Danny De Gracia: Walking Injured In Honolulu Is A Real Eye-Opener - Honolulu Civil Beat

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About the Author

Danny de Gracia

Danny de Gracia is a resident of Waipahu, a political scientist and an ordained minister.

Danny holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minor in Public Administration from UT San Antonio, 2001; a Master of Arts in  Political Science (concentration International Organizations) and minor in Humanities from Texas State University, 2002.

He received his Doctor of Theology from Andersonville Theological Seminary in 2013 and Doctor of Ministry in 2014.

Danny received his Ordination from United Fellowship of Christ Ministries International, (Non-Denominational Christian), in 2002.


The city needs to provide better accessibility and safety for pedestrians. 

It’s no secret that one of the keys to staying healthy and functional is to walk as much as possible. But what happens when you get injured and still need to walk, and more importantly, still need to work in a place like Honolulu?

For months after my initial Covid-19 infection, I suffered from severe inflammation, as well as bone and joint damage as a side effect that made it difficult for me to walk. I learned a thing or two about accessibility around Oahu in the process.

If there is one thing I’ve always loved to do, it’s walk. During the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, before I got sick, I used the stay-at-home orders as an opportunity to participate in “virtual races” as a means to pass the time and stay healthy. Those are online marathons where one can win medals for walking, running or other physical activities logged on one’s smartwatch.

Walking is Life: Before and After Covid

On average, I would walk five miles or more a day during the early months of the stay-at-home orders, and I lost about 30 pounds over the course of the emergency orders without any changes in dietary habits (read the research on similar individuals and try it yourself; you’ll love it).

Of course, all good things must come to an end, and like all or most of you, I had to come back to the physical office at the end of the emergency orders. That meant back to the grind of getting up early, spending hours on H1 to commute to work, sitting in front of a computer screen all day, and all the other things that constitute “the old normal” work experience.

Then something happened that I did not expect. In September, just when I thought I had escaped the entire pandemic with boasting rights to the no-Covid club, I caught “the rona” at a conference full of people who, because of their job, were all certified to be fully vaccinated. Talk about bad luck!

Traffic Lights along McCully Street with pedestrians.
The timing of walk lights on Honolulu crosswalks seems to be configured for healthy people. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2019)

Now most people think of Covid as a respiratory disease, but what they don’t realize is that our immune systems can overreact in fighting the coronavirus, resulting in severe, organ-damaging inflammation in other parts of the body. In my case, I ended up with crippling pain and swelling all over my body that made it difficult to walk, sit upright and even stand.

Between the months of October to December, I spent most of my days on sick leave, at home, sometimes spending whole weeks lying in bed, barely able to do anything and taking multiple medications for pain management. MRIs showed that I had edema of the soft tissues and damage to bones in my ankles and feet. 

Most days I had to wipe myself down with Huggies baby wipes to stay clean, and I had to use a portable toilet by my bedside for weeks to relieve myself. For those of you who have never been in this kind of predicament, being in bed for days is not “rest” – not being able to walk for protracted periods of time will quickly catch up with you. 

I knew I had to start walking again, but I didn’t know if it was possible. Walking is life. Research shows that after six weeks of inactivity due to an injury, muscles can decondition at a rate of 0.5% per day, followed by a loss of as much as 400 grams of muscle tissue, which has serious implications for your overall health.

Your pelvic floor muscles, and, in the case of men, your prostate, are also negatively impacted by not walking, and if you don’t walk for a month or more, you’ll definitely feel the worst you’ve ever felt in your life.

I made the decision to start walking again, little by little, no matter how much it hurt. First, by practicing standing for prolonged periods by my bed, then practicing walking to the bathroom and back, 10 feet away. Later, I started coming back to work – parking as close as possible to the office, and using the elevators – and then walking as much as possible wherever I could go.

And what did I discover? Honolulu sucks if you’re injured or disabled and on foot.

Crosswalks

The timing of walk lights on our crosswalks seems to be configured for healthy people who have quick strides. The wider the street – say for example, Beretania by the State Capitol – the faster you have to walk.

Making things even more stressful is the fact that cars make right turns while pedestrians are trying to cross. I feel like injured, disabled and elderly people need more time to cross or the benefit of a no right turn on red light. Something as simple as crossing the street with post-Covid condition can be dangerous and agonizing.

