Tiny enclave wants own park
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Every afternoon when Masahide Kato looks out from his Pele Street home, he sees dozens of children playing in the road. In the crowded little neighborhood, the children have nowhere else to play, and he worries about their safety.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
In the past six months, at least three children have been struck by cars in the three-block patchwork of older houses and small apartments within the triangle formed by Vineyard Boulevard, Punchbowl Street and the H-1 Freeway overhead. In the worst accident, Kato said, a 3-year-old boy suffered a broken leg last October when he was struck by a vehicle while playing in the street.
Johnny Duong and his friends don't have a park in their Pele Street neighborhood, where people worry about children playing in the street. To get to nearby parks, children must cut through heavy traffic. But the city has yet to decide whether it can afford a new park.
Now Kato and several of his neighbors want the city to build a "mini-park" at the end of Pele Street to get the children off the road. The area's vision team has set aside $150,000 to buy the vacant parcel and to design and build the park.
"We have so many children in my neighborhood and they have no place to play," Kato said before the City Council Budget Committee last week, asking that money for the project not be taken out of the city budget. "To go to the nearby parks, children have to cross streets with very heavy traffic."
The city Planning Commission last week approved a request to amend a portion of the Primary Urban Center public facilities map by adding a park symbol for the site. If the council leaves the money intact, a bill for the park will be submitted via the Department of Planning and Permitting by June 30.
But Councilman Jon Yoshimura said that because major cuts to the city budget are under discussion, he is worried whether the mini-park and other vision team projects will receive money.
"The Budget Committee has sent a strong message that it is not looking favorably on new park projects," Yoshimura said.
The 5,583-square-foot parcel at 1518 Pele St. is empty but for two large mango trees. The property, owned by the state Department of Transportation, has been used to park vehicles during construction projects.
Transportation Director Brian Minaai told Karl Rhoads, vision team advocate for the project, that the property is considered surplus. A March 7 letter from Minaai to Sen. Rod Tam, D-13th (Nu'uanu, Downtown), confirmed that the state has no objection to giving up the parcel if the city will assume responsibility for maintenance and liability.
Rhoads said about 600 people live within a two-block radius of the proposed park. Rhoads admitted the site is small, which could pose a maintenance problem for city crews, but said it is important to create a safe play area for the children.
Rhoads said that although both Kamamalu Neighborhood Park and Dole Community Park are as close "as the crow flies," there are dangerous obstacles for children trying to get there.
To get to Kamamalu Neighborhood Park, children must cross Punchbowl, walk along busy Vineyard Boulevard and up Queen Emma Street. To reach Dole Community Park, children must use a pedestrian overpass above the H-1 Freeway.
"Parents don't want their kids to cross those big main streets, and if you use the arch over the freeway to get to Dole park you still have to cross Magellan Avenue and there are no stoplights," Rhoads said.
Eastbound drivers who get off H-1 at Punchbowl add to the danger faced by children when the motorists cut through the area to avoid making an illegal left turn at Vineyard. The city last month put in a four-way stop sign at Lusitana and Pele streets to slow drivers down, but many speed through anyway, Rhoads said.
Yoshimura said that after all the work residents go through to plan vision team projects such as the park, he considers them a high priority when city money is allocated.
He said the park proposal is exactly "the kind of project that vision teams are supposed to identify (a need for) and tell us about."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
