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Kokua Line
Question: I have lived on Prospect Street near Ward Avenue the past eight years and have been a bus rider the past two years. Recently, I have noticed cars driving dangerously close to sidewalks and they appear to be driving over the speed limit. Thus, I was wondering if police are monitoring the area for speeders and when is the city going to improve the sidewalks so that pedestrians have a safe area to walk. Some areas, like from Ward Avenue to Pensacola, don't even have a sidewalk. Prospect St. strollers
need sidewalksAnswer: The problem, we all know, is that speeding is rampant throughout Oahu, but we passed on your complaint to the Honolulu Police Department.
As for sidewalks, Gary Yee, director of the city Department of Design and Construction, explained that affected property owners have to be willing to help pay for improvements.
There are numerous areas throughout Honolulu that have unimproved or partially improved streets because past standards allowed them. Areas with fully improved frontages, Yee said, including concrete sidewalks, curbs, gutters, storm drains, street lights and underground utilities are there because of present subdivision standards.
The cost of the improvements presumably are passed on to buyers of properties in such fully improved subdivisions.
For the city to upgrade an existing area to current standards requires going through an improvement district process. This is "based on the belief that the properties benefiting from the proposed improvements should be assessed a part of the cost of these improvements," Yee said.
In this case, the city and abutting property owners share the cost of improvements. At least 60 percent of property owners must agree to the project before it can proceed.
Even with that requirement, Yee said, the city has completed "well over" 370 street and sewer improvement projects across Oahu. The projects have to be initiated via the City Council and your Council member.
As for Prospect Street, portions of the sidewalk between Ward and Pensacola have already been improved, Yee said.
The city ordinance requires the owner of real property abutting any public street, zoned for any use other than residential or agricultural uses, to construct street improvements and to dedicate the street setback area along the street to the city when a building permit is granted to the owner, allowing the construction or reconstruction of a building on the property.
Follow-up on kitties
The Hawaiian Humane Society says if no one takes Barbara up on her search for a home for four newborn kittens and a mother cat (Thursday's Kokua Line), she can always bring them into the HHS. "We have trained volunteers who will provide foster care for the mother and her kittens until the kittens are old enough to be adopted," said president Pamela Burns. "We have already found homes for mother cats and hundreds of kittens this spring that benefited from our volunteers' care."
Auwe
The new Kapolei police station just opened June 19 and two days later, they're already tearing up the parking lot. Who made the error, what was the error and who's paying for it? -- M.F.(We asked the city Department of Customer Services for an explanation but haven't yet received a response. Unofficially, we're told it has to do with redoing the handicapped parking stalls to make them ADA compliant. Also, the station's official opening is July 8.)
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com