The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-01-31
PRoPOsED IMpROysMENTs.


The plan of city and harbor improve
ment advocated and described in yes
terday's Advertiser by Mr.. c. W.
Dickey Is receiving favorable comment.
IL is a plan which, while finding ample
present Justification, reaches out for
future benefits. BY means Of it we
should have more room for develop
ment now and later on could realize
our destiny as a city and a port with
out going to an expense vastly greater
than would obtain at this time
Mr.. Dickey proposes to add one mile
of wharf room to the present restricted
area by dredging a channel 500 feet
wide from the harbor up the Nuuanu
stream TO Kuxui street. By these
means Honolulu could more than
accommodate all the sea traffic it now
enjoys and have room for It's expan-
sion without extending the chlnne.
further upstream. The correlated
effect would be to prevent a large share
of our island commerce going else
where, a danger which, owing to the
congestion of our little harbor, actually
threatens.
Mr. Dickey believes that Chinatown
should be removed to the Eva side of
the proposed ship channel thus put
ting the upper part Of the harbor be-
tween the Asiatic quarter and the
greater area of white mans Honolulu.
The suggestion, coupled with one for
a sanitary Oriental district surely
challenges approval. This city needs
more room for the main business dis
trict and for health's sake it ought not
to permit the Asiatics to herd c.ose
in. That proximity has already done
enormous material damage to the
town; it is the part of wisdom nor to let
the conditions Of disaster repeat them
serves.
The site of the present Chinatown
should, Mr. Dickey thinks, be resurvey-
ed and streets of 100 feet in width and
alleys Of forty feet be constructed.
Now Is the time to do this for the sake
of the business Honolulu will want
facilities for ten or twenty years hence.
AS surely as this city grows, so surely
will it demand wide streets and side
walks for it's traffic. Fort street can
not possibly keep its present primacy.
This means that If we do not provide
such avenues In the natural business
section our business men will take
upper King and Beretania streets just
as the leading business men of San
Francisco left Kearney and Montgom-
cry streets for Market. There are
score of reasons why it is better TO
have the business quarter compact and
now comes the chance, not only to have
ii that way in its enlarged form but
to provide it with avenues of the proper
width. II the plan is adopted the site
of old Chinatown will, in a few years,
be the center of our commercial indus
tries. If not business will, by the time
Honolulu gets 100000 people, branch
out on the two widest residence
and sprawl all over the
plains.
The only Improvement we could sug-
gest in Mr.. Dickey's plans would be
provision for some kind of a park In
ne midst of the burned tract. AL
cities need these little downtown
brea,hing places and New York and
San rancisco have been lately acqulr-
ing them at fancy prices. II is cheaper
to get such things in the early stages
of a city's growth than In the later
ones. Now is the time or soon will be
to segregate a strip or block between
Nuuanu street and the proposed ship
channel for park purposes. There will
be plenty of room left for business.
u