After two weeks of handing out warnings, Honolulu police officers Monday began enforcing the city’s expanded sit-lie ordinance in Chinatown.
"It’s much cleaner," said Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock, president of the Chinatown Business and Community Association. "I’m so happy about it."
Merchants said they were hoping the ban on sitting and lying on business district sidewalks from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. would lead to more visitors and more business.
As of midday Monday officers had issued two warnings and given out two informational "help cards," according to the Honolulu Pollice Department. No citations or arrests were made.
Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said most of the homeless left the area during a two-week "educational period" before Monday. During that time, she said, officers reported 900 interactions with the public, handed out more than 1,000 help cards and contacted 138 businesses.
On Monday afternoon River Street — notorious for its homeless encampments — was clear, although Aala Park, across the channel and outside Chinatown, appeared to be rather busy.
Most of the other streets in Chinatown seemed to be clear of the homeless, although there were a handful of squatters on Pauahi Street near the River of Life Mission.
Rita Luke, owner of Island Keepsakes on Nuuanu Avenue at Hotel Street, said she appreciates the fact officers were doing their jobs and asking the homeless to move on.
But some of the homeless folks appeared to be merely walking around the block and returning to where they started, Luke said.
"I’m seeing the same people in the usual spots," she said.
Missy Owens Mull, owner of the Owens & Co. shop, said she was too busy helping holiday shoppers Monday to go outside and check out whether there was an appreciable improvement in the homeless problem.
"I did notice the last couple of nights it’s already getting better," she said.
Shubert-Kwock, a member of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said she walked the length of Chinatown on Monday and met a variety of merchants and business people, all of whom were happy.
"Everybody was saying, ‘Good, good, good,’" she said. "It’s unbelievable."
Shubert-Kwock said even the usual smell of urine on some streets had backed off, assisted by Monday’s rain.
"This will help get business back as it gets out," she said of the cleaner streets.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Dec. 2 signed the bill expanding the city’s sit-lie ordinance into downtown Honolulu and 14 other business districts throughout Oahu.
Under the bill, people are barred from sitting or lying down along public sidewalks within specified boundaries in Chinatown, downtown Honolulu, McCully-Moiliili, Kailua, Wahiawa, Ala Moana-Sheridan Street, Pawaa, two sections of Kaneohe, Waimanalo, Kapahulu, Waialae, Kahala, Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Hawaii Kai.
Officials said enforcement will be rolled out gradually, starting in the areas where the city has received the most complaints.
Caldwell, who signed the bill in a ceremony in Chinatown, told merchants, "We did sit-lie in Waikiki and it’s worked miracles." He added that it’s changed the look and feel of Waikiki for the better.
The Waikiki ordinance went into effect in September and bans sitting and lying on sidewalks 24 hours a day.
Chinatown merchants and residents had been complaining that it was become more and more difficult to navigate sidewalks in the historic section of town.
The Honolulu City Council is considering banning lying and sitting at five malls in Chinatown-downtown area as well. They include College Walk Mall, Sun Yat Sen Mall, Kekaulike Mall, Union Mall and Fort Street Mall.
Sit-lie laws, debated both here and on the mainland, do not specifically target the homeless, but they might as well as most of those who lie and sit on sidewalks are considered homeless.
While supporters argue that sidewalk campers in commercial neighborhoods make for unsafe pedestrian walkways and discourage commerce, opponents say sit-lie ordinances make it criminal for people to be homeless and that there’s no evidence they hinder business traffic.
