Motorists driving along North King Street through Chinatown today might notice a few freshly painted walls on some of the buildings that used to be covered by graffiti.

The improved look is thanks to the more than 300 volunteers who picked up trash and added fresh layers of paint to the exteriors of businesses, traffic control boxes and nearby bridges Saturday during the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii’s second annual “Chinatown Cleanup.”

The effort was part of a larger campaign to reduce crime in the area and market it as a safe destination for tourists and residents.

Last year, mailboxes and parking meters also were given a new coat of paint, said Yu Shing Ting, an official with the nonprofit chamber. This time, the volunteers — 200 from the chamber and the public and about 100 City and County of Honolulu employees — also painted over the bridges leading in and out of Chinatown.

Ting said that before Saturday’s cleanup, Chinatown business owners, who perhaps benefit most from cleanup efforts, were asked if they needed any assistance.

“The thing we did differently this year is we reached out to more businesses to let them know we’re going to be here, we’re going to have so many hands available,” she said.

Among those participating were Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm, Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan and U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors.

The city’s Weed and Seed program, in which law enforcement agencies and prosecutors cooperate to “weed out” criminal activity and drug abuse from target areas, then “seed” the neighborhoods through social and economic revitalization, have resulted in a 60% drop in crime and arrests in the Chinatown and Kalihi- Palama areas since last year, according to an August newsletter from Blangiardi’s office.

Alm said 120 homeless individuals have been arrested in the area, with the intention of getting them treated and housed to keep them from returning to the streets.

“Almost all of the homeless have mental health and drug and alcohol problems down here, so (we’re) trying to get them arrested but helped at the same time,” Alm said. “Tough love works.”

Honolulu Police Department annual reports show that violent and property crimes in the police beats covering the Chinatown Historic District, Chinatown Cultural Plaza and several blocks up to the H-1 freeway have generally trended downward from 2017 to 2021.

In both 2017 and 2018, there were 1,030 total violent and property crimes on those beats, dropping to 952 crimes in 2019, according to the HPD reports. In 2020, 760 crimes were reported, a decline attributed to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and business and travel restrictions.

With many of the strictest rules lifted in 2021, crimes on those beats increased 22%, to 930, but the total number was still lower than in the years leading up to the pandemic.

Connors said there has been an upward trend, especially in violent and drug crimes, in Hawaii as a whole throughout the pandemic, but said she doesn’t doubt reports of a recent reduction in crime in the Chinatown area.

“I believe it because we are collaborating in very important ways on the federal, state and local levels,” she said.

Wesley Fong, former president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, said he hopes efforts to preserve and improve Oahu’s Chinatown district, one of the country’s oldest, will make it a more appealing stop for shopping, dining and sightseeing.

“We want to make Chinatown safe and secure,” he said at the cleanup event. “We want to take Chinatown back so that our residents and our tourists aren’t afraid of coming to Chinatown.”

While this is the second annual Chinatown cleanup, Ting said smaller groups of a few dozen people had done a few cleanups after the inaugural event last year.

While watching some of Saturday’s volunteers paint over the graffiti on a building wall at the intersection of North King Street and Kekaulike Street — one of the busiest areas in Chinatown — Ting acknowledged that it’s just a matter of time before some of the damage and graffiti returns.

“For the businesses, it’s a never-ending battle,” she said. “For us doing it, it helps them. We know it’s not going to stay like this forever, but … we can’t let that stop us.”