Neighborhood to celebrate opening of park
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Downtown/Chinatown residents feel slighted because the recently opened Smith-Beretania Park, which they fought so long and hard to get, was never given a grand opening or blessing by the city while many other such public projects received more fanfare.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
So they've decided to hold their own.
The long-sought Smith-Beretania Park, which opened unannounced Oct. 31, is popular with downtown workers and residents, including Thomas Williams, left, and Mark Crock. The neighborhood board will hold a celebration early next year.
The Downtown Neighborhood Board voted unanimously at its regular meeting last week to spend its annual $120 refreshment budget and give the park the opening that the residents want. Board member Alvin Au, who is also city deputy director of facilities maintenance, abstained from the vote.
"A blessing, a little acoustic entertainment, some food," said board chairwoman Lynne Matusow. "The city did a big thing for 'A'ala, (and) we were inundated with invitations to go out to Waipi'o (soccer complex). For us down here, nothing. The Fasi and Harris administrations never wanted this park. I don't think they are still willing to admit they have families and children living down here."
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the city does not provide grand openings for every project it builds.
But when 'A'ala Park, just two blocks from Smith-Beretania Park, reopened in March 2002 after a two-year, $2.3 million face-lift, Mayor Jeremy Harris attended a blessing and celebration. During the festivities, city workers handed out free chili and rice to more than 750 visitors who were treated to live entertainment and a lion dance. There was a skateboard demonstration, along with softball games.
In contrast, the city spent $7.6 million to build Smith-Beretania Park, a facility promised to residents for more than 20 years.
After hearing about the neighborhood board plan, Costa said some type of ceremony could perhaps be held for Smith-Beretania Park in conjunction with the Chinese new year's celebration on Jan. 22 and it could be called "A Taste of Manapua."
" 'A'ala was a special situation," Costa said. "It was long sought by the community, as was this park. But because of the closeness to the Chinese new year, we feel that is the time the dedication or celebration would be appropriate."
Matusow said the board is moving forward with its own ceremony and doesn't want something combined with Chinese new year's festivities because that would take more coordination than is needed for the event and because Smith-Beretania Park is really for the residents of the area and has nothing to do with the new year.
The park opened unannounced Oct. 31. The city agreed to build the park in 1981 as part of an arrangement with Charles A. Pankow Development Corp., which developed Honolulu Tower. After 20 years of postponements and debate, the city broke ground for the $7.6 million park in September 2001. Costa said at the time that no opening ceremony was planned.
The public ceremony will be held at either 10 a.m. Jan. 31 or at the same time on a Saturday in February, said Matusow, depending when they can secure a city permit. The event will be considered a special board meeting and notices will be sent out with the January board agenda to save costs and to abide by sunshine laws.
"We want this opening for the families, the area residents who were promised a park by the city more than 20 years ago, some of whom bought their apartments because they were told the park was going to be built," Matusow said. "And in memory of the lost generation, those who were born, raised and have now graduated from high school and college and moved away waiting for the park."
The park is surrounded by a wrought iron fence with locking gates on Beretania and Pauahi streets. It has proved popular with a lunchtime crowd and with families getting out after work and school. Wide concrete paths and several benches are available for park users, and old-style hanging streetlights line the walkway.
There is a basketball-volleyball court at one end. An underground parking lot stretches the length of the park.
Joy Wong was one of the first proponents of Smith-Beretania Park in the early 1970s as a member of a group called People Against Chinatown Evictions, or PACE.
Wong said it is appropriate that residents hold their own ceremony to bring the fight for the park full circle.
"This park is built as a result of the community having to fight for it," Wong said. "The city did not want this park to be built, so any acknowledgment means they are acknowledging the community involvement. It would never have been built without everybody taking a stand."
Wong said residents attended numerous city meetings over the years to make sure the money provided for the park was actually used for open space for people living in the densely populated area. More than 6,000 people live in the neighborhood near the park.
"It is a real victory for the people and an example that if you can organize and get yourselves together, that is where the power is politically," Wong said.
"When the government doesn't keep its promises ... , communities have to speak up and fight. Otherwise government will run roughshod over people.
"It is a good thing they are doing that (ceremony). It's great."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
