Around Downtown for Jan. 12

Happy New Year to all the members, friends and supporters of downtown Hilo, and mahalo for everything you’ve done, are doing and will do to help sustain our historic old town’s history, culture, character and economy.

At the end of last year, we shared the news about www.ourdowntownhilo.com to encourage public input on proposed projects in downtown, and we start out the new year with a discussion about two of these projects that address one of the oldest and most talked about problems here: parking.

Ask just about anyone who has been living, working or doing business in downtown Hilo over the last five to 50 years to list the top three problems challenging us and the answer will inevitably include lack of public and employee parking. Unfortunately, the small inventory of short-term parking stalls in downtown is occasionally taken by employees and, in some cases, owners/managers of businesses who get as close to their location as possible, parking all day in two-hour parking that should be reserved for customers, clients and people visiting downtown. Abusers know that parking tickets are only sporadically given here, and apparently, these folks think it is more important for them to easily access their business than to keep storefront parking open.

The most recent long-range planning project to suggest working on addressing the parking problems was EnVision Downtown Hilo 2025 and there is a Parking Solutions Working Group that has met over the last several months on topic. The group is discussing improved enforcement and educational efforts, mapping parking and empty lots (both public and private) and is compiling a list of privately owned lots currently renting parking spaces.

As a result, there are several efforts to implement some short-term solutions and seek funding for some long term solutions. Two parking expansion proposals have been posted and we are now seeking more community input on www.ourdowntownhilo.com.

One proposal is to immediately expand the existing eight-hour parking area on Bayfront adjacent to the Mooheau Bus Station/Hilo Information Center, the other is to study the feasibility for a new parking lot to be built in the future on the Puna side of Ponahawai Street. If you are one of those folks who’ve talked about the problems before or someone frustrated by the lack of places to park or have some creative suggestions, please go to the site and offer your comments.

Is parking only a problem in downtown Hilo? To say “yes” is to say that traffic or lack of restrooms or crime or trash is only a problem in downtown Hilo. These problems are part of any vibrant and active area where people gather. It is how we deal with them that makes the difference. With www.ourdowntownhilo.com you’ve got a chance to weigh in so to help you consider everything that’s involved in dealing with the parking problem, let’s compare another shopping and business area to Downtown.

If you were to take a scale image of the Waiakea Center development (Ross, Office Max, Wal-Mart, etc.) and transpose a scale image of downtown Hilo on top of it, first of all you’d see that it is approximately one-third the size of the entire area. Then you’d notice that parking accounts for about half the space used by the Waiakea Center, which means that on a bad day you’re stuck driving around and around a crowded parking lot and you still end up walking a fair amount. In downtown, two-hour and shorter-term parking is all over the place in small numbers with a few medium- and small-size eight-hour lots on the edges. If you park on the outskirts, you end up walking just about as much as you would at Waiakea Center. And at least in downtown Hilo you can enjoy the historic buildings, shady covered sidewalks, beautiful plantings of “Let’s Grow Hilo!,” and the fairly large number of trees among other aesthetic benefits of the area.

We’re suggesting that it’s important that you go to ourdowntownhilo.com and offer your comments on the parking proposals. We’re also suggesting that if you want to get directly involved, contact planning department’s Susan Gagorik at 961-8133 to join the parking solutions group. Their next meeting is on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at 9:30 a.m. at the Planning Department conference room.

Around Downtown is written by Alice Moon, executive director of the Hilo Downtown Improvement Association. Call Moon at 935-8850 or e-mail askalice@downtownhilo.com to share news about issues, events and activities.