Apartment Life

The following pictures are from the view of our neighbor's apartments.

Our neighborhoods of Waikiki, Ala Moana and Kakaako are a special place, with a unique history and prosperous future.

I appreciate and value every city block in our community. And I want to share my enthusiasm and pride in our home with my website, these pictures and written commentary.

Residential Waikiki

If Waikiki, the worlds best tourist destination, is not a great place to live how can it be a great place to visit. We cannot neglect the residents of Waikiki and their needs.

In the 1960s residential Waikiki was characterized by a jungle of small houses with surfers, artists and bohemian lifestyles. By the 1970s after a $100M initiative to renovate, private developers replaced many homes with high-rises. Today, residential Waikiki is a concrete jungle.

While tourist hotels and areas makai of Kuhio Avenue are chic and better maintained, residential Waikiki's infrastructure has not kept pace. We need a blended vibrant neighborhood that everyone can call home. Residents need more park space, locally owned small businesses and pedestrian areas. And this must not be done at the expense of existing elderly retired and working occupants.

A vision for our 20,000 residents should include creating wide promenades running from the ocean to the Ala Wai Canal to define the mauka border while sidewalk cafes and local brand stores help enlarge our already sizeable retirement community with more affordable condominiums.

Residential Ala Moana, Kakaako

Our neighborhood is one of Oahu's fastest growing residential communities. City officials estimate 25,000 people will move into Kakaako over the next 25 years, a 178 percent population increase.

About 75 percent of Hawaii luxury condominium buyers in Kakaako are full or part-time residents,  while 10 percent are from California, 10 percent from Japan and 5 percent from other parts of the Mainland and Asia.

Realtors believe about 20 percent of owners will likely resell their units over the next year given the appreciation of property values over the past two years.

Honolulu's primary urban center development plan, comprising of the urban core from Kalihi to Kaimuki, allows for a density of 140 residential units per acre with reduced or eliminated parking, and allows for city block-sized mixed-use developments, rezoned into high-density residential units over commercial spaces and built to the street with no building setbacks along mass-transit corridors.

Now is the time to be concerned and take action to better ensure a future that is fitting for our residential vision of the Kakaako, Ala Moana community.

Neighborhood boards and community groups deserve an imporatnt say in our critical planning for our future.

More to come...