More park workers, a smoothed-out beach and a playground are in. Increased commercialization and newfangled restrooms are out.
Those are some of the highlights of a nine-point, short-term community action plan for the 119-acre Ala Moana Beach Park released by Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Wednesday.
"We’re not talking about massive change, but we are talking about doing better," Caldwell said. "We picked the things we heard the most from people that we could do."
Longer-term actions are still in the works as part of a $1.2 million park master plan, a draft of which is slated to be presented at a community meeting in the fall.
Caldwell described Oahu’s most heavily used recreational facility as a place practically all Oahu residents look upon with affection and nostalgia.
But noting that the park is 81 years old, the mayor said, "It’s showing its age a bit."
The administration came up with the short-term action plan based on suggestions made by the public since Caldwell first announced a call for input on ways to improve Ala Moana in March. The responses showed recreational enthusiasts "are very passionate about the people’s park, and what they wanted to see done and not done."
More than 30,000 interactions have been collected on the website ouralamoanapark.com.
Asked to rank their top priorities for improvements for the park, 26 percent of people listed bathrooms and maintenance while 26 percent, the same amount, put down general park restoration and greening. Beach and sand improvements came in third with 19 percent, safety and security were fourth at 16 percent, and pathways and trails were fifth at 13 percent.
Things residents said they do not want include added commercialization of the park.
"We heard that loud and clear, and we do not want to commercialize this park," Caldwell said. L&L Drive Inn recently won the contract for the two food concession stands at the park but no other city-sanctioned, for-profit enterprises are being contemplated, he said.
Also rejected was a preliminary proposal to replace the restroom at the Diamond Head end of Ala Moana Beach with enclosed, separated unisex changing areas-bathrooms after the idea was met with a swarm of skepticism. The experiment will be tried at another park.
As a result of the negative feedback, the restroom — like five others — will instead be renovated only with new features like MicroGuard floors that are low-absorption and anti-stain, and new paint. The improvements are expected to be done by December.
About 40 monkeypod trees are scheduled to be planted along the Ala Moana Boulevard border of the park to make the area more green and inviting, Caldwell said.
Another improvement, due to start by the end of summer and be completed in February, is repairing and resurfacing the 0.6-mile exercise track at Magic Island. At $637,000, the project also includes painting the track blue and installing distance markers.
A new irrigation system is being installed to ensure green grass year-round along "the Great Lawn," the large expanse between McCoy Pavilion and the Diamond Head concession, which is now often dried out during the summer. The project will be done in two phases — September and July 2016.
After getting complaints from people who have sustained cuts from coral "popping out of the sand," especially along the center of the beach, the city is also undertaking a project to relocate coral and smooth out the area with sand from the Magic Island end of the beach where it has been accumulating, Caldwell said. Eventually, the city wants to replenish sand on the beach but "this is something we can do short-term," he added.
While the administration envisions most of the improvements to be done by May 2017, the details for some elements of the plan have yet to be fleshed out.
Ala Moana is staffed daily by a parks crew of 17 people who are also tasked with taking care of several other city facilities, including Thomas Square. The crew is actually budgeted for 22 positions, so the city will first try to fill the five vacant positions, Caldwell said.
If that doesn’t lead to a marked improvement to restroom and general park maintenance, the administration will consider adding positions, but there is no plan to divert park workers away from other facilities, he said.
Parks Director Michele Nekota said parks staffing is lacking throughout the island and Ala Moana will be evaluated along with other city parks.
The administration also has not decided yet how it will beef up night security. Honolulu police officers currently patrol the park after it closes at 10 p.m. The city could increase HPD patrols or hire a private security company to roam the park, the mayor said.
Brighter, LED lighting will be placed around the restrooms and concessions as an added safety measure, he said.
The plan also calls for Ala Moana’s first playground. People can go on the ouralamoanapark.com website and vote on where the playground should be placed and what it should look like.
Park users the Honolulu Star-Advertiser spoke with Wednesday said they like the improvements in the plan.
Diamond Head resident Andrew Corrie was biking with daughter Kiana, 9.
"Some improvements would definitely help," Corrie said, adding that many facilities seem old.
Chinatown resident Guilherme Alves, who was visiting Magic Island with fiancee Andressa Dalledome, said he sometimes helps the Surfrider Foundation when it rounds up volunteers to help clean the beach. Additional crews after weekends would be useful because on Mondays, following the cleanups, the beach often looks trashed again, he said.
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