Honolulu’s City Council has voted unanimously to remove the Haiku Stairs, often called the Stairway to Heaven, that cross a mountainous area of the city, drawing hikers and daredevils despite being off limits since 1987. The council put aside $1 million for the job.
The stairs, nearly 4,000 of them, were built during World War II for construction and operation of a top-secret Navy transmission facility on the peaks. After the war, the area was used by the Coast Guard, and eventually came into the city’s hands. During the Coast Guard era, the original wooden steps were replaced by steel.
The city has several times made plans to re-open the stairway (named for a flower, by the way and not for Japanese poetry) as an attraction, and even spent $875,000 on repairs several years ago before realizing the huge potential liability it would have involved.
In addition, it has now become clear that the city does not own the land leading to the stairs or the land under them. Part of the land is held by and for native Hawaiian groups that have opposed opening the land for stair-hikers.
Image: Hawai Foto/Wikimedia Commons
