For park advocates, end is in sight
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Some residents of urban Honolulu who have been waiting for more than two decades for a park in their downtown/Chinatown neighborhood are cheering the start of final construction.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said the city's Smith-Beretania Park has taken so long to finish that many of the children who lived in the area when the park was first proposed have since grown and moved away.
Work began Monday on a $122,000 playground at Smith-Beretania Park, which opened in October 2003. The Smith-Beretania Apartments are in the background.
"At last. Finally, the children who have been waiting for so long will have their park," she said.
General contractor Site Engineer started work Monday on the last addition to the park — a $122,000 playground. Work is expected to take about four months.
The park was first planned 24 years ago.
"I'm so happy. It makes me feel wonderful," said community activist Dolores Mollring. "I think there is going to be a lot more children here when that apparatus is in."
Mollring, who lives across the street from the park, said much of the park was completed last year, but the play apparatus has been the missing element. She has been lobbying to fund and install it since her grandson was 2 years old. The boy, now 7, regularly shoots hoops at the park's basketball court.
"Right after dinner you see the children riding their bicycles, riding their scooters, playing basketball," she said. "It is always busy. You have the older people sitting on the benches talking. It's just a good feeling."
In 1981, the city agreed to build the park as part of an agreement with Charles A. Pankow Development Corp., which developed Honolulu Tower. The developer also got approval to build another condominium, Honolulu Park Place. In exchange, Pankow agreed to pay the city $6 million toward the park.
For decades little happened despite residents' demands, and the city spent the money on other projects.
Then in September 2001, the city funded the park and the contractor broke ground for the $7.6 million project, which includes a 112-stall underground parking lot to replace the parking lot that previously occupied the 1.35-acre parcel.
Human remains were found during construction and work slowed while the bones were removed.
The park opened unannounced Oct. 31, 2003, and when the city decided not to hold a blessing, the Downtown Neighborhood Board held its own.
Board chairwoman Matusow said the blessing recognized all the effort by residents over the years who wanted a neighborhood park in the congested community.
"I'd like to thank Mayor (Mufi) Hannemann for finishing the project for us. It is really a great day for the community," Matusow said.
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 a few homeless people seeking a safe place for a daytime nap. 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 and the underground parking lot stretches the length of the park. Posted rules for the park include no alcohol, animals, vehicles, golfing, littering or open fires. The park is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
In the 1970s, the group People Against Chinatown Evictions was formed to prevent the forced removal of area residents during urban renewal projects. Joy Wong said the group also took up the cause of building a park for residents more than 20 years ago.
"All the current residents and the effort they put into it has continued to carry on that tradition of community struggle in terms of determining what your community is going to be like," Wong said. "I was just down there last week and I thought of all the kids that are in these buildings and how the park would be a lot more lively and usable with equipment in it.
"We are thrilled and proud of the Chinatown community for what they have accomplished and continue to accomplish."
City spokesman Bill Brennan said the Beretania Street gate will be closed during construction but the park will remain open.
Brennan said government projects often take years to complete, but this is one of the longest he has heard of.
"You have to admire the stick-to-it-iveness of these people," Brennan said. "Even though it has been years and some of the people that championed it in the beginning have died, there are still people carrying the ball and seeing it through. Good for them that they get the chance to feel good and to see it come finally to fruition. It's a good project."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
