City starts fixing Kakaako streets owned by state

Two oversize city pothole patching crews descended on perhaps the worst streets in Kakaako on Tuesday to smooth over a problem that has vexed area residents and business owners for several years.

The crews began filling more than 85 potholes on several streets that until February were controlled by a private company that plagued the neighborhood with paid parking regulations and poor upkeep.

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi held a news conference on Kawaiahao Street to publicize the work that he called long overdue and which required an agreement to allow the city to patch what recently became state-owned streets.

“This is the state and city working together to (fix) something that has been problematic for years,” he said in front of a city Pro-Patch pothole patching truck.

To handle the work, two teams of five were deployed instead of a typical pothole patching crew of three.

Roger Babcock Jr., director of the city Department of Facility Maintenance, said the pothole work, which is scheduled to continue today on six area streets, essentially represents first aid that will be followed by repaving in the medium-term and then longer-term improvements that bring the roads more up to city standards with perhaps sidewalks and storm drainage after the state transfers ownership of the streets to the city.

“Those are, long term, quite expensive projects, but we’re starting on that road to get to that point,” he said.

Bob Emami, owner of The Car Store on Kawaiahao Street, said he appreciated the work being done and thanked government officials who worked to make it happen, including state Rep. Scott Saiki, state Sen. Sharon Moriwaki and city Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, all of whom represent the Kakaako area and participated in Tuesday’s event.

“We’ve been waiting to see this job the last eight years,” Emami said. “This is really a great day for us.”

The crumbling road conditions along Kawaiahao, Queen, Ilaniwai, Waimanu, Kamani and Cummins streets bordering about a dozen long blocks in central Kakaako stem from a long- running dispute over ownership of what for decades had been public roads maintained by the city.

In 2010 a company called Kakaako Land Co., run by brothers Calvert and Cedric Chun, began reserving and charging for parking on the streets, sometimes towing away cars violating rules posted on signs and painted on curbs.

The company claimed it had bought the streets in 1985 from the last living heir of a man who subdivided parts of Kakaako around 1900.

Generally, the city maintains privately owned roads as long as unrestricted public use is allowed, but four years or so ago the city quit caring for the roads because of Kakaako Land’s parking restrictions.

At the same time, area business owners and residents complained to elected officials that the roads were becoming dangerous.

State lawmakers passed several new laws in recent years to wrest control of the roads from Kakaako Land or force the company to improve the thoroughfares, but the measures were ineffective.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed by several business owners against Kakaako Land in 2014 contesting ownership slowly proceeded in state court. The business owners, some unable to financially sustain the legal battle, settled with Kakaako Land in 2019 with terms undisclosed.

However, the state by then had become involved and continued to press the case.

Circuit Judge Jeffrey Crabtree ruled Feb. 2 that the streets in question were surrendered or abandoned to the state by either their original developer more than 100 years ago or the developer’s heirs after many decades of no asserted ownership.

“The court concludes the State of Hawaii owns the streets at issue,” Crabtree said in his written ruling. “KLC and the Chuns hold no right, title, or legal interest in the streets, and have never had any legal right to charge parking fees, restrict parking, or tow vehicles for using or parking on the streets.”

Saiki said the state Attorney General’s Office is pursuing restitution for people who paid Kakaako Land for parking.