Mother Waldron Park closes, for now

Here we go again: Another public park is being closed to public use, temporarily, due to homeless campers.

On Friday, the city announced that Mother Waldron Neighborhood Park in Kakaako will be shut down from 10 p.m. Tuesday until Feb. 2 for “maintenance.” Officials said the 50 or so chronically homeless people who have erected shelters in Mother Waldron had moved from Kakaako Waterfront Park and its sister parks a couple of weeks ago.

As you may recall, the state’s Kakaako Waterfront Park has been closed since October, also for “maintenance,” after vandalism to water pipes, lawn and electrical wiring. But that sweep simply migrated the campers mauka to the two nearby Kakaako Gateway Parks, which soon were closed for their own maintenance. All three of these parks are now set to reopen on Jan. 8. Let’s see how long the cleanliness can be maintained.

All this sweeping and shuffling comes at government expense, alas, with very few lasting solutions in sight.

As for Mother Waldron Park, the city is trying to put a positive spin on this latest closure. In addition to the maintenance, work will involve “a pilot project” to test anti-graffiti surface treatments for easier removal of graffiti.

And there’s more, the city said: This closure will enable its Department of Parks and Recreation to test a new location for the weekly People’s Open Market at Mother Waldron, normally held on Mondays. “During this park closure, the open market will be relocated to the Aina Moana (Magic Island) parking lot in Ala Moana Regional Park” from 10:15 to 11 a.m. Mondays.

Profiting from Pearl Harbor

It’s a mixed blessing for Hawaii’s tourists: They have infinite visitor attractions from which to choose, but often must sort through confusing come-ons to those attractions.

One enterprise, the Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau, has caught the attention of the state Office of Consumer Protection, which is investigating representations made on the tour operator’s website.

To be sure, it’s a website that looks informative, respectful and, well, official. And that’s part of the problem: whether consumers are being misled about the company’s connection to the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which is run by the National Park Service. There is no affiliation.

“Hawaii law is clear that if you are engaging in conduct that causes a likelihood of confusion or misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval or certification of services, it may be an unfair or deceptive trade practice,” said Stephen Levins, who heads the Office of Consumer Protection.

It’s a tricky situation. While actual tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial are free, just 1,300 are given out daily on a first-come, first-served basis; the other 2,700 tickets daily are reserved in advance by individuals, tours, schools and other groups. It’s easy to see that bookings bring convenience, but they can also come at a profit-making price.

When it comes to Pearl Harbor and other national monuments, propriety and authenticity should be clear. For the record, the National Park Service website is nps.gov, and Recreation.gov shows an array of official sites.

New hope for old sailing ship

The long, difficult saga of the Falls of Clyde in Hawaii could reach a happy conclusion, some 140 years after it launched from Port Glasgow in Scotland.

David O’Neill, founder of Save Falls of Clyde International, said he found a company that could transport the historic four-masted sailing vessel, now languishing at Pier 7 in Honolulu Harbor.

O’Neill would take the ship home to Glasgow, where it would be restored and put back to work, educating maritime students and visitors.

That would be a satisfying conclusion for all concerned, perhaps even for the late Honolulu Advertiser columnist Bob Krauss, who championed the drive to bring the Falls of Clyde to Hawaii in 1963.

The iron-hulled ship carried sugar from Hilo to San Francisco at the turn of the (last) century, and Krauss thought it belonged here as a piece of Hawaii history. He invested a lot of his own money toward the ship’s upkeep, which has, sadly, fallen off to the point that the state has impounded the vessel.

To see the Falls of Clyde under sail again after so many years would be a stirring sight. It’s a tall order, so the best of luck to the sturdy ship and those who would save her.