The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-03-16
The following is continuation o
Park Expert Robinson's report;
g. PLANS FOR NEW STREETS.

q. /
on the newer, straighter, broader
residential streets, a mistake has been
made i'm retaining the narrow walk of
the older streets, for the thoroughfare
Becomes neither one thing nor the
other. 1t has not the charm of the
lane. and it certainly is not an up-to-
date street of its kind. If there are
going to be residential streets laid out
on the modern method-siXty to eighty
feet between lot lines, well paved and
straight-and no doubt with the large
number of American residents who
are accustomed to this and nothing
else. there is a sufficient demand to
Justify them-the streets should be the
best Of their sort. An attractive type
Of such street sixty feet between lot
lines, would have the following divi-
sions Between lot line and walk.
three feet, i'm turf; the walk six feet;
walk to curb ten feet, in turf, with
the street trees and sometimes further
ornamented by low shrubs and flow
ers; the roadway. twenty-five feet.
This of course is street without
car line. on a residential street eighty
feet between lot lines, the same meas
urements for walks and parking have
an additional twenty feet between the
curbs. which gives room for a double
car track in the center 1t is an I'M
usual residential street on which the
traffic requires it. there is a needless eX-
pense in maintenance, an unnecessary
area for the creation of dust, and an
uncalled for sacrifice of attractive
ness. Nor is the parking" as it is
called between walk and curb of aes-
thetic value only. In the ten foot
strip the trees have a better chance,
their roots are unlikely to injure walk
or road. and the division of walk from
road saves the ped strian from not a
little dust and from scattering by
mud.
As the city grows, and such streets
as these are laid out or extended i'm
the newer districts, i'm response to a
demand for the conventional American
residential street, let them have these
proportions But disturb the older
part of Honolulu as little as may be
and impose this ordinary type of tho
roughfare on no wider area than neces-
sary. In fact, i'm the development of
suburban tracts, | would like to see
some developed with the old lines,
which are the lines also of the English
towns that have been always so much
more picturesque than the American,
and the lines that are fitted to the ma
tural barriers offered by the curving
hills and to the irregular contour of the
ground.
II. STREET INTERSECTIONS.
Here and there in the city the juno
ture of diagonal streets has created at
the place of meeting a wide space.
An example of this is offered at the
conjunction of Alapai, Kinau and LN-
Inalilo AT such points the excess
space at the center should be parked. A
circle or triangle, as the case may be,
can be established here curbed and
filled with good earth. This can be
planted to grass and with a tail palm
i'm the center it will become a very
attractive feature i'm the street plan,
extending its effect far up and down
the abutting stree Is. In Washington
such spaces are frequently. occupied
by sculpture; a fountain is always at
tractive, and thus the treatment may
vary at different points; but the palm
or a Towering tree would seem at once
the easiest and most appropriate here.
l. OPENING OF NEW TRACTS
AND THOROUGHFARES.
Before closing this discussion of the
streets, | wish to touch upon the OPEN
| ing of new tracts and thoroughfares,
though | shall do it briefly as this has
only indirect bearing ON the beautify-
! ing of the city. Mr.. Pinkhams plan
for the reclamation of the McCully
| tract is most elaborate, and doubtless
from a sanitary point of view is very
desirable 1t would appear only a
matter Of time before the city would
| have to undertake some such measures
for at least the great part of the area
| included in the scheme; but whe Their
| there is now a large enough demand
for new residential property to repay
the considerable cost of such improve
! ment or whether the sanitary need is
such as to justify a large outlay with
out prompt reimbursement, are mat
| ters that l shall not attempt to con-
slider, But whenever such a plan is
undertaken, l would advise a remodel
ing of the street plotting as put down
on the Pinkham plan. In developing
such a virgin tract designed for high
class residences, and prominently
located, it would be a pity to impose
a gridiron street plan where the curve
of beach and lagoon-the dominating
Typographical features-cry out for
curving street, as at once more at
tractive, more appropriate and prob
ably more economical i'm the utilization
of the space A new throughfare
running diagnally from Phckwith
street to the College Hills tract east
of the Rocky ledge and parallel to the
general direction of Manoa road, would
be of value to Manoa valley in its pro-
vision of a second means of entrance,
of a short cut, and of a street without
car tracks. In this region also a plan