First of all it is a place of beauty in a place where little beauty exists. Ornamental walls will protect children from the dangers of traffic. Swings, courts and other equipment for games and play will help young bodies and young minds build themselves in the right direction to become useful citizens.”
Sounds idyllic, right? Perhaps words written by an advertising agency hired to sell a new planned community or fancy boarding school or vacation destination?
Nope. That was part of a glowing editorial written by The Honolulu Advertiser in September 1937 about the brand-new Mother Waldron Park. The coverage of the grand opening was effusive. That park, reclaimed from marshy Kewalo lands and set aside as open space amid an area that was becoming congested, was going to save lives and lift up the community.
Last week Mother Waldron Park made international news when two Japanese tourists were beaten while they innocently tried to use the public restroom.
This week the park has been closed by the city — again — for “maintenance,” which seems like a euphemism for fixing all the damage and cleaning all the filth left behind by hard-core homeless encampments.
What a shameful state for a public park that began with such vaunted hopes.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported in 1937 that about 2,000 parents and children showed up on a Monday night to celebrate the opening of the park. The city and county had invested $50,000 in the project, a stunning sum at the time. The Royal Hawaiian Band played and led a procession. “Joyous youngsters swarmed over the broad lawns or scrambled over well-lighted play courts on the park,” the newspaper reported.
There was an outdoor stage. Mayor Fred Wright gave a speech, saying, “This is your park and playground. It is dedicated to the memory of a great woman (teacher Margaret “Mother” Waldron). Keep it clean, take care of it and let the small boys and girls have a chance to enjoy it with you.”
So what happened?
Infinite things over time. But don’t these things always come down to the same basic factors?
The neighborhood changed. Apathy set in. The homeless and the lawless found fertile ground on which to establish their own play area. That has happened in many places in Hawaii and across the country. It has particularly happened in urban Honolulu.
But what also happened is that no one told the tourists not to go in there. No local would ever enter those restrooms. Tourists are being lured by social media to dangerous places, and in Kakaako it’s the murals. The murals themselves are not the problem, though they in part grew out of a naive idea that a fresh coat of paint can fix anything. A fresh coat of paint won’t fix Mother Waldron Park. Neither will a new sprinkler system or grass or graffiti removal. Local government has to do better to hold up the promises that were made when that park opened all those years ago. Otherwise, just take out the bathrooms, turn it into a parking lot and stop pretending it’s still a public park.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
