Chinatown hopes Weed & Seed and foot patrols will clean up neighborhood

Twenty-four hour police foot patrols of Chinatown — funded by $2 million in overtime — began slowly last week, as law enforcement and city officials revive a program to reduce crime, then rebuild a beleaguered community in the midst of a pandemic.

The late night and early morning shift has been slow, with two to three officers walking patrol. The late afternoon and early evening shifts are more popular, according to the Honolulu Police Department.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced July 6 that six officers and one supervisor would work four six-hour shifts and provide around-the-clock coverage from River to Bishop streets between North Beretania and North King streets beginning July 12, with statistics reported every day.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser tried on five straight days, for about an hour each time, to find uniformed officers on foot patrol and encountered one.

On Friday the officer, wearing a black vest over his uniform, discussed the city’s stored property ordinance with an unidentified homeless woman who erected a shelter made out of cardboard and a shopping cart in front of a boarded-up office on Nuuanu Avenue near Merchant Street.

Residents and business owners report seeing the foot patrols, mostly before lunch. On Friday and Saturday night, an increased number of police vehicles were noticeable driving through the area and parked on opposite ends of River and Maunakea streets, with their lights on and officers behind the wheels.

Blangiardi spokeswoman Brandi Higa said people have expressed their appreciation for the increased presence.

“While it’s a bit too premature to say if that has made a significant impact on crime reduction and enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions so far, city employees surveying the area and area residents have reported a recognizable change in officer visibility,” Higa told the Star-Advertiser in a statement Friday.

Blangiardi’s office did not reply to a Star-Advertiser request for the daily enforcement statistics from the first six days of the patrols. HPD did not reply to a request for violations of the city’s sit-lie, stored property and sidewalk nuisance ordinances since the foot patrols began. Blangiardi’s administration has stopped conducting homeless sweeps across Oahu but continues to seize homeless possessions.

Murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft fell in Chinatown last year in the six patrol beats that make up the majority of the area. There were 1,196 offenses in 2020, compared with 1,405 in 2019, according to HPD’s 2020 annual report.

Chinatown residents, workers and businesses owner this year have repeatedly described one of Honolulu’s most diverse neighborhoods as besieged by homelessness, featuring colorful characters and criminals who know the law and area.

Don Murphy, owner of Murphy’s Bar &Grill, a Honolulu institution at 2 Merchant Street, told the Star-Advertiser that the walking patrols stop at King Street, and “shaky” characters and homeless make it uncomfortable to be out in the area after dark. A man throwing rocks on Merchant Street cost Murphy $2,200 in window repairs recently.

“The sad part about it is we’re getting kind of used to it,” Murphy said. “We shouldn’t be used to it and let it happen. We have to keep trying to put pressure on the politicians to make some rules that they (the homeless and politicians) can abide by. You walk by certain areas and the stench of urine is so bad it’s brutal. It affects business, especially when it gets dark. People are uncomfortable walking around.”

Tiffany Hewitt, 34, relies on a wheelchair and has been living in Winston Hale at 1055 River St. for about two months, and said the increased HPD presence “has run off a lot of the riffraff.”

But Chinatown remains “a rough neighborhood” with “a lot of drug trafficking,” she said.

Jasmine Kealohapauole has lived on Maunakea Street for 10 years and said she feels good seeing at least two to four officers walking around during the day.

“A lot of people were getting robbed,” she said. “Sometimes the homeless get crazy and start yelling.”

Having officers on foot makes it easier for them to interact with and offer help for those in need, HPD Acting Assistant Chief Glenn Hayashi, of HPD’s Central Patrol Bureau, told the Star-Advertiser in a statement.

“Having additional patrol officers is always a positive,” he said. “The shifts will primarily be staffed by officers and supervisors working on overtime.”

Hayashi said police in Chinatown are focused on stopping illicit drug use, disorderly conduct, assault, criminal property damage, sit-lie violations, sidewalk obstruction and public urination and defecation.

Chinatown is a portal to a Hawaii of a time gone by, the heart of Honolulu’s urban core, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is bounded by Nuuanu Stream, Beretania Street, Nuuanu Avenue and Honolulu Harbor.

