Aloha.

Thank you so much for joining us on February 12 for the initial scoping session of our “Building Businesses & Communities” initiative for Kalihi.  Collaboration is the key and this first meeting set a great foundation of valuable input, constructive dialogue, and many promising ideas. 

To effect meaningful change, we need to continue working together to find practical ways to turn these good ideas into real actions

The mayor’s economic development initiative is about realistic actions and ongoing public/private partnerships.  Over the next two months, the focus is implementation.  We will actively work with you to flesh out ideas, evaluate resources and options, and develop actions and next steps that are practical, achievable, and involves committed partners.  The plan is to present the results of our joint efforts at the Kalihi Economic Summit on April 26 at Farrington High School.

To get things moving, attached are notes from the previous scoping session and a summary of the topsupported ideas, names of those who volunteered, and contact information for the City contact(s) designated to help facilitate each group’s efforts.

As economic development is our focus, we welcome and encourage all businesses, business groups, or community organizations in Kalihi to get involved.  If you would like to help with any project ideas, please contact the assigned City representative directly.  If you have general questions or would like to share other ideas or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me, at 5275761 or achung@honolulu.gov.

As someone stated at our scoping session, “One of Kalihi’s opportunities is a critical mass of people who want to do something to make things better.”  We fully agree and are committed to working with you to build a stronger Kalihi. 

Mahalo

Ann H. Chung
Director


MEETING NOTES
KALIHI Building Businesses & Communities
Phase 1: Scoping Session, February 12, 2007

Jeff Coelho, Facilitator
Executive Advisor to the Mayor & Director of Customer Service

AGENDA

    1. Framework
    2. City Departments & Services
      DCS, DDC, DFM, DPP, DPR, DTS, ENV, HFD, HPD, MOCA, MOED
    3. Goals & Objectives
    4. Kalihi SWOT (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats)
    5. Identify SMART Ideas (Specific/Measurable/Attainable/Relevant/Timely)
    6. Identify Priorities & Available Resources
    7. Attach Partners to Ideas
    8. Next Steps/Future Meetings/Timeline

Introduction/ground rules

    • This afternoon is a unique opportunity to meet with people who work at the City and County of Honolulu, trying to make Honolulu a better place to live.
    • Today we are here to talk about Kalihi and how together we can make it better.
      The Mayors office of Economic Development is facilitating this effort and this scoping session is to work in partnership as to how we can make this a better place.
    • The first economic summit was held last summer in Chinatown.
    • We thought we would do something a little different here in Kalihi, which is why we’ve invited you here today to share your thoughts, comments and ideas about how to make Kalihi move forward and become a better place.

Two-minute introductions of people who are here from city departments:

