On an island where communities often struggle to find or hold on to their identity, Kaimuki manages to be self-assured, casual-hip and comfortably real. It doesn’t try too hard but it doesn’t NOT try, either.

It’s a neighborhood where most of the stores, from the old faithful to the newfangled, are locally owned and not squeezed out by all-the-same franchises. There are little shops and entire buildings that are like movie sets for a film about Hawaii in the 1970s — The Crack Seed Store, Bea’s Hairstyling, Kaimuki Professional Building.

The people at the bus stop are actually waiting for the bus and not, you know, making house or killing time. There are almost as many yoga studios as nail salons, and twice as many little bakeries, which makes for a happy mix.

On the Diamond Head end of Kaimuki, though, is a sight to see. Notable, for sure. Notorious, even.

The parking lot behind the Kaimuki post office may be the most potholed parking lot in town. For real. Go check it out. You have to see it. It’s like … epically potholed.

Bill Doi has lived in Kaimuki for 35 years. He calls the city parking lot between 12th and Koko Head avenues “an obstacle course” and “an accident waiting to happen.”

“I cannot recall it ever being repaved,” Doi said. “It would be a shame if someone fell and got injured.”

Doi contrasts the moon-crater surface of that parking lot with the one just a block over, behind Big City Diner, 12th Ave Grill, Pillbox Pharmacy and Sugarcane Shop. That lot, smoothly paved and well marked, is managed by ProPark, which has a contract with the city. The spiffy lot is known as the Kaimuki Municipal Parking Lot. The junkalunka one is Kaimuki Municipal Parking Lot No. 2.

The good news is that the city knows that No. 2 is a mess and it’s on the to-do list:

“The Kaimuki municipal parking lot is in bad shape and is slated to be repaved within the next year,” said Department of Design and Construction Deputy Director Mark Yonamine. A design consultant has been contracted and is planning the project.

“Road repaving is ahead of schedule, but parking lots aren’t eligible for the road repaving funds approved by the City Council. The Department of Design and Construction is using $500,000 in funds added by the City Council in fiscal year 2016 for the planning and design phase of the project.”

Kaimuki is one of the coolest neighborhoods on Oahu, and that jacked-up parking lot is next to some of the coolest places in town: Koa Pancake House, Coffee Talk, the Art Exploratorium, the planter box of sweet-smelling lauae fern by the post office and the secret little coconut tree someone carved into the sidewalk. Until it is paved, maybe it can be just one more remarkable thing about funky, self-assured Kaimuki, a temporary contender for Worst Parking Lot Ever in one of the best places to be. Go check it out. Just, you know, be careful where you walk.