A few thoughts on creating a new kind of university town
| • | Dobelle is shaking up a university that needs it |
By John Griffin
Former Advertiser Editorial Editor
Here are some of the suggestions five planners had at a recent University of Hawai'i program on creating a "college town" that better brings UH into the nearby community and vice versa.
• Create alliances and planning partnerships between the university and community associations, neighborhood boards, business groups, and property owners large and small.
• Make the university area a special city design district to help fashion a "new urban village." The new, improved Waikiki, Kaka'ako and Kapolei offer examples on what might be done.
• Minimize the H-1 Freeway as a barrier between campus and community. If we can't bury the intruding expressway (as was done in Boston), we can make University Avenue more pleasant — perhaps a tree-shaded "Warrior Walkway."
• To create a symbiotic relationship, bring more business closer to the Manoa campus, up University Avenue, along Dole and Metcalf streets.
• Going the other way, bring more of UH to the business area. Maybe move the UH bookstore down to King Street. Stop crowding the campus. Bring some dorms, offices and even classes down to McCully and Mo'ili'ili.
• At the same time, bring more after-dark life to the campus. Build new dorms near or atop the campus center and the parking garage.
• Get parking out of the central campus. Integrate it with transportation, the city bus system, and Waikiki-like trolleys to move people around the expanded Manoa domain.
• Don't just think bricks and mortar. Re-create a campus that reflects the kind of stature we want for the university. Much can be done by improving what's there now.
Some may joke about "Evan's Empire" and "Dobelle's Domain" expanding into the 3Ms i Manoa, McCully and Mo'ili'ili. But — perhaps inspired by the new president's thinking — I see a UH-related urban village that includes new information and technology businesses, maybe even extending into the 2Ks — Kapahulu and my Kaimuki.
And don't forget the white- and blue-collar twins i St. Louis Heights and Palolo.
