Kaka'ako med school: some scary portents

Dr. Edwin Cadman says he's optimistic about lining up financing to move his UH medical school to Kaka'ako. We wonder how long that optimism will last.

From the perspective of those who believe we need a new medical school campus and it must be near the Honolulu waterfront, the signs are terrible. Gov. Ben Cayetano, a big admirer of Cadman and solid backer of the project, asked the Legislature for $141 million to get it started.

The House has responded by proposing a paltry $10 million to keep the idea alive. The state would also help the university borrow $70 million in revenue bonds — without helping it to repay the principal plus interest.

Granted, the budget is far from graven in stone yet. But there's no way one should construe the new medical school to be on any sort of fast track.

Cadman says he's optimistic about lining up private money, but he is correct to point out that "It is, after all, a public institution, and the state has some responsibility." We'd suggest Cadman get an agreement — in writing — as to just what degree of responsibility lawmakers care to shoulder.

One of the dangers here is that Cadman will realize that Hawai'i leaders talk a great game about wanting to make the university and its medical school into global icons of higher education — right up until someone passes the hat. And then perhaps he will hop a plane and leave the medical school where he found it — on the brink of extinction.

That would be bad enough, but it's not the only danger. Consider the planned new medical school campus in the context of Kaka'ako Makai, the last remaining crown jewel of public-owned waterfront land.

It is imperative that the state avoid frittering this land away incrementally on nickel-and-dime development. As we've often said, it must be the site of a signature landmark.

We've always advocated that this vision be solidified first, so that nothing else built in the area is incompatible. So far all the state has proposed for this property is an aquarium and, on its periphery, the med school campus. There is also the possibility of part of the Bishop Museum locating in the area.

The aquarium appears to be dead on arrival at the Legislature this year — it has attracted not a penny. As a neighbor of a landmark attraction, whatever it turns out to be, a truly world-class medical school campus needn't detract from it.

But if Cadman is able to embarrass lawmakers into financing his campus this year, then, as the first element to be built in Kaka'ako Makai, wouldn't it tend to become a defining factor in how the rest of the lands are used?

Further, if Cadman and money-strapped lawmakers agree to settle for a practical but less-than-elegant campus, then we're on our way to seeing our worst fears realized: a patchwork of work-a-day facilities, neither a visitor attraction nor a source of local pride.

We need a vision for these lands, and we need leadership to carry it off. So far both are lacking.