Sidelines
THE grass is green and ready for running. The birds have already discovered it, those goofy white birds that bathe in the sprinklers. The egrets. Yeah. The egrets know a good thing when they see it. Hawaii’s own field
of dreams opening soonThe Central Oahu Regional Park, along Kamehameha Highway in Waiola, is already enormous.
Big.
Giant.
Huge.
Li'dat.
You could lose your kids in it.
(Hey kids, we're going to that new park!)
Seriously, this park will be so big that you should budget an hour of looking for the family time before you want to leave, because it could take that long to find them.
This park is so big that exercise is walking back to the parking lot.
It is so big that -- no lie -- during its opening ceremonies, "six trolleys will run continuously during the festivities to shuttle people throughout the huge area."
This park is so big that when it sits around the house, it really sits around the house.
Its completed 100 acres will open to the public a week from tomorrow, on the 21st. And this is only the first phase.
On completion of all three, the "CORP" will be three times the size of Kapiolani Park. That's right. THREE TIMES the size of Kapiolani Park.
It will have fields -- baseball fields, softball fields, flat all-purpose fields for football, soccer, rugby or lacrosse. It will have trees and benches. Hills. Walking tracks and comfort stations. (You know, the lua.) A community center, with a place for that ultimate sport, ballroom dancing. An Olympic-sized swimming pool with Olympic-sized diving boards. A boxcar track. A tennis complex with 19 or 20 courts, including a "center court."
"We can now start entertaining a Honolulu Open," city managing director Ben Lee said.
And more. You want to do something? The facilities are here. The dreams are big. Spring training by professional teams? Grand, gigantic tournaments for sports of all sorts?
Not so fast. Please. We'll get to that.
First things first, this is a park. This is the Louisiana Purchase of parks. The "people's park," Lee calls it. And it will be immense. "I don't see any problem with holding 10,000 people here at all," when it gets fully built, he said. He expects 5,000 on the opening weekend, when kids get to run free on it for the first time.
Get them going. Give them the sugar and the candy. And then let them loose. This park is too big. It will break any kid. They'll come home tired and content. If you can find them.
Right now, trucks are coming and going and backing and beeping. They are working hard to get things ready. Workers are mowing and "edging." A genuine fake authentic artificial plastic wood fence is taking shape.
An irrigating mist floats over the grass.
A gentle steady breeze is in the air.
And I realize that I'm taking this tour the wrong way. I should be barefoot. With a cooler. And a kite.
And 8 years old.
I should throw a Frisbee, or a football.
I should be 4, running through sprinklers and scattering birds. Screaming with delight, and giggling.
There is a lot of fun waiting to be had here.
You could play away an entire summer here.
There's everything but a roller coaster and a giant mouse here.
There will be a dog obedience facility. And an archery range. And even three different "Quadraplexes."
City managing director Ben Lee compares this project to the plans made by the visionaries, including King Kalakaua, who set aside Ala Moana and Kapiolani parks. These have become "almost essential," to island life, Lee said. And Central Oahu Regional Park is reaching for those heights.
"We have no reservations that this will be as popular or as well used as Kapiolani Park," Lee said.
Batter up. The baseball fields are already there.
The trees are growing. The sprinklers are sprinkling. The birds are dancing.
The kids are playing. You can almost see it.
And in the imagination, the park is full, but never crowded. It's just too big. It's just that big. We're talking about 269 acres of big.
On opening day, it will host Little League and Babe Ruth baseball games and tournaments. A semi-pro football playoff game. Youth and adult soccer. And exhibitions of lacrosse, rugby, archery and cricket.
And this is just the first phase. There's over double the space to go. Don't forget the gardens. Or the skateboard park.
Lee said he doesn't want to sound corny, but calls it, "a field of dreams."
The egrets agree.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com