Honolulu in the 1970s!

[urbanguy]

The Way Back Playback Honolulu in the 1970s

All pics taken by W. Au @ pbase.com

Note: Most of these pics are of the Chinatown area

A River Street scene

Manapua is the word used for Hum Bow in Hawaii

I think this is an old flowershop along Mauna Kea St. (Its Chinatown's Flowershop Central)

Fort Street Pedestrian Mall

I think these were taken around one of the largely Filipino Communities in the Kalihi Area

Local Filipinos chillin in Kalihi

An old Cebuano (One of the Filipino language/cultural groups) Pool Hall

The Waikiki Natatorium

[Southernyank]

Great pictures. It definately looks a lot different than the Honolulu that you usually visualize today.

[monsoon]

Man shades of Hawaii 5-0 reruns.

[urbanguy]

^haha yeah no doubt and those cars, yikes!

southernyank, yep its very different from what you usually see especially in advertisements and so on. Not many outsiders know much beyond Waikiki and other tourist areas but the city has some really interesting neighborhoods (not architecturally but culturally). The neighborhoods in Honolulu and Hawaii look a lot different from what you'd find in the mainland US as a lot of the older neighborhoods have plantation style homes and they are just ugly but of course you have your upscale and middle class mixtures too and not all the older homes are plantation style of course you..Nu'uanu Valley, Manoa Valley etc have some really cool mainland-like homes and cottages. However in some parts of town you'd think you were in the Philippines not just because of the large population of Filipinos but also because of the style of homes and well the plants they grow in their yards haha (If you are familiar with Filipino culture than you probably know what i mean). Of course there are some hoods that make you say am i still in the U.S.? If it weren't for a mixture of signs in English you'd probably think not. Like a couple of the old neighborhoods that i have lived in have changed quite dramatically back in the day Kalihi especially in the Valley had a large Portuguese population (although more lived in Kaka'ako which was nicknamed the "Portuguese suburb" before my time) and the lower part Puerto Rican, Chinese, Filipino, etc then eventually they moved to the burbs and were replaced by newer immigrants from other countries like Samoa, Tonga, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc eventually the Filipino and Samoan population grew rapidly in the Valley and lower portions and now there are many Chuukese, Marshallese, Pohnpeian, Kosraean, Palauan migrants settling in as well as Burmese, Mexican, etc immigrants. Kalihi is sort of the transition neighborhood for many immigrants that move to Honolulu from poorer countries eventually once they begin to prosper they move to the burbs or to better neighborhoods.

One of the other hoods that i lived in was near the Sheridan Block which is part of Honolulu's Koreatown and that hood is totally transforming with all the new luxury condos going up big time. Anyhow, the area is still quite the central locale for the Korean community from bars, restaurants, markets, wedding shops, clothing stores, music/video stores, newspapers, korean radio broadcasting, churches, korean dance schools, you name it. However, the area has been changing quite a bit too as newer immigrants from various parts of Micronesia have been moving in as well as African Americans, East Africans, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Sri Lankans, East Indians, Nepalese, Russians, Ukrainians, a few Afghan families, Indonesians, Malays, to Colombians, Peruvians, and Mexicans in parts of Makiki. The area is changing alot its very interesting to see, although it has always been mixed as all hoods are in Honolulu, its just that now the immigrants moving in come from a larger mix socioeconomically. Back in the day many of the immigrants that migrated to Hawaii were poorer and had little or no education and now theres a large mix of well-educated, rich to some that are illiterate even in their native tongue and never had to attend school so they are in a total culture shock after arrival.