Tiny community thrives in big neighbor's shadow
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
A funny thing happened to many people on quiet Kahakai Drive when the hulking Hawai'i Convention Center moved in as a neighbor:
Among the happy neighbors who live on Kahakai Drive are 4-year-old Cairo McConnell and her 3-year-old friend Jalen Campbell.
Life got better.
Back when the 1.1 million-square-foot convention center was first planned for an undersized lot in the area 10 years ago, many of the same people felt it would overwhelm the neighborhood, one of the last low-rise, affordable residential streets within walking distance of both Waikiki and Ala Moana Center.
Instead, the street has remained relatively unchanged and residents, some of whom have lived there for nearly 40 years, say the center has brought some surprising benefits, including a new public walkway and continued low rents.
"This is a little jewel of an area," said Viktor Cipriano, whose $750-a-month, one-bedroom Kahakai Drive apartment overlooks a Paris-like pedestrian path, treetops full of singing birds, passing canoes on the Ala Wai canal and the unheard cacophony of Waikiki high-rises in the beyond.
"It makes you realize what a lovely place Honolulu still is," said Cipriano, a Hawai'i Pacific University international relations student who originally came from Mexico and has been living in the art moderne-style Commodore Apartments on the street for the last year. "You see how the beauty can continue to exist, even in the heart of Waikiki."
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
No one is quite sure how Kahakai Drive has been able to resist the pressures of Manhattanization that have been swirling around it for at least four decades.
Near Kahakai Drive, pedestrians can enjoy a tree-lined path along the Ala Wai canal. Some who were concerned about having the Hawai'i Convention Center nearby say their new neighbor has brought some benefits.
"It's one of those urban anomalies where streets somehow can maintain a very nice human scale and cohesiveness," said Fred Creager, a University of Hawai'i architecture professor who was among those who thought the convention center, which opened its doors in 1998, would change the area forever.
Extensive, maturing landscape around the center has helped mute some of the impact of the building, which has a main parking entrance on Kahakai Drive.
"Fortunately, the community wasn't torn asunder like when a freeway is built," Creager said. "Through the grace of the landscape architects, once you get back into the neighborhood, it's still a nice little enclave."
The street isn't without problems.
The convention center brought more traffic and exacerbated a tight on-street parking problem. More serious concerns, including drug dealing, loud music and rowdy nighttime party people, come from another direction, the one facing a hotel and small business district along Atkinson Drive.
"It's mellowed out a little bit lately, but for a while it was really terrible. We had everything: noise, drugs, stealing, homeless, the whole nine yards," said Lana Shane, who along with her husband, Mike, helps manage several small two-story walkups. The apartment buildings back onto an alley linking the street to a local liquor store, a check-cashing store, the area's lone pay phone, and other modern conveniences that somehow seem much farther away than they are.
Many of the small apartment complexes were built in the 1930s or 1940s and were used as military barracks during World War II, when officers could motor right up to a mooring next to their rooms along the Ala Wai.
Although the apartment buildings show their age, a steady stream of mostly foreign owners has maintained them just well enough to remain both desirable and affordable, residents say. In turn, the residents seem to take pride in the unique character of their neighborhood. Well-tended plantings of ginger, plumeria, 'ape and bird of paradise sprout on tiny walkways or in the middle of cracked parking lots.
Several residents, young and old, said there are three reasons why they love the area: convenience, convenience, convenience.
"It's quiet, cheap and convenient," said Edgar Camacho, who found an apartment in the neighborhood two months ago after moving from the Mainland to work at the new Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Waikiki.
"It's close to everything: the stores, the buses, the shopping center," added 87-year-old Joanna Sode, who has lived in the same Kahakai Drive building for 34 years.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
The biggest change in the neighborhood since the convention center opened has been the improvement in the walkway along the Ala Wai canal, said 79-year-old Cleo Kapu, who was sitting in the late afternoon shade with her dog, Kaimana.
Lana Shane, who lives on Kahakai Drive, helps manage some apartment buildings in the area. She said that for a while, there was a lot of noise and crime. Now, the area has "mellowed out a little bit."
"Before it was kind of muddy and a little dangerous, but once the convention center opened they fixed it up real nice," said Kapu, who lived in the Commodore Apartments for almost 20 years, moved to Lahaina for a couple years and quickly returned back to her original apartment.
"We didn't know how good we had it until we went over there without any buses or anything else around," she said. "People used to come down to our apartment and party. You know, suck 'em up. We called it the Cozy Corner."
Things aren't very different today.
"You've got a good mix of people: students, artists, retirees, and everybody says hello to each other. Sometimes we go down to the grass, have a picnic and play music. We all know each other," Cipriano said.
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
