Dean Sakamoto and Chinatown property owner, Ave Kwok shared the Institute's intent to improve the safety and commerce around the Hotel/Maunakea Street corridor to a COVID-capacity gathering at the Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board Meeting on June 4, 2020. The Institute has applied for a Smart Growth America Arts & Transportation Rapid Response Grant Application that will address COVID-19 mitigation through artistic and design intervention in multimodal transportation zones.
Hotel Street is a dedicated bus & bike corridor within Chinatown's narrow streets and sidewalks at which businesses, pedestrians, and homeless people converge without enough space for routine passage and newly required social distancing. As a result, bus stops are congested and conflict with businesses that have suffered financially and are now unsafe especially with after-hours homeless encampments.
The Institute is seeking area property owners, businesses and residents to collaborate as stakeholders for this effort. SGA funding will be announced by mid-June. Interested parties should contact the Institute at shade.institute.hi@gmail.com or (808) 591-5558.
Hawaii Public Radio's Noe Tanigawa provided excellent coverage of this highly attended meeting on The Conversation on June 5, 2020:
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/conversation-reopening-restaurants-dine
For info on the SGA grant see:
https://smartgrowthamerica.org/program/arts-culture/arts-transportation-rapid-response-application/
