The question of whether your cup is half empty or half full can now be applied to the Diamond Head shoreline walkway between the city’s Makalei and Leahi beach parks.

On Christmas Eve, at the cost of $6,200, the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation erected two metal fences, blocking each end of the sea wall walkway, which goes past waterfront residences.

On Friday, after fielding public complaints for 17 days, DPR removed the fence from the Makalei end of the walkway but left the fence on the Leahi side. The action follows city safety issues raised by a lawsuit filed against the city and state in 2016 and settled in 2018.

“The fence at Leahi Beach Park will remain for the time being to mitigate the safety hazard near the walkway,” DPR announced in a statement Thursday before a meeting of the Diamond Head/Kapahulu/St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Board, which had the fences on its agenda.

This leaves the walkway half open or half closed, depending on your point of view. The public once again can access the shoreline along the path, as is their right under Hawaii law (HRS 115-4, 115-5, Revised 2010), but some residents feel their accompanying right of transit along the shoreline has been curtailed.

“That is great that the city took Makalei Park Fence out, but it wasn’t satisfactory, because we all still walk through the pathway and find ourselves stuck (by) the fence at Leahi Park,” area resident Betsy Rodriguez wrote in an email Friday afternoon, saying she has been using the walkway with her daughter Cortezi Rodriguez, 7, since the child was born.

“That makes us (have to) turn around and walk back and go around (Makalei) park and houses to get to Leahi Park,” Rodriguez said. “The city needs to take the Leahi Park fence down.”

On Friday morning at Makalei Beach Park, neighborhood residents Alexi Drouin, Cheryl Severn and Arlene Velasco, who had attended the neighborhood board meeting to protest the fences with the Rodriguezes and many others, expressed gratitude to the city for listening and responding to citizens’ concerns by quickly restoring partial access to the walkway.

However, they worried that the Leahi fence could prove an even greater safety hazard if walkers along the pathway from Makalei, encountering the metal fence at the end and, loathe to retrace their steps, try to climb over or around the barrier, which is about 6-1/2 feet high and juts out past a gap where the walkway’s steel railings end by a cracked, uneven surface frequently wetted and slicked by the waves.

“It’s trickier now,” said Severn, adding that she had witnessed several people clambering around the fences.

“It’s an accident waiting to happen,” said Drouin, who also has witnessed such behavior, notably by fishermen.

A few minutes after the fence was removed, he sent an email saying he already had seen 15 people entering the pathway.

“Since they are not returning back, we are assuming they are just dangerously climbing around the fence at Leahi Beach Park,” he said, adding that he hopes the city acts quickly to mitigate the safety hazards and remove the fence.

“It’s the mandate of the city to maintain an open pathway,” he said.

But the city hasn’t yet committed to any specific action. Mitigation measures could include making repairs, adding warning signs or leaving the barrier as is, DPR spokesman Nate Serota said in an email Friday.

“We’re all for public access; that’s not really the issue,” Georgette Deemer, deputy city managing director, said in an interview.

The issue with the Makalei- Leahi walkway was public safety, she and city parks Director Michele Nekota said.

“We oversee 96 beach right of ways, over 60 beach parks and other beachfront parks like Ala Moana and Kualoa, so we maintain a lot of public access to the shoreline,” Nekota added.

Serota pointed out that both Leahi and Makalei beach parks provide shoreline access.

Asked whether the state had jurisdiction over the walkway, Dan Dennison, senior communications manager for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, replied in a statement that it “appears to be private property” over which the state holds no easement, and is not in the Diamond Head Conservation District.

“The State will not be taking any action,” Dennison said.