Those planning to attend this month’s First Friday event in downtown Honolulu-Chinatown are being warned to stay on the sidewalk and obey traffic rules because Hotel Street will no longer be shut down as it has been in the past.

Officials with the Arts District Merchants Association said they no longer can afford to obtain the city permit to close down Hotel Street between Nuuanu and Smith streets during the monthly event because the Honolulu Police Department is now requiring that the group pay for 18 special-duty officers to help with security. Previously, the permit placed 10 officers on the stretch of street considered for decades to be the main artery of Honolulu’s oldest neighborhood and one of the key centers for the area’s recent revitalization.

Association spokeswoman Miki Lee said it would cost $4,700 monthly to pay for 18 officers, an 80 percent increase from the $2,700 it now pays.

Over the years, the group has relied on voluntary donations from area businesses — from $50 to $200 a month — to pay for the special-duty officers. But in recent months, the group has struggled to pay the $2,700 monthly because of declining contributions due to struggling business. Trying to come up with $4,700 monthly is not realistic, Lee said.

The association issued a news release this week urging revelers to "exercise caution and patience," stick to the crosswalks and obey traffic lights.

"We’re actually quite concerned about what’s going to happen," Lee said.

Because this First Friday falls right after the New Year’s Eve, Lee said, the crowd might be smaller than usual, which would allow merchants a chance to take a breath, hand out fliers and otherwise educate the public about the change.

With galleries and night spots opening up in Kakaako and other parts of the island, there’s been a small decrease in First Friday’s popularity, Lee said. The estimated number of attendees averages roughly 500 people during the peak hours of 10 p.m. to midnight.

Police Maj. Roy Sugimoto, who heads the Honolulu patrol district, said additional officers will be on hand to "monitor all First Friday events until it is determined that close monitoring is no longer necessary."He declined to say how many additional on-duty officers would be available.

Additionally, HPDwill place yellow tape barriers along Hotel from Smith to Nuuanu "to establish the area of focus and prohibit people from walking into the roadway as they normally would,"Sugimoto said.

Over the years, HPDhas supplemented the 10 special-duty officers used for First Friday with 10 to 20 on-duty officers, Sugimoto said. In 2013, the department "determined that too much on-duty resources were being devoted to private events" downtown such as First Friday and seasonal street celebrations ranging from Hallobaloo to Mardi Gras, and asked that the association take on 18 officers for First Friday, he said.

Association members and city officials have met over the last year to try to find a compromise but failed to do so, according to people on both sides of the issue.

To help ease the burden on the association, HPDagreed to gradually increase the special duty requirements, to 12 in the first year and then 15 the subsequent year and finally 18 in the third year, he said.

Although Hotel will not close this First Friday, TheBus will be nonetheless re-route its buses to King Street from about 7:30 p.m. as a precautionary measure, city spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said.

Honolulu’s version of First Friday started informally in 2002 when downtown-Chinatown merchants, gallery owners, restaurateurs and barkeepers began to stay open later, hold sales and create other events in an attempt to draw more people into the downtown Honolulu-Chinatown area at least once a month.

Lee estimated about 12 to 15 boutiques and galleries extend their hours on First Fridays to help draw people into the mix, while restaurants and bars that already are open Friday nights bring in acts or hold other events.

Among them is the clothing boutique shop Roberta Oaks, whose owner was an early First Friday participant. Oaks said she typically keeps the shop open until 10 p.m., four hours later than her usual Friday hours, and occasionally holds trunk shows on First Fridays.

First Friday has been nothing but positive for merchants, she said.

Lee said that when the crowds on the sidewalks got so large that people began spilling onto the streets, the association agreed to come up with the resources to help provide security as a crowd-control and safety measure and block off vehicular traffic between Nuuanu and Smith streets.