A homeless man begging for money blocks the statue view at King Kalakaua Park, next to the Waikiki Gateway Hotel.
The smell of human waste and images of vagrants loaded down with shopping carts, street kids, prostitutes and crystal meth users dancing to the beat of an unheard tune round out the daytime urban experience for park users.
In the evenings it’s even worse, said Waikiki Gateway Hotel Manager Brad Anderson, who is spearheading a movement to limit access to the park. Closing the park late at night when the risk of crime grows would improve safety and the area’s image, he said.
"Our No. 1 concern is the safety of our guests," he said. "Since taking over this property about a year and a half ago, we’ve had multiple negative reviews from guests who claim that there are safety issues at night and that they have been harassed or chased out of the park by homeless people. If it happens to our guests, I assume that it’s happening to other people."
Anderson and supporters have petitioned the city and Waikiki Neighborhood Board to close the park from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Limiting park hours would cut down on crime and loitering, Anderson said. Other members of the neighborhood, including nearby businesses that are paying high rent, have joined him, saying the blight on the state’s No. 1 visitor destination should not be overlooked.
"It’s not good for business. Some of our guests complain and others post complaints on TripAdvisor," Anderson said.
David Carey, president and chief executive of Outrigger Enterprises Group, said homelessness is an issue that commonly plagues warm-weather cities.
"As a visitor industry guy, I’d love to see the homeless not in the main visitor area. But legally, they tell me that it’s hard to do. It’s an issue that we worry about and our guests worry about," said Carey, whose company operates the Outrigger Luana Waikiki, a hotel overlooking King Kalakaua Park.
There is a precedent for closing King Kalakaua Park since much of Waikiki’s open public spaces, including the beaches, shut down nightly. The city already closes Kuhio Beach Park from 2 to 5 a.m. and Kapiolani Park from midnight to 5 a.m. The city also closes Diamond Head Beach Park, Ala Wai Golf Course Access Road, Ala Wai Neighborhood Park and Ala Wai Promenade from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The Ala Wai Community Park closes from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., and Ala Wai Neighborhood Park Annex shuts down from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
"We are open to address any request from neighborhood boards to possibly restrict vehicle access into certain parks," said Louise Kim McCoy, Mayor Peter Carlisle’s press secretary.
Approval from the director of parks and recreation, the local neighborhood board and the Board of Parks and Recreation is required to limit a park’s hours, McCoy said. Those found guilty of violating the park closure law could be subject to a $500 fine, imprisonment or both, she said.
The nighttime-closure proposal does not have unanimous support in Waikiki.
"You have people urinating in front of First Hawaiian Bank. Are you going to close that, too?" said Waikiki Neighborhood Board member John Moore. "Too many things are closed to tourists and taxpayers. Are you going to punish all of us?"
Moore said current laws are sufficient and new rules are not needed. Regulators just need to enforce those on the books, he said.
Lori Nishimura, Carlisle’s neighborhood board representative, noted that limiting hours at King Kalakaua Park also would prohibit the neighborhood from using it as an evening thoroughfare.
Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Rachel Simmons said that in theory she supported closing King Kalakaua Park at night. Board members Michael Peters and Jeff Merz also appeared to favor aspects of the move.
Still, board Vice Chairman Louis Erteschik questioned whether limiting hours would fully address park problems. "There are a lot of grungy people hanging out in the daytime, and there’s no laws against that," Erteschik said.
Ultimately, board members told Anderson they needed more information before voting on his request.
In the meantime, Anderson said problems in the park are worsening. He estimates up to six homeless people continually sleep in the park and that the hotel calls police to come there about three times monthly.
Honolulu Police Department Maj. Ron Bode, the Waikiki commander, said there were about four dozen calls for service last year at King Kalakaua Park. Problems at the park have not increased recently, and the majority of calls there have ended without formal complaints, he said.
However, those lobbying for the late-night closure say King Kalakaua Park lends itself more readily to overnight homeless guests than other Waikiki parks that are open 24 hours. Fewer homeless people favor spending the night in Beachwalk Triangle, a patch of green in a high-end retail corridor off of Kalakaua Avenue, the highly visible Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Beach Park in the heart of the tourist mecca, the benchless Princess Kaiulani Triangle on Kuhio Avenue and Kanekapolei Street or the Sans Souci Beach Park, which is closer to the Diamond Head end of Waikiki where many homeless evictions have occurred.
Since street people now sleep in King Kalakaua Park, nighttime closures would increase the visibility of homelessness, said Richard Torres, a 45-year-old who has made Waikiki streets, parks and beaches his home for more than three years.
"This is the only place where we can really stay right now," Torres said. "I don’t understand it. If I go to sleep on a bus bench or on a public sidewalk under the light, they can’t ask me to leave. But if I sleep in the dark on the beach or in most other parks, they can arrest me."
Torres claims he is related to the Gambino crime family and that he went to jail for sex crimes, running guns, pornography, drugs, armed robbery and for sleeping on the beach more than a dozen times. However, he said that he and four other homeless people who spend nights often in King Kalakaua Park are not to blame for crime there.
"People like myself, we protect the tourists. One gentleman, a tourist, recently passed out here," he said pointing to a park bench. "Anyone could have rolled him, but we watched out after him. We know that if anything goes on in the park, we’d be blamed."
Brandon Spitzenberg, a Seattle tourist who recently whiled away vacation hours in King Kalakaua Park, said he was undeterred by the homeless people there.
"The homeless are everywhere in Seattle," Spitzenberg said from his perch in direct view of vagrants. "At least here they don’t freak out when you won’t give them a cigarette. There’s more aloha here. Even the homeless people are smiling."
