Cleaning up school-route lot could take village and owner

Question: I was wondering who might be responsible for cutting the grass along the sidewalk on Prospect Street between Magazine and Nehoa streets. There is a large grassy hill (right underneath Punchbowl), and my children and I walk to school at Lincoln Elementary along that path every morning. The grass is taller than both my children, and there are pieces of rubbish and rubbish bags everywhere along the path and even shopping carts filled with trash. In addition to it being dirty and smelly, when cars are parked on the sidewalk along that stretch of road, it makes it difficult to walk along the path in between the bushes and cars (though, having parked along there myself, by no means am I asking to make it a “no parking” area). I’ve attached a picture for reference. … I am hoping if we can clean up the area and make the walking path wider, it won’t be so difficult to maneuver through. … We love our neighborhood and wish it was more conducive to walking and bicycling, but unfortunately, right now it’s just a mess. Who would be responsible for cleaning the area up and cutting the grass, and what might I be able to do to help my community become more pedestrian-friendly?

Answer: The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands owns land on the slopes of Puowaina (Punchbowl Crater) that corresponds with the location you described, according to records in the Honolulu Land Information System.

We followed up with Paula Aila, an information and community relations officer for DHHL, who said the department “has contracted a vendor to maintain the area in question, however, that same area is also prone to people dumping trash and bulky items illegally, which complicates the maintenance of that area.”

The whole 15-acre parcel includes far more land than the stretch along Prospect Street that you walk with your children.

Since you hope to galvanize a community effort to improve the route, we asked Aila, who at DHHL would be the best point of contact for such an attempt. She responded that “DHHL will continue to manage that area via our contractor. The department is unable to commit personnel resources beyond that due to a high shortage of staff.”

You might try to jump-start a community effort by involving parents from your children’s school and by contacting your City Council representative (Carol Fukunaga, who represents District 6) and the city’s Bicycle Program (honolulu.gov/bicycle). Ultimately, though, any successful community cleanup effort would have to involve the landowner as well.

Property search

We’ve mentioned before how to find out who owns an Oahu property by plugging the street address or tax map key into the computerized HoLIS database, which is available via several web addresses and mobile apps.

It’s also possible to discern ownership without knowing the exact address or TMK, by zeroing in on the online map starting from a general location, such as you provided in your question.

Using the website gis.hicentral.com, for example, click on the “Advanced Map” function within the Interactive Map Selector. Zoom in on a particular location by clicking the button that shows a magnifying glass and plus sign. Once you zoom in enough, property lines and TMKs will appear. Click on a specific TMK, then click on “View Parcel Details” to obtain information that includes the street address, value and owner of the particular property.

Mahalo

A big mahalo goes out to a great family from Pearl City (unfortunately, I did not get their full names) for finding my wallet in the Pearl City Walmart parking lot and graciously driving all the way to Nuuanu to return it to me with everything intact. I am grateful and thankful to know there are still honest people around. I appreciate their kindness and will forever have them in my heart. — Much aloha, L.F. Santos

Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.