Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs recently took a step to resolve ceded-lands payments through a settlement on land ownership in Kakaako. With this agreement, the state and OHA join the University of Hawaii — the other major interest — as partners in the success of Honolulu’s most valuable, yet undeveloped land. This convergence marks an unprecedented opportunity not only to revitalize the neighborhood, but a chance to demonstrate how Honolulu can fulfill its potential to become a world-class city.

It helps to have a governor who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on Lewis Mumford, one of the world’s great urbanists. Honolulu is the United States’ 10th most populous municipality, with wonderful natural assets in the midst of big-city amenities. It will always attract those from the U.S. and elsewhere, and the affordability of our city rests not only on policies to keep costs down, but also to increase local purchasing power in a national and global economy. There is no going back to an isolated existence, and the question is how, not whether, Honolulu will grow "smartly."

Urban density in Kakaako will limit sprawl on Oahu, allow for more productive utilization of agricultural land, and create a third urban destination, next to Waikiki and Kapolei.

In 1938, Mumford uttered a whisper of how to achieve this in his planning report for the City and County of Honolulu in which he argued for recognizing four essential principles: conserving the city’s natural assets, maximizing use of the city’s cooling by tradewinds, developing its capacity for universal greenery, and most importantly, experimenting with new forms of development that built on the remarkable human and cultural diversity of the city.

More than 70 years later, Kakaako is Mumford’s "experiment." Planning for the neighborhood is not simply a real estate deal, nor is it an insulated site for comprehensive social and economic planning. Rather, it should be seen as the site from which a larger urban strategy can drive material improvements for all of the city’s residents: a place for business, a place for living, and a place for Hawaiians and all other residents to enjoy being in the city they call home.

Some will live in the neighborhood, others will work there, and yet others will come there for a night out, a bike ride through the park, or an afternoon on the waves. The one thing standing in the way of this kind of success, and the city’s ability to fulfill its potential, is political timidity. Perhaps a positive model can bolster this courage.

UHM’s own Department of Urban and Regional Planning hosted Mayor Jaime Lerner from Curitiba Brazil to talk about how he brought a city of 1 million from a position of relative obscurity in 1988 to a contemporary global model for good planning, the use of innovative environmental infrastructures and technologies, and good fiscal management.

Matching political courage, economic sophistication, and good planning techniques, Lerner led innovative experiments in transportation, housing and open space, benefits that led him to a long term as the governor of Parana State in 1994. His secret? "If you can demonstrate physical success and visible improvements, the people will forgive you."

Kakaako represents an opportunity to achieve a very physical and material improvement. Three of the largest state institutions now have a shared interest in making Kakaako a success on its own terms and a symbolic success on how our diversity can help Honolulu live up to its significant potential. By mustering the courage to experiment, planners and politicians have an opportunity to show how Honolulu can become a truly world-class city at the center of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation region.

James H. Spencer, Ph.D., is director of the Globalization Research Center and associate professor of urban planning/political science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also is an adjunct senior fellow for Environmental Change, Vulnerability and Governance Program at the East-West Center.