Question: Each morning, eight to 12 tents are set up at Thomas Square, on the corner of Beretania Street and Ward Avenue. During the day, two to four individuals participate in the Occupy Honolulu protest. This suggests that either the tents are used as storage facilities or that people are sleeping there and spending their days elsewhere. The silent majority is tired of this blight. These ineffective protesters have been there for seven months. Why can’t, or won’t, the city rid the sidewalk of all the tents there? (Two questions combined.)
Answer: The city’s “Stored Property Ordinance” took effect in December to deal with the problem of the homeless setting up tents along public sidewalks.
Since January, armed with this law, the city has made 14 sweeps at locations throughout Oahu, 11 of them targeting the encampment at Thomas Square, Jim Fulton, spokesman for the city administration, told us Friday.
The latest was on May 30 and 31.
However, it’s become a cat-and-mouse game, with Occupy Honolulu protesters finding a way to thwart attempts to remove them.
Fulton explained that the process begins with posting of a removal notice, documenting personal items that allegedly are being improperly stored on public property. The city may impound items that remain on public property 24 hours after they have been tagged.
“This process has been very successful in most locations where problems existed,” Fulton said.
However, Occupy Honolulu protesters are circumventing the law by “swapping tents that have been tagged for removal with different tents that have not yet been tagged,” he said. So crews that return the next day are unable to impound new tents that have not been tagged.
“When crews have posted removal notices on the new tents, the people who erected them have rotated them with other tents within the 24-hour notice period, again preventing removal,” Fulton said.
H. Doug Matsuoka, one of the protest leaders, acknowledges protesters “have figured out a way of persisting through” the raids, more than 20 by his count.
Tents are stored at private residences, he said, then swapped for tagged tents whenever the city decides to enforce the law.
Using the law, Fulton said city crews have been successful in impounding furniture, such as couches, chairs and tables, that have been brought to Thomas Square.
But Occupy Honolulu protesters have been able to find replacements, discarded curbside, especially in the Makiki area, for use in its “public forums.”
Despite the apparent stalemate, city crews will continue to enforce the law at Thomas Square and other placess, Fulton said.
As for the police, “HPD officers are asked to stand by just in case there’s trouble, but it’s not our operation,” said spokeswoman Michelle Yu.
Why Occupy?
Why does the protest continue despite what appears to be a lack of public support — or at least, public resentment about the sidewalk use?
“People have to see that there’s a protest going on,” Matsuoka said.
The protest is “to get money and corporate influence out of the political process.” To that end, Occupy Honolulu has signed “a declaration of solidarity with Occupy Wall Street that urges us to gather together, occupy public spaces and to come up with a solution.”
And finding a solution “is a process” in which people have to get together in public forums,” he said.
On March 25, Star-Advertiser reporter Dan Nakaso reported on the “unique island culture” that has allowed protests like this to continue for a long time. See is.gd/ITVq2v.
Mahalo
Belatedly, to the individual who turned in my handbag that I left hanging on a chair at the Paina Cafe in Hawaii Kai. May you be richly blessed. — Grateful
———
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.
