The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-15
EXPERT ROB|NSON'S REPORT
g. PLANS FOR NEW STREETS.

made ii retaining the narrow walk OF
! the older streets, for the thoroughfare
. becomes neither one thing nor the
other It has not the charm of the
lane and it certainly is not an up-to-
date street of it's Kind. If there are
going TO be residential streets laid out
or the modern method-sixty to eighty
feet between lot lines, we'll paved and
straight-and no doubt with the large
number of American residents who
are accustomed to this and nothing
else there is sufficient demand to
Justify then1-the streets should be the
best of their sort. An attractive type
OF such street sixty feet between lot
lines, would have the following GiVl-
sions: Between lot line and walk,
three feet, in 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
cal. 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 if there be no car
! track, more than a twenty-five foot
| roadway; and as soon as the required
width is passed there is a needless eX-
/ pense in maintenance, an unnecessary
/ area for the creation OF dust. and an
uncalled for sacrifice of attractive
ress. Nor is the parking" as 1t Is
I called between walk and curb of aes-
thetic value only. In the ten-foot
strip the trees haveNax better chance,
! liz
or road and the division of walk from
road saves the pedestrian from not
little dust and from scattering by
mud. AS the city grows, and such
streets as these are laid out or extend
ed in the newer districts, in 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 thoroughfare on no wider area than
necessary In fact, in the develop
ment 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 natural barriers offered by the
tour of the ground.
h. 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 Lu-
nalilo. At such points the excess space
at the center should be parked. "A
circle or triangle, the case may be,
can be established here, curbed and
filled with good earth This car be
planted to grass. and with tail palm
in the center it will become Very
attractive feature in the street plan,
extending it's effect far up and down
the AUDITING streets. 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.
i. 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 I shall do it briefly as this has
only indirect bearing on the beautify
ing of the city. Mr.. Pinkham's 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 greater part of the area
included in the scheme; but whether
there is now 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
tiers that I shall not attempt to con-
slider. But whenever such a plan is
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
features-cry out for
curving streets, as at once more at
tractive, more appropriate, and prob
ably more economical in the utilization
Of the space a new thoroughfare,
diagonally from Beckwith
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 il its pro-
vision of a second means of Wntrance. :
IF a short cut, and of a street without
car tracks. In this region also plan
% build a road running .diagonally
across the valley, from Kaala avenue
% .Beretania street near the bridge, so
giving to the park and Diamond Head
Dad connection with this valley, has
ny hearty approval. The prolongation =
If Waikiki road to Beretania street =
would prove a convenience to many in =
is shortening of distances, would re- :
ieve King street. and would make Q