Neighbors find hours limited for downtown park
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Downtown residents had been waiting a long time — since President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981 — for their little park to open.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Finally it's open, and neighbors are pleased at what they've found. But they wish it could stay open later than the posted 7 p.m. closing time.
The long-awaited Smith-Beretania Park in downtown Honolulu opened without any announcement Friday, drawing some families, area residents and workers who spent their lunch break eating on the benches.
Smith-Beretania Park opened Friday without any announcement after sitting empty all summer while the grass grew in.
The newest city park, which extends from Beretania to Pauahi along Smith Street, adds 1.35 acres to the city park system, bringing a total 6,665.35 acres under its jurisdiction.
"I love this park," said Honolulu Tower resident Marlyse Okano, one of 6,000 people who live in the immediate area. "I saw families using the park this weekend. I like that."
Okano said a park is much better than when it was a public parking lot frequented by drug dealers and that she might use the park to sit and read on sunny afternoons.
The park is surrounded by a wrought iron fence with locking gates on Beretania and Pauahi streets. The trees planted in May are beginning to bloom and the large grass area has taken root. Wide concrete strolling paths and several benches are available for park users, and old-style hanging street lights line the walkway.
There is a new basketball/volleyball court at one end, and an underground parking lot stretches the length of the park.
Kevin Wong walked by the park after picking up a plate lunch yesterday and decided to eat on one of the benches.
"It's comfortable," Wong said. "When people see others in here it will be used more."
Wong usually takes his lunch to eat at Tamarind Park but said this park is closer.
Thomas Kong visited the park for the first time yesterday with his wife, son, nephew and mother-in-law, who lives in the apartment building next to the park.
"It's great for the kids because there are not many places for them to run around," Kong said.
Kong said he is waiting for the promised keiki play equipment. The city plans to add $100,000 in play equipment for children.
Posted rules for the park include no alcohol, animals, vehicles on the grass, golfing, littering or open fires. The park is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Dolores Mollring, a Downtown Neighborhood Board member and longtime proponent of the park, said she is also waiting for the play equipment for her 5-year-old grandson to use, but closing at 7 p.m. may limit her from using the park except on weekends.
"He goes to school and then the Y and gets out at 5 p.m., so by the time we eat and everything it would be about 6:30 or 7," she said.
A Sept. 6, 2002, letter from city Parks Director WIlliam Balfour Jr. to Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the downtown board, said the park would be closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily and the basketball court will not be reserved but used on a first-come, first-served basis.
In a Nov. 3 letter to Balfour, Matusow said park users are losing 21 hours of park time a week with the reduced hours. She said neither the board nor area residents requested the reduction of hours and she would like the city to keep its promised hours.
"Those living in the immediate vicinity of the park are cooped up in their high-rise apartments at night because there is not a park they can sit in after dinner and before going to bed," she said in the letter. "The pent-up demand for the park has already been proven. The adage 'If you build it they will come' holds true, but those who come (after 7 p.m.) are locked out."
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said because the basketball court is not lighted, the park will be closed at 7 p.m. or when it gets dark. No grand opening ceremony is planned, she said.
The city agreed to build the park in 1981 as part of an arrangement with Charles A. Pankow Development Corp., which developed Honolulu Tower. In September 2001, the city broke ground for the $7.6 million park.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
