Question: Auwe! The people in Lanikai get special parking restrictions in their neighborhood on all the holiday weekends. What about the rest of us who live near beaches, hiking trails (especially those leading to waterfalls) and other places being overrun by tourists? I get that parking is a problem there, but it is in a lot of other neighborhoods, too.
Answer: Lanikai residents insist that severe traffic congestion caused by illegal parking in the Windward Oahu coastal enclave is more than a nuisance on long weekends, it’s a health hazard. As people from outside the neighborhood head to Lanikai Beach or Kaiwa Ridge Trail (the Lanikai Pillboxes), some park their cars haphazardly, blocking driveways and traffic lanes. People who live in Lanikai say they can’t exit the neighborhood in their own cars and that ambulances, firetrucks and police cars cannot reach them quickly in case of emergency.
The city heeded these complaints, and continues to restrict parking there for many three-day weekends, including the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. No parking will be allowed on Lanikai streets and shoulders from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
“Those wishing to access Lanikai beach and/or the Lanikai Pillboxes Trail over the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend may walk, bike, take TheBus Route 70 to Lanikai, or get dropped off in Lanikai,” according to a news release from the city.
The state is trying to get a better handle on trail use in particular, and welcomes community input via an online survey and at a public meeting later this month.
You can learn more at 808ne.ws/pillboxplan, a Department of Land and Natural Resources web page that includes a link to the survey, which asks whether respondents support potential management practices such as entry fees, designated parking, limits on trail use and other rules.
The community meeting is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 23 at the Ka‘ohao School cafeteria, 140 Alala Road in Kailua; this site was formerly known as Lanikai School.
The trail is expected to close early this year for pillbox renovations, but no firm date has been set, according to the DLNR.
Q: Did they ever find out who (if anyone) helped Randall Saito escape?
A: Not yet, or, if they have, Hawaii authorities have not made that information public. Separate administrative and criminal investigations of the circumstances surrounding his escape are ongoing, according to a news release Wednesday from the state Attorney General’s Office.
Saito escaped from the Hawaii State Hospital on Nov. 12, was captured three days later in California and was returned Wednesday to Oahu. He faces a felony escape charge.
He was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity in the 1979 killing of a woman at Ala Moana Center. Saito was committed to the psychiatric hospital in 1981, after his trial.
Q: Is Hawaii one of the states seeking a waiver to make Medicaid recipients work?
A: No. The Trump administration said 10 states have applied for waivers involving work requirements or community involvement for able-bodied adults on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income people, according to news reports. They are Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.
Mahalo
This appreciative 81-year-old volleyball fan was on my way to the UH men’s volleyball game Jan. 4 when Gilbert at the entrance of the university parking lot noticed a flat tire and signaled me to stop.
Mike, another helpful person, quickly replaced the flat tire with the spare, and I was on time for the volleyball game. — Mahalo, a volleyball fan
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
