Posted on: Friday, June 17, 2005

Downtown park finally completes a promise

Occasionally a public projects seems to happen almost overnight, particularly when it has the right people with the right connections behind it.

That's not the case with the Smith-Beretania Park in downtown Honolulu, which has been talked about and dreamed about for decades.

Since 1981, when the park was promised as part of a deal to allow a high-rise condominium across the street, the Smith-Beretania Park has been a poster child for unfulfilled promises and deferred dreams.

Money originally set aside for the park was deflected to other purposes, and Chinatown residents were left instead with a crowded parking lot and nighttime drug hangout.

The park finally was opened in 2003, to the joy of area residents. But it was still incomplete.

The final piece, a children's playground to go with walkways and play courts on the site, is now under way. It is scheduled to be finished in about four months.

This completes a long-delayed promise and will become a center of enjoyment for surrounding residents and their children.

When the city has finished the park, it should make up for years of neglect by ensuring the park receives consistent and first-class maintenance so it will be a continuing source of pride and accomplishment for the patient residents who have fought so long for this simple amenity.