    • Debbie Morikawa, Department of Community Services (DCS)
      Administers $63 million in state and federal grants and a portion of the department does actual direct services. They do a number of programs, the biggest being the city section 8 housing program. They are also the administrators of Oahu Work Links programs, they do youth services dealing primarily with individuals who have dropped out of school or who are in school and really struggling, as well elderly services that are contracted out, such as Meals on Wheels, St. Francis services. Also well known for community development block grants and includes Oahu workforce investment board.
    • Eugene Lee, Director of Department of Design and Construction (DDC)
      Technical arm of the city, has the engineers and architects that implement the city’s capital budget. These are improvements to city owned facilities on behalf of our client agencies, which encompasses just about every city department there is, from parks, to wastewater, to fire stations, the zoo, etc. Role is limited to city facilities and is at the request of client agencies and in the end the primary beneficiaries are the public.
    • Laverne Higa, Director of Department of Facility Maintenance (DFM)
      Takes care of city maintenance, maintenance of city roadways and city owned facilities. Relies heavily on Eugene’s department for technical support. Also responsible for city vehicles (except fire dept., police dept, and board of water supply), city owned buildings, city hall, property management, and affordable housing among other things.
    • Les Chang, Director of Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR)
      In charge of parks and recreation programs, as well as botanical gardens and management of all the trees in the city. Department is island wide. A lot of parks have summer fun programs, elderly programs, youth programs, etc. There are also many programs that are run by a permit basis. Every summer the Summer Fun program takes care of about 10,000 young people, 13,000 including the junior and senior leaders who are high school and college students.
    • Lowell Chun, from the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP)
      DPP has many functions, including building permits, repair permits, land use, city planning, etc. The department has 300 people and is made up of 4 major divisions with 6 major functions. Handouts were available to better explain DPP’s functions.
      • Six major functions include:
        • Customer service office
        • Create maps
        • Building division
        • Site development division
        • Land use permits division
        • Planning division
      • Works closely with the Office of Economic Development to make things happen.
    • Richard Torres, Deputy Director of Department of Transportation Services (DTS)
      Provides safe and effective traffic movement in city streets.
      4 divisions:
      • Traffic planning division
      • Traffic engineering division (to ensure that public safety is highest priority)
      • Traffic signals and technology (over 800 traffic signals on Oahu)
      • Public transit division (over 525 buses, 125 handivans, and 70 million passengers every year)
    • Jeff Coelho, Department of Customer Services (CSD)
      Manages satellite city halls, with over 1 million transactions every year. Have recently added inspectors to improve wait times.
    • Ken Kawahara, Public Information Officer for Department of Environmental Services (DES)
      Works with collecting trees, disposal, solid waste, recycling, storm water quality, and wastewater. Last year $76 million of work was completed in Kalihi.  Dealing with an aging infrastructure. Dealing with wastewater is a huge part of their job.
    • Chief Bill Kaai, Fire Department (HFD)
      Presently have 3 stations in Kalihi area as well as 6 apparatuses in Honolulu.
    • Major Kurt Kendro, Police Department, Kalihi Station (HPD)
      185 positions in the Kalihi area.
    • Michael Pili Pang, Mayor’s Office of Cultural and Arts (MOCA)
      Deals with art in public places, art collections in city buildings and within city parks. Gives away grants to cultural organizations, helping them with events that take place. Do a number of events in city hall, manage the Mission Memorial Auditorium, and Kapolei Hale for art exhibits.
    • Ann Chung, Director of the Office of Economic Development (MOED)
      Works with businesses and communities to support economic growth and quality of life. Work very hard to drive revenue back into the community. One of their key beliefs is that city services are all part of economic development, and without a strong backbone and infrastructure people won’t want to live and start their businesses here. Also provide coordination services for residents so they can maneuver through the City system.

Brainstorming SWOT session
Primary goal is to hear your ideas/goals

STRENTHS

    • Location, central
    • Diversity
    • Heritage
    • Multigenerational
    • Culture (rich and diverse)
    • Family focused
    • Rich history
    • Family owned businesses
    • Transportation hub (third of bus riders come from Kalihi)
    • Safe, unlike common perception
    • A place for learning
    • Strong sense of community with churches

WEAKNESSES

    • Picked on by the media
    • Full of graffiti
    • Aging infrastructure
    • The last roads to be fixed
    • Homeless issues
    • Drug element at night
    • High levels of student dropouts
    • High unemployment
    • Low voter turnout
    • Largest concentration of public housing in the state
    • Low selfesteem by business owners (poor store fronts)
    • Lack of feesimple property (attitude: I don’t own it, why should I fix it?)
    • Urban blight
    • Low status on health charts
    • Lack of structured art and cultural exhibits
    • Overcrowded prison
    • Last to be consulted

OPPORTUNITIES

    • Airport is huge resource
    • Central location for people who live on the west side
    • Critical mass of people who want to do something to make it better
    • Honolulu community college
    • YMCA
    • Bishop Museum
    • Large concentration of light industry
    • Large potential work force
    • Transport hub of future
    • Near proximity to Honolulu harbor (on the edge)
    • Rich history/pride/event to promote pride awareness
    • Early community involvement
    • Large revitalization job projects
    • Multiuse business/residential properties

THREATS

    • Proposed irradiator to irradiate produce.
    • Increased crime/drugs
    • Aircraft tragedy
    • Rising property cost and rents
    • Lack of leasable land
    • Loss of light industry due to lack of leasable land
    • Infectious disease
    • Lightrail plan bypasses Kalihi
    • Lack of comprehensive disaster preparedness plans

~Short break~

SMART IDEAS
The Hanneman administration insists on ontime, on schedule, on budget. Everyone’s time is valuable and important and we want to thank you for being here tonight.

Administration sets realistic goals, actions, and timelines. 