Blangiardi ordered the increased HPD presence in response to complaints that homelessness has continued to increase in Chinatown under his administration, resulting in illegal activity and poor public hygiene that began with the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic. Hawaii’s annual Point in Time Count homeless census was canceled this year because of COVID-19.

The HPD patrols run through the end of December and are part of the revival of the Kalihi-Palama-Chinatown Weed &Seed district. Weed &Seed is a former federal program that combines cross- jurisdictional policing tactics with health surveys and programs that encourage education, business development and community growth. The idea is to “weed” out the criminals and “seed” the area with opportunities for residents.

Chad Pata, a bartender at Murphy’s, has worked downtown for 27 years and saw Chinatown change as soon as the pandemic began in March 2020.

“Lawlessness grew exponentially as soon as the city locked down,” Pata said. “The homeless took over the streets of Chinatown, filling every available doorway with sleeping bodies, piles of trash and human waste. … I am sure that the impunity with which the homeless now operate in the area would be severely inhibited by a larger police presence. When I first began working downtown a quarter- century ago, I would not let a woman walk to her car alone at night. The original Weed &Seed program improved things greatly, and I felt safe letting my wife and children explore the wonders of Chinatown. We have now lost all the progress that had been made. Something must be done.”

HPD is using $2 million authorized by Blangiardi to pay for the new patrols, staffed by officers who sign up for the overtime.

HPD is already short by 279 sworn officers. Vacancies in all eight police patrol districts cost taxpayers $1.9 million in overtime just from January through March to cover empty shifts. The new patrols will nearly double HPD overtime payments in the fourth quarter of this year.

In 1998, Kalihi-Palama- Chinatown was designated a Weed &Seed area by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a nationwide initiative to combat crime and spur economic development in city centers. It was a hit for residents of the area, who saw crime plummet. Funding and political will for the program eventually dried up as the federal government shifted resources to the war on terror after 9/11. Former U.S. Attorney and current Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Florence T. Nakakuni ensured the Weed &Seed nonprofit could keep the name and curriculum created by DOJ.

As of Thursday six people had been arrested and charged with felonies under the Downtown-Kalihi Weed &Seed program, according to HPD. Five arrests were for drug-related offenses, and the sixth was for criminal property damage.

Jon Yoshimura, a board member and the City Council chairman when Weed &Seed started, remembered the impact the program had on drug dealing, violence and speeding on Pua Lane in Kalihi. A long-standing community problem changed within weeks after traffic-calming measures were installed following a sweep of criminals operating in the area.

“It gave our residents a voice and helped police understand the totality of the situation,” said Yoshimura, speaking Thursday at a fundraiser at Sugarcane in Ka Makana Alii. “The outcomes were noticeable, which led to community buy-in that gave Weed &Seed its strength.”

Prosecuting Attorney Steven S. Alm was the U.S. attorney for Hawaii when the program began in 1998. Alm believes its past success can be replicated and improved.

“No one gets things done by themselves, so we have worked closely with HPD, the Judiciary, the Department of Public Safety, the Office of the Public Defender, the Department of Health, drug and alcohol treatment providers, and numerous community and business groups to set Weed and Seed up for success in the Chinatown and Kalihi-Palama neighborhoods,” Alm told the Star- Advertiser in a statement. “But at the end of the day, the people who know what’s best for these neighborhoods are those who live and work there.”

American Savings Bank, Central Pacific Bank, First Hawaiian Bank and Bank of Hawaii paid for a statistical survey of residents, businesses and visitors to gauge community perception of crime and safety and detail the kinds of revitalization efforts they’d like to see in Chinatown and Kalihi-Palama. The survey will be repeated every two years.

Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, who represents the area, told the Star- Advertiser that the City Council invested almost $50 million in homeless services and housing in Iwilei, like the Punawai Rest Stop, Hawaii Homeless Health Hui (H4) Clinic and Iwilei Affordable Housing and Homeless Center, to provide help for the homeless, including offers of permanent housing. The City Council also appropriated $250,000 for Weed &Seed.

“Many Downtown/ Chinatown residents and businesses appreciated the crime reduction successes of their last Weed &Seed experience, part of which included a geographic restriction that prevented those convicted of crimes from returning to the neighborhood,” Fukunaga said. “Prosecutor Alm’s 2021 Weed &Seed plans call for a comparable county-level restriction, and he has an experienced Weed &Seed team of prosecutors and paroling experts.”