “transformation,” Kalihi became something it is not (though the report says Kalihi will not become gentrified).
Besides, all those industrial uses have to go somewhere, and the people who make things in those businesses have to live somewhere. Yes, Kakaako’s hip development has units that are called “affordable,” but those cost between $250,000 and $500,000 to buy and between $1,550 and $2,500 a month to rent.
The bold Kalihi visioning comes with a convenient perk for a governor who is already an underdog for re-election even though no Democrats have formally announced their intention to run against him. There’s a five- to 10-year time frame built into these ideas, and moving the Oahu Community Correctional Center to make room for all those nice new niceties is likely to be as difficult as trying to build a new airport. Ige doesn’t have to actually make anything happen, but it makes for good talking points now that he’s getting around to thinking about having to hold onto his job.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
