Posted on: Friday, February 18, 2005

Punchbowl park approved

Residents on the makai slopes of Punchbowl have worked for four years to bring a "mini-park" to their neighborhood so children don't have to play in the streets, and last week the project finally got the go-ahead.

"We have completed our review ... and support the community's desire to continue with the project," Wayne Hashiro, acting director of the city Department of Design and Construction, said in a Feb. 11 letter to City Councilman Rod Tam. The letter said plans are under way for construction to begin.

Lusitana Street resident Elizabeth Wilson said it's a relief that the project is finally moving forward.

"It has been planned for years and we heard that at the last minute that Mayor (Jeremy) Harris turned it down," Wilson said. "We all appealed (to Mayor Mufi Hannemann) and I'm glad to hear that it is getting back off the ground again. It is needed very badly."

Over the years, the plan has had to work its way through a series of city, state and federal boards, councils and committees — all of which have approved the project.

The $220,000 "mini-park" will be on a 5,583-square-foot parcel at 1518 Pele St. The site is a narrow empty lot at the end of the road that was owned by the state Department of Transportation, which used it to park vehicles during construction projects.

Tam said he isn't sure when construction will start, but he is gratified that it is finally moving forward.

"We have a need for playgrounds and dealing with the recreational safety needs for our youth and elderly," he said. "It was a lot safer when I was young and people were more safety conscious driving. Today that is not the case. Drivers feel that if you are on the road it's their right of way."

The campaign for a park started in 2001 when the area's vision team wanted to give children a safe place to play. The neighborhood is cut off from public parks and surrounded by some of the busiest roads in the state.

Several children have been hit 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. In the worst accident, a 3-year-old boy suffered a broken leg in 2001 when a vehicle hit him while he was playing in the street.

The nearest parks are not easy for children to reach.

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.

Nancy Holt, who until recently lived next to the planned park with her husband and two sons, said getting to those parks is dangerous, and parents want their children to stay in the neighborhood.

"To this day, as we drive by, you see them playing in the parking lot of Jiffy Lube or in the streets," Holt said.

About 600 people live within a two-block radius of the proposed park. Many are recent Pacific Islands immigrants.

"All the Micronesian children come here with their families and there is absolutely no safe place for them to play," said Wilson. "They are coming from the islands where they are used to running free. They come to Hawai'i and it is a concrete jungle out there."

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.