We need more parks on Oahu. We also need to come to terms on integrating rail into urban Oahu. Can parks and rail live on the same platform?
Here in the best weather in the world, no one can say we live in a tree-lined, park-filled city. Relative to other cities, we are short on parks, and the future for acquiring and building more of them looks bleak.
As our open spaces are being gobbled up, we should be adding parks, but we’re not. We’re becoming a concrete jungle instead. With smaller "affordable" housing and impossible traffic on the roads, soon we’ll be suffering from communal claustrophobia.
We need better public parks, with lawns, play areas, picnic spots and ballfields, restrooms and fountains, running and bike paths in every neighborhood and ahupuaa, but we have accepted long-term inaction.
These days, design professionals everywhere are focusing on public spaces. Island states with high costs of land should be all the more concerned. It’s not so much whether we can afford to create them, but whether we can afford not to, particularly given the interaction of public spaces and the homeless.
New York, with all its density and congestion, might offer some inspiration. Aside from the miracle of Central Park, New York has built the remarkable High Line park on an unused elevated rail line on the west side of Manhattan. See thehighline.org.
The last trains ran in 1980, and you can see the area’s history, with tracks, ties and views onto the rail yards. Activists saved it from demolition in 1999 and have raised $200 million to make it into a park.
The High Line opened in 2009. Last month, the third segment was finished, and the park is now over a mile long. Visitors can stroll three stories above the city among benches, gardens and art exhibits.
The park draws 5 million people annually and has generated $2 billion in development. There are daily classes and workshops. The Whitney Museum is coming. So are startups. Property values are up.
Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Atlanta are also recognizing synergies with rail lines. Supporters say it’s cheaper to add new parks than remove the old rail lines. There will be more High Lines soon.
Why don’t we make the most of our rail project and build a High Line park over Honolulu? Let’s make it appealing to people in every way we can. Let’s give them a new way of getting around and a park, too.
Our rail can be more than concrete and steel. It can be a community canvas for creative ideas. Let’s use it to humanize our urban environment and make it into a project that thrills and excites everyone.
Imagine the popularity of an elevated park and promenades running alongside the rail, where visitors can see the cityscape and have a choice of rail or recreation, where they could visit the park free and their visits would enhance rail ridership.
Even if the High Line extended only from Ala Moana to Kakaako, people could walk or bike or ride the rail for that distance. It would complement the rail and support transit-oriented development in the area.
But building a parallel park would call for wider guideways and rights of way, with barriers to suppress noise and separate the park from the trains, perhaps by extending station platforms. Could we raise the additional funds required? Is there time enough to make the design changes?
If New York could do the job for $200 million, maybe we can, too. That’s a fraction of the $6 billion cost of rail. Surely, we can find the money to preserve our open spaces. A mile-long High Line would change our city. Even a scaled-down version would help.
Go to any major city and you’ll find sidewalk cafes and restaurants that put Honolulu to shame, even cities with much harsher climates. Why don’t we design these into our public spaces and parks?
Honolulu’s High Line could achieve this by including cafes and restaurants with restrooms, security and wireless, where you can meet and eat, and read your email and social media. As sidewalk cafes define Paris, railside cafes could define the new Honolulu.
What would a High Line be worth to you and your family and friends? You might think it’s priceless and timely, but others might not. If you want this or any new park, you’ll need a champion to advocate for it.
Could parks be a campaign issue? Demand new parks and public spaces. Pass a bill. Find the money. Let’s build a better city before it’s too late.
Jay Fidell, a longtime business lawyer, founded ThinkTech Hawaii, a digital media company that reports on Hawaii’s tech and energy sectors of the economy. Reach him at fidell@lava.net.