    • Smart Ideas=
      • Specific
      • Measurable
      • Attainable
      • Relevant
      • Timely

The ultimate goal is to turn ideas in ACTION

SMART ideas for …

Business

    • (23 dots) Kalihi pride day/event
    • (3 dots) Night market (same concept as open market, but in evening hours)
    • (7 dots) Taste of Kalihi, get businesses and media involved
    • (5 dots) “Buy Kalihi”/“Made in Kalihi”
    • Kalihi business directory
    • Business intern program
    • City coordinated Kalihi job fair
    • (1 dot) Onestop shop for business needs
    • (7 dots) Incentives for renovation (deferred property tax incentives for renovation)
    • Financial literacy program. Look for grants

Community

    • Promote performing arts/contest/show
    • (11 dots) Cultural Corridor
    • (7 dots) Performance center
    • (9 dots) Graffiti Patrol
    • Kapuna connection to schools
    • (9 dots) Adopt a park
    • (5 dots) Kalihi murals
    • Take back the night walk event
    • Facilitate community support from nonprofits
    • (1 dot) Assist KBA and other business groups with website development
    • (2 dots) Drug grants, “weed and seed”

Economic Development

    • (9 dots) Safe places for kids
    • (14 dots) “College Town”—HCC hub, developed around HCC along Dillingham. Develop transit along Dillingham to get people to
    • “College Town”
    • (2 dots) King Street Heritage Corridor
    • (9 dots) Music enterprise training (music is innate, but need business, sound, technical skills, etc)
    • (3 dots) Tax increment financing/other tax incentives

Funding Mechanisms Available

    • CDBG funding. Grant programs issued through a RP program, applications will probably be available in July (date to come out soon). These grants are essentially designed to build up communities, such as improving pubic facilities and economic development. Keep in mind that federal funds tend to be very restrictive. This federal money is there to serve lowincome communities.
    • Home funds are also available for development of affordable housing as well as rehabilitation loan programs providing low interest loans for people that fall into the lowincome category.
    • Low interest loans
    • Art/cultural grants. Small 5,000 dollar production grants that go to organizations looking to create new works of art.
    • Drug grants. Have funded community drug awareness program with grants that were limited to 5,000 dollars. Currently has about half a million dollars committed from the state to do other community drug grants. To get the kids off the street and teach them about not doing drugs and educational programs.
    • HTACPEP grants. Money that comes from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, almost 500,000 dollars for festivals, cultural activities, and community enrichment. These are also administered through at RP process.
    • Financial education grants

Public Safety

    • (8 dots) Comprehensive homeless plan
    • (2 dots) Pedestrian safety. Possible money to resurface King St and create pilot program to better mark crosswalks/pedestriansignals/public awareness of pedestrian safety
    • Community walk at night event to “take back the night”
    • (7 dots) Increased lighting/security cameras at night. (Taggers are usually out very late at night, 2 or 3 in the morning, so take back the night won’t affect them unless it takes place at later hours)
    • Enforce abandoned vehicles. Laws are tricky, but there is an increased effort to impound them
    • (7 dots) Reexamine Kalihi Kai parking and street improvements.
    • (2 dots) Visibility improvement for pedestrians (seniors). Many streets lack sidewalks for pedestrians.

Workforc

    • (3 dots) Kalihi job fair
    • Internet access

RED DOTS Time for group to vote on ideas using red dots
Followed by Call for Volunteers

Resources

    • Existing Senior Centers
    • Kalihi Business Association
    • Schools
    • Bishop Museum
    • Community churches, organizations and nonprofits
    • Farrington high school
    • Kalihi Palama Health Center
    • Honolulu Community College
    • Damien Memorial HS
    • Pacific Gateway
    • Labor Unions
    • Farrington Alumni Association
    • Palama Settlement
    • Kamehameha Schools
    • YMCA
    • Federal, State and City Govt
    • Fort Shafter
    • BIA & Media

Goal is for partner groups with City facilitation and coordination – to flesh out these ideas – determine feasibility and develop action plan over the next 2 months.  Ideas to be presented at Kalihi Economic Summit scheduled for April 26 – approximate start time 4pm.

RANKING RESULTS OF DOT EXERCISE PROVIDED ON ATTACHED CHART.

If you would like to get involved with specific projects, click here