Oahu Hoods: Gold Coast Living Back in the Day

There are moments when life grabs you by the hand and leads you down your path. For me it appeared years ago, when a dazed and lost nineteen-year-old college student was swept away by a series of miraculous and seemingly random events…that somehow landed me back in Hawaii. I’d been gone from the islands for 15 years, but once I returned, it was if I’d never left.

Through a friend of a friend of an acquaintance, I found a small studio apartment in an old wooden building on Oahu’s Gold Coast. My rent was $50 per month. My neighbors all became close friends. We were of collage age, although not all in school, and we studied and played and worked together. Some of us still do; as lifelong relationships were forged.

Today we’re doctors, teachers, contractors, architects, farmers, and a realtor. That makeshift family had much to offer, since most of us were far from home. Our neighborhood gave us countless attractions just out the door: we had surf in front, Kapiolani Park in back, Waikiki up the road, and Diamond Head watching over us. That was our hood. It was truly a beggar’s banquet.

There is just one oceanfront building from the beginning of Waikiki, at the top of Kalakaua Ave., to its end, at the zoo, where you can purchase a fee simple condo or single family home. Yet, just a quarter mile up the road, to the Gold Coast, you can actually own a slice of paradise.

As a realtor, it’s essential for me to know the neighborhoods I represent by my listings, and ideally, to appreciate and value those areas. The Gold Coast is one of those places where I can do that. It’s just on the edge of town but feels miles away. It keeps calling me back, as it does those that discover it, as a nineteen-year-old or by the home presented below.

Want to Know More About Oahu’s Gold Coast?

Stay tuned for the next edition of Hoods, as we’ll explore the History of the Gold Coast.