City resumes tagging property in public areas

City officials tagged 79 personal belongings with removal notices in different sections of Hono­lulu on Tuesday, the fourth time they have gone through parks and sidewalks in the last month to enforce an ordinance that bans storage of private property on city premises.

Among the areas targeted was Thomas Square, where an Occupy Hono­lulu group has held a protest vigil since November. Seven items were tagged along the sidewalk on South Beretania Street.

For the first time, city officials tagged property along the Ala Wai promenade and other areas in the Kapiolani Boulevard-Atkinson Drive neighborhood near the Hawai‘i Convention Center.

City crews are expected to return today to confiscate tagged items that are not removed within 24 hours as specified in the ordinance.

Trish Morikawa, city housing coordinator, said officials are enforcing the law only in areas of Oahu receiving the most complaints. Thomas Square received complaints from 30 area residents initially, and the complaints have continued, she said.

Angry Occupy Honolulu members said this is the third time their items have been tagged. That’s in addition to the three times police officers have come in the middle of the night citing people for sleeping in the park, they said.

Unlike previous occasions, there were no tents tagged for removal Tuesday. Many Occupy Hono­lulu members are taking their tents and most of their property with them when they leave the encamp- ment and then returning with the items to gather or sleep.

Tables and plastic containers of goods were among the items tagged Tuesday. Also tagged was a bicycle owned by a man who identified himself as "Patches."

Patches said he had just retrieved his bike from a Halawa base yard earlier Tuesday morning and went to visit the encampment in the afternoon.

When he parked it along the sidewalk, city workers tagged it for removal even though he was standing near it, he said.

The protesters said they have no intention of leaving.

The number of items tagged at Thomas Square has decreased from 31 on Feb. 1, to 16 on Feb. 6 and to seven on Tuesday.