Stepped-up enforcement by Honolulu police against illegal street peddling along Kalakaua Avenue in recent weeks has Waikiki vendors and street performers up in arms.
Leaders from the Waikiki Improvement Association and Waikiki Neighborhood Board, however, applauded the spike in arrests as the realization of their long-standing request to clear the neighborhood of peddling activity.
The street peddling issue is expected to come up during the Waikiki Neighborhood Board’s meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Waikiki Community Center.
Board Chairman Bob Finley said he will ask the Honolulu Police Department to provide an update on its recent arrests. Street vendors and performers, meanwhile, said they intend to show up at the meeting and voice their objections to the latest enforcement push.
HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said there have been 27 individuals arrested for peddling since July 1. While HPD provided no specifics on when the arrests occurred, the minutes of the neighborhood board’s August meeting had police reporting four peddling arrests in July, suggesting the ramp-up in arrests came in August.
“The district recently reallocated its staffing allowing for better enforcement of chronic community complaints,” Yu said.
From the accounts of several vendors, most of those arrested were trying to sell products along Kalakaua Avenue. Selling products or a service along the sidewalks of Waikiki is illegal, but vendors and street performers can accept donations.
It can be a subtle line between a donation and a sale, and that’s where officers have been cracking down.
Among those arrested was Mike Beaudet, better known as “Mike the Weaver.” Beaudet, 55, has sold his woven baskets and hats in front of Macy’s for the past 14 months. Beaudet said he was arrested seven weeks ago when he flashed a one and a zero at a would-be customer who turned out to be an undercover officer.
Beaudet said he lost about $250 in spoiled products as a result of his arrest. He did not deny what he did was illegal. “You have to do what you have to do when you’ve got to do it,” he said.
“Tron,” 46, has been a street performer for 24 years — more than half of that in Waikiki. In recent years his corner has been Kalakaua and Kaiulani avenues.
He does not ask for money, but puts out a tip jar for his “statue” and “robot” routines. He can’t ask for money, even when people ask for a suggested donation amount, since his character doesn’t talk, he said before he started performing. As a result, Tron has never been arrested.
Tron said because he doesn’t draw crowds of more than 10 to 15 people at a time due to the brevity of his routine, he does not draw complaints that he is blocking the street.
“It’s the people who own the businesses who are making up lies to do something to try to get us off the street,” Tron said, noting that he and other street performers, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, successfully challenged in federal court an ordinance banning street performers in 2001.
Anna Osio, 49, said she began selling her lei in Waikiki after losing her job five months ago and was doing OK supporting her two sons. But she has seen her friends arrested, and now she’s worried for her own situation, Osio said.
Arthur Witherspoon, 50, who goes by “Uncle Smiley” on Kalakaua, was wearing a Hello Kitty head mask Friday night and handing out balloons. Seattle resident June Fisher ran up to him, hugged him and said, “You’re cute, even if you’re a man.” They posed, and Fisher put several dollars in Witherspoon’s tip jar without any prompting.
Fisher said she sees nothing wrong with Witherspoon’s presence or that of any of the other vendors or performers on Kalakaua, exclaiming that they added charm to the area. “We love cartoon characters, and my grandkids are going to love this photo.”
Witherspoon said he hopes a compromise can be worked out that would allow vendors and performers to set up somewhere for a fee. Police themselves at one time proposed confining performers to the hula mound near Kuhio Beach by the Waikiki substation.
Finley said the board has been receiving complaints from the community about illegal peddling for about three years, and members have asked repeatedly why HPD has not done anything about it.
“We’ve got a pedestrian traffic issue, and these guys don’t pay any taxes or any rent,” Finley said.
Some street performers draw crowds so large that customers cannot step into storefronts and are sometimes forced to step into the street, he said.
Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, said a recent boost in visitors to Waikiki has brought more street vendors. “Then the sidewalks get crowded and people start complaining,” he said. “And the police are responding to the citizens’ complaints.”
Egged said his members wouldn’t have a problem if the vendors and performers obeyed the law. “The intent of the law is clear: You can’t sell goods and services along Kalakaua Avenue.”
He added, “We understand people have a constitutional right to be on the sidewalk, and as long as they obey the law, we don’t have a problem. Our concern is to make sure the sidewalks remain available.”
