Our top issues

1. Bulky item trash. We tackle this monthly and work closely with the city to have this material removed. Twice-yearly pickups of bulky trash see our board working with all our area politicians. This is in addition to our monthly city pickups, and our notices to neighbors on pickup day. We are looking forward to the city inspectors assisting us in educating our neighbors, and fining them if necessary.

2. Graffiti is another subject our neighbors have told us they do not appreciate. For more than three years we have been part of T.A.G. (Totally Against Graffiti) and put on twice-yearly cleanups of this blight. We average more than 200 volunteers from the community. This tells us that we have an issue everyone is willing to work on.

3. Street pollutants is an issue just getting our attention, now that the issue has a champion. We have tackled Isenberg Street in this past month by partnering with the city and removed, by hand tools, more than 2.3 tons of pollutants. We would like to see the city have no parking on streets for two or three hours twice monthly so that the street cleaners can pick up this material.

4. Crime is an issue everywhere, but our neighborhood has three active Citizen Patrol groups and about a half-dozen Neighborhood Security Watch groups. Two of our Citizen Patrol groups have been active for more than 13 years. We are grateful for these dedicated neighbors who call in weekly reports to the Honolulu Police Department and other departments for burned-out street lights, broken signage, etc.

BOARD NO. 8         THE OFFICERS         Chairman         Ronald Lockwood         First vice chairman         Greg Cuadra         Treasurer         Betty Lou Larson         Members         Mary Jane Carlos, Judy DeVilbis, Les Hata, John Kato, Klement Kondratovich, Serena Kyi-Yim, Shauna Tabor, Clifton Takamura, Lee Ann Tokuhara, Saw Keok Ching Wilk         TO GET INVOLVED: The board meets at Washington Middle School the first Thursday monthly (except this May), 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the cafeteria. See www.honolulu.gov/nco.

5. Infrastructure. Rebuilding our community awaits. We are at capacity for sewers; therefore, no larger new buildings can be put up until the city resolves this issue. Renovation of buildings, a new coat of paint and peer pressure to keep the area clean and neat is where we are. We have community input, from numerous meetings, on what we want to see for our community.

6. Rail. Our neighborhood voted 53 percent to 47 percent against the rail project. This project, while 20-plus years out, will affect our neighborhood along Kapiolani Boulevard and mauka on University Avenue. The University Avenue section will go up over the H-1 freeway, remove 72 parking stalls and numerous shower trees. We believe a better design can be made to preserve our mountain viewplane.

7. Noise. Street racing, illegal exhaust, mo-peds and fireworks all are issues we work on with HPD. We need to become more proactive, which means all neighbors need to call 911 immediately when these are heard. Give a description of the vehicle, direction it was headed, etc., so that HPD can resolve the issue.

So special

Striving to improve our quality of life

The McCully-Moiliili neighborhood board is very active in quality-of-life issues for our community. Our members and neighbors participate in numerous events, such as clean-ups, graffiti removal and citizen patrols.

We welcome any thoughts on all community issues.

Facts & figures

» A complex system of caves called the Moiliili Karst lies beneath the intersection of South King Street and University Avenue. Accessible via a city sewer grate, several species of fish and plants live in these underground caves.

» Well-known area sites include the Moiliili Community Center, The Willows restaurant and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii.