Waipahu Quick Build Safety Project
Duration:
2023–present
Neighborhoods:
Waipahu (Oahu)
Sponsors & Partners:
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Honolulu Complete Streets
About the Project
In partnership with the City and County of Honolulu’s Complete Streets Office, Better Block Hawaii will bring pedestrian safety improvements to Leoku Street in Waipahu. The goal of the project is to improve roadway safety by increasing visibility of pedestrians, decreasing pedestrian crossing distances, and lowering vehicle speeds. Improvements will be installed in the fall of 2024 and will include painted curb extensions and a pedestrian refuge island at the Leolua Street crossing, with possible improvements also at the Waipahu Street crossing. Following a competitive submission competition, the team is pleased to announce that local artist Zach Angeles has been selected as the project artist (see Meet the Artist below).
The project is funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative.
Project Resources
Meet the Artist
Zach Angeles is a multimedia, teaching artist born & raised in Ewa Beach. As an artist has exhibited at the Hawaii State Art Museum, the Axis Gallery in Sacramento, and was the featured artist for Mental Health America of Hawaii in 2018. As an educator, he has served as a teaching artist for the Hawaii State Foundation of Culture and the Arts, specializing in unconventional/abstract visual art practices.
As a third-generation Filipino American, he frequented Waipahu with his grandmother. Throughout his childhood, a trip to McDonalds afterschool was a daily ritual. (And it always had to be the McDonalds in Waipahu) He would like to dedicate this mural to his grandmother, and all the new “schools of fish” that swim up Leoku Street for years to come.
