City parks crews Tuesday replaced a broken toilet fixture on the women’s side of the busiest comfort station at Ala Moana Regional Park, but beachgoers are still shaking their heads over last week’s vandalism incident.

City officials said vandals smashed one stall’s fixture into several pieces late Thursday night or early Friday morning. A toilet paper dispenser in the women’s restroom was also destroyed. The incident occurred less than one week after the city reopened the comfort station Jan. 8 after a six-week renovation.

Al Waiau, a retired city senior parks maintenance worker who now swims at Ala Moana daily, said he was not surprised by the vandalism.

“I expected it because it always happens, but I didn’t expect it this soon,” Waiau said. “The act was perpetrated by people who don’t appreciate shared, public property,” the Papakolea resident said. “But what you going to do?”

Myra Gonzalez, who is visiting from Watsonville, Calif., said the station’s four stalls now appear to be in good condition and was surprised to learn about the incident. “That’s awful,” she said, adding that such vandalism doesn’t occur in her Bay Area town.

Mike Misic, a Victoria, British Columbia, resident who travels to Hawaii with his wife at least once a year, said he spends time at Ala Moana to see friends the couple has made over the years. “I couldn’t believe it, that someone would come into a public toilet and destroy it,” Misic said.

Makiki resident Sabine Laue, who either swims, snorkels or bodyboards at the beach park daily, said the incident saddens her. “For me it’s the crown jewel of Honolulu, this park,” Laue said.

Laue surveyed the redone women’s facility and said it looked OK. However, she said, “I try to avoid the public toilets because of the people who hang out there” and fail to properly dispose of human waste and refuse.

She also said that adding more parks staff might not necessarily help the situation. Recently many veteran parks workers were transferred elsewhere, and their replacements have done a poorer job, Laue said. “I think it’s not a question of quantity, but quality.”

The cost to replace the broken toilet was not available from the city Tuesday.