Sidewalks

We really need to talk about this. I get it that space is at a premium on Oahu, but that is no excuse for narrow sidewalks. They’re dangerous to navigate if you’re walking with a limp past other pedestrians, some of whom are walking multiple pets and won’t (or can’t) move out of the way. Combine that with broken or uneven sidewalks, or sidewalks littered with trash or rotting leaves, and getting around town on foot becomes a chore.

Public Parking Lots

I hate to break it to the elitists, but injured people do need to use cars occasionally. And you know what can really ruin your day? Parking lots with tiny gaps between cars where you can barely open your door. Try stepping out of your car and squeezing between the tight gap of two cars in a parking lot if both your ankles are injured and you have poor stability. 

I know some of you secretly like this problem because it serves as a “deterrence inconvenience” to make less people visit places by car, but it’s elitism to throttle access to public locations by constructing things in a way that can cause agony for injured, disabled or elderly people.

Humbled But Determined

Thankfully I’m much better now and I can walk and exercise almost as well as I did pre-Covid, but my experience during my physical weakness causes me to realize yet again that Honolulu has a lot of catching up to do in terms of infrastructure.

When you’re strong, you think you’re invincible and you don’t see anything wrong with the world around you. But when you’re injured, when you’re humbled, when you’re at your weakest, you begin to see things that you might have missed before.

We need to work on accessibility and safety for people in Honolulu, especially those who need safe walking infrastructure. 

Civil Beat’s community health coverage is supported by the Atherton Family Foundation, Swayne Family Fund of Hawaii Community Foundation, the Cooke Foundation and Papa Ola Lokahi.


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About the Author

Danny de Gracia

Danny de Gracia is a resident of Waipahu, a political scientist and an ordained minister.

Danny holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minor in Public Administration from UT San Antonio, 2001; a Master of Arts in  Political Science (concentration International Organizations) and minor in Humanities from Texas State University, 2002.

He received his Doctor of Theology from Andersonville Theological Seminary in 2013 and Doctor of Ministry in 2014.

Danny received his Ordination from United Fellowship of Christ Ministries International, (Non-Denominational Christian), in 2002.


Latest Comments (0)

Thank you for this article, your observations are spot on! The Surgeon General reports loneliness increases our risk of death by 30%. Isolation increases our physical and mental health issues, like; stroke, cardio and depression, anxiety, dementia, etc. Movement, exercise, social connections, are the key to staying well! In our Kokua Council candidate forums, we focused on questions of importance with everyone from council positions, house and senate, mayors, Govenor and Lt Governor candiates. One of our questions was about the lack of sidewalks in Hawaii. Throught the Islands, there’s hardly any sidewalks. And what’s out there is not up to ADA Standards. On the Pali Hwy, the bridge above the freeway, in the center of the walkway, there’s an electrical pole blocking any chance of a wheelchair going anywhere. That’s one of hundreds of examples of our island’s mobility challenges. Many studies show, Loneliness is an issue for all stages of life. Isolation issues are partly due to a lack of sidewalks. Installing Sidewalks and accessibility is a simple solution. Through every step we find freedom from within. To safely get out we need to build sidewalks! It’s a simple concept

Rick · 7 months ago

No argument here, we all know Honolulu is a third world city when it comes to public infrastructure, particularly roadways, sidewalks and most parks. As I have mentioned many times, in a perfect world people should be separated from roadways. You will always have sidewalks next to them, but getting people across streets at busy, or dangerous intersections will require more ped overpasses or bridges. Bike lanes should be a separate path not even on the road because that painted line offers no protection from cars. Overall, Honolulu has spent little in improving roads and sidewalks in the past 60 years. There are no major changes to a freeway (H-1) build in the 60's and we wonder why traffic crawls along daily. You need to do more than paint an extra lane on the tarmack and expect things to change for the better.

wailani1961 · 7 months ago

Kudos. Danny, for hitting a nerve with your excellent article. From the long, trail of comments, the safety of pedestrians in Hawaii is obviously a problem. Why not add flashing lights to every crosswalk? It works well in Kailua. Maybe, we should all contact our elected officials. Or ask them to cross any busy street on Oahu? Please protect pedestrians!

4Kaneohe · 7 months ago

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