Summary of the first meeting on February 15th

The first meeting was held on February 15th at the Honmoku Chiku Center.

I think it's amazing how far we've come in just four months since we first met with the NPO Yokohama LRT Association in October last year.

I think the biggest factor was that we went around asking people in the area, "What do you think about bringing an LRT to Honmoku?" and "Don't you think it would be great if an LRT came to Honmoku?", handing out pamphlets made by the "Hashiraseru-kai" group, and we were able to find supporters surprisingly quickly.

Around the same time, I learned about a citizens' proposal group at Yamashita Pier from an acquaintance, and also a member of this group, and heard that there was talk of running the LRT to Honmoku.

At this meeting, I realized that there are many people who think that LRT should be running.

Everyone wants the plan to be implemented, but is it actually feasible to actually put it into operation?

On the other hand, when I listened to the answers to questions from Mr. Furukawa, the representative of the NPO Yokohama LRT Association, and Mr. Kotabe, the vice-chairman of the Association for Revitalizing Yokohama's Public Transportation, who have been working to run the LRT for a long time and have been cooperating with this association, as well as to the trends in Yokohama City, I realized that what is most important is for those of us who live in Honmoku and have connections or interests in Honmoku to unite our voices.

We have compiled a PDF document about this meeting, so please take a look.

I have written down only the general opinions and questions of the participants, excluding private matters. I have also included only the numbers of their names, except for the chairman of the board of directors of Yokohama International School and the head of the Park City neighborhood association, who were present due to their positions, so I have included their names.

Citizens' Future of Yamashita Pier: Proposal Presentation Gathering

Last Friday night, I attended a gathering to present proposals for the future of Yamashita Pier created by citizens at the Yokohama City Health and Welfare Center Hall in Sakuragicho.

The purpose of the gathering is partially reproduced from the flyer.

Yamashita Pier was the planned site for a casino. Yokohama City is planning to announce a redevelopment "business plan" by the end of this fiscal year (by March 31st). Citizens who opposed the casino have been expressing their opinions on the future of Yamashita Pier at every opportunity, with the number of such opinions reaching over 10,000. Going further, in February 2012, the "It'd be great if XX was at Everyone's Yamashita Pier" project proposed a specific vision for the future, and in November 2012, a "Yamashita Pier Symposium for Citizens" was held to propose ways to utilize the pier.

(Omitted)

On December 6th, citizens held a "Citizens' Forum to Discuss the Future of Yamashita Pier," where they presented seven proposals for utilization, which they refined into "citizen proposals" with the help of expert knowledge.

The proposal to be announced is a plan that will embody the citizens' aspirations and involve them in creating a lush green corner of the Inner Harbor, a "shared space where citizens can gather, relax, and interact," precisely because Yamashita Pier is city-owned land, i.e., "shared property of the citizens." The citizens do not want the project to be left entirely to large corporations, pointing out that it is "shared property of the citizens."

One of the five proposals presented was a "public transportation network centered on LRT" proposed by Kenichiro Fujimura, director of the NPO Yokohama LRT Association (Fujimura is also a member of this Honmoku LRT project). Specifically, the idea was to extend the LRT line to directly connect existing urban areas such as Yokohama Station, Sakuragicho Station, and even Honmoku and Gumyoji, and to establish stops and a vehicle depot at the pier.

I would like to have the opportunity to hear more about this proposal from Fujimura.

The other four ideas were also wonderful and I was deeply moved.

Rather than saying that one option is better, each of these proposals made me realize that there is a possibility for a sustainable, world-class redevelopment direction that is not based on short-term profits, but is also beneficial for future generations and for the city of Yokohama. I really hope that these kinds of proposals will be incorporated into the redevelopment.

Nowadays, due to aging and the changing times, there are areas undergoing redevelopment here and there. I have heard that even though many buildings have already been built, there are not enough tenants and the number of customers is sparse.

There is also the example of Nakano Sunplaza, where redevelopment plans were made but actual construction was stalled due to rising material costs.

After attending this meeting, I thought that we are now at a turning point.

I feel that we need to think outside the box of preconceived notions of how things have always been.

This is a great opportunity to create a new urban development plan for Yokohama that takes a broad perspective, encompassing everything from the redevelopment of Yamashita Pier to Honmoku. Am I being too optimistic in thinking this way? (EK)

Honmokubook

I was a bit shocked that I had never heard of such a wonderful book, even though I have lived here for many years.

I received this from one of the authors of this book, whom I got to know after starting this project.

I was thinking about what to say at the first meeting, and I suddenly wondered when the streetcars that ran through Honmoku had started running, and I found that this book had a clear explanation.

Amazingly, Honmoku's streetcars have been running since 1911, the 44th year of the Meiji era.

If you read page 14 of this Honmoku book, entitled "The Chin Chin Tram and Honmoku Street," you will clearly understand that streetcars played a major role in the urbanization of Honmoku.

This book was featured in the town news. The article was published in 2017, when the book was released, so the information is a little outdated.

Mr. Kamakura, whose name is listed at the end of this post, has apparently passed away, so please contact Naka-honmoku Community House at 2-351 Honmoku-cho, Tel: 623-8483. Apparently, you can still get some here.

"The Honmoku 4 South Genki Town Steering Committee is made up of neighborhood associations and other urban development organizations in the southern part of Naka-ku, 4th District, including Honmoku-cho and Hongo-cho. The Honmoku Book, created by these volunteers, is generating a lot of buzz. It's packed with content ranging from trivia about the area to biographies of deceased shop owners."

Read the full article here↓