There’s much ado about DoHo these days — and even more in the works.
To start, Honolulu City Council recently approved a plan to revitalize Downtown Honolulu — or DoHo, as some call it — passing a bill to extend the current Fort Street Improvement District into a broader Downtown Honolulu Improvement District.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed that measure, Bill 51, into law on Oct. 20.
The Downtown BID will be funded through special assessments on non-residential property owners and is “designed to deliver consistent cleaning, safety enhancements, maintenance and beautification services within the city’s urban core,” the city said in an announcement at that time.
It’ll operate through a public-private partnership model with an estimated $1.9 million annual budget that will supplement services beyond the city’s “baseline responsibilities,” the announcement noted.
According to the city, supplemental services under the BID model may include:
- Dedicated cleaning and trash abatement
- Coordinated safety and outreach presence
- Landscaping and public space stewardship
- Lighting, wayfinding and streetscape enhancements
- Programming and activation to encourage foot traffic.
But also doing its part to draw more people Downtown is Activate DoHo, a nonprofit “whose whole purpose is to bring community engagements, events and just bring life to Downtown, trying to make it a better place and make it a place where people can gather,” chairman Westley Starnes, a project analyst for Downtown-based developer Avalon Group, recently told Aloha State Daily.
Activate DoHo really got its start this year, Starnes says, but the initiatives and ideas behind it began last year with a run club — a group of young professionals Downtown who “got together and just wanted to do something.”
DoHo Run Club meets at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays at Fort Street Mall and the Robert W. Wilcox Mini Park for a 1.5-mile run followed by a pau hana Downtown.
“What we saw with that was it actually worked really well,” Starnes told ASD. “The interest was there. People wanted to do it. People kept coming out.”
Routes go through Downtown.
"You're running up Fort Street Mall, you're running past all the places, you're seeing all the people that you see in Downtown," Starnes says. "It's really a cool thing for the area."
Expanding upon that, Activate DoHo also has a weekly DoHo Yoga Club, at 5:30 p.m. every Monday on the sixth-floor garden deck at Topa Financial Center.
It’s free to participate in the DoHo Run Club — just show up — but the yoga club is $15 per session. You can reserve a spot here or just show up.
But one of the group’s newest initiatives is taking place this month: the DoHo Night Market is set for 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, at Fort Street Mall and Robert W. Wilcox Mini Park.
Starnes says the night market will have live entertainment and performances by students from local schools, food vendors, tables and games for families, security on site and more.
“[We] want to show that Downtown isn’t all what you hear,” he says. “It really is a good place and it can be a safe place, so really [we’re] hoping to change this perception that we all hear about, we all see and to show the beauty of Downtown. That’s what we’re looking to do with the night market."
Admission is free. More info about the Night Market can be found here.
According to Starnes the inaugural night market is the “first of many,” with the organization looking to first host these quarterly and, eventually, monthly.
The night market coincides with the grand opening of eight additional pickleball courts on the second level of Pickles at Forté, Avalon’s air conditioned, indoor pickleball and social club that opened in January on the ground floor of 1032 Fort Street Mall.
Starnes says that Activate DoHo currently has four board members and “a lot of volunteers,” but they’re looking for more.
“It’s just a group of people that is connected to Downtown. We're looking for young professionals that care about this place and want to make it a better place,” he says. “[We are] always looking for more volunteers, more people to help, more people to get behind the vision — and we’re growing fast.”
Learn more about Activate DoHo here or email activatedoho@gmail.com.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
