Residents who were invited to choose a color for the refurbished Magic Island pathway have selected reddish-brown.

City Deputy Managing Director Georgette Deemer says Mayor Kirk Caldwell has given his approval to the Ala Moana Beach Park development team to go ahead with the reddish-brown color when work begins on the path next month.

The city says 530 residents, who had shown an intense interest in the mayor’s plan  to renew Ala Moana Park, were invited by the city to chose between brown and a bright blue color the mayor favored for the path.

This is the color chosen for the rebuilt Magic Island pathway.

City & County of Honolulu

The city said a recent Civil Beat column generated so much objection to the electric blue color it decided to let the people choose the color.

Deemer says of the 530 people invited to vote, 271 opened the emailed invitation and  167 of them voted. Of those, 102 or 61 percent voted for reddish-brown while 65 people or 39 percent wanted blue.

The $666,000 Magic Island pathway project includes renovating two outdoor showers as well as marking the pathway at 0.1 mile intervals to let joggers and walkers know how far they’ve traveled.

The city says the asphalt on the existing pathway will be repaired and then coated with a sealant and colored with a liquid paint product on the top layer. Chris Dacus, Ala Moana project manager, says the  sealant is to protect the asphalt and make it slip proof. The brown color will reduce the heat of the black asphalt.

The Magic Island Pathway is expected to be completed next spring.