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Editorials
Saturday, October 28, 2000Aala Park is
getting a new
lease on lifeThe issue: The city is rebuilding Aala Park.
AALA Park on the edge of Chinatown is ripped up and fenced off, but in a few months it should be bustling with people. The city is rebuilding the park, which has become a haunt for the homeless, for active recreation, with the idea of restoring it to neighborhood use.
There will be a basketball court, softball field, playground equipment, a pahu (an elevated, grassy area for use as a stage) and a parking lot, plus walkways and landscaping. That's phase one, which will cost $2.3 million and is scheduled for completion in February, postponed from December.
Phase two, completion date not yet determined, will include a skateboard rink and fountain and is expected to cost $560,000. The improvements are designed to bring neighborhood residents back to the park.
As Bernadette Young, chairwoman of the Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board, put it, "The community lost the park to the homeless." With the homeless came drugs and prostitution. The park became unsafe. "It's been so long since people from all over could hang out at that park," she said.
Lynne Matusow, chairwoman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, noted that there has been "a pent-up demand" for recreational facilities for area residents. She added that when the renovations are completed, "legitimate people can take back the park from crime elements."
Sun Hung "Sunny" Wong, executive director of the Chinatown Merchants Association, isn't satisfied. He called the improvements a "Band-Aid job," not the "first-class place" his group wanted. However, the changes will constitute a vast improvement even if they don't fulfill Wong's aspirations.
Several years ago, at the height of the homeless problem, the city let people camp in the park. But the situation soon got out of hand. Drug use and assaults were commonplace. Subsequently the campers were evicted and offered accommodations in city shelters.
Although the number of homeless people in the park dropped sharply, it has still been shunned by most neighborhood residents as unsafe. The installation of athletic facilities should make the park more attractive to the neighbors and less so to the homeless.
Government and charitable organizations must provide shelter and aid for the homeless, but letting them take over the parks is wrong. The Harris administration's efforts to improve Aala Park and take it back for the residents are welcome.
Beijing criticized
over Hong Kong’s
next leader
CITIZENS of Hong Kong are sensitive to threats of interference in their political affairs by Beijing, which has pledged to keep its hands off the former British colony.
So there was an eruption of criticism from the Hong Kong news media and the political opposition when Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen expressed support for a second term for Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa. Asked about a second term for Tung, whose current term ends in June 2002, Qian told reporters that he was in favor of it.
However, following criticism in Hong Kong of the statement, Quian's boss, President Jiang Zemin, angrily denied that the Chinese leadership had already decided on a second term for Tung, and scolded the press. "You run all over the world," Jiang told reporters, "but the questions you ask are too simple, too naive." Gesticulating wildly, Jiang shouted, "If there is anything wrong with your reporting, you will be held responsible."
The Chinese leader might have been any Western politician blowing his stack about press coverage, except that in China the press knows better than to publish information embarrassing to the government. Freedom of the press does not exist there.
Fortunately, the Hong Kong press hasn't been tamed -- yet.
The Associated Press reported that the apparent endorsement of Tung, coming just days after the European Parliament issued a report accusing China of meddling with Hong Kong's autonomy, was interpreted as dashing any hope of a real race for Hong Kong's leadership.
Martin Lee, chairman of the opposition Democratic Party, said, "It's really telling Hong Kong and the whole world that the Hong Kong election is fixed in Beijing."
Tung, a former shipping magnate, was elected by a committee of 400 prominent Hong Kong figures OK'd by Beijing, to lead Hong Kong after the turnover by Britain in July 1997. The next chief executive is to be chosen by a similar committee, although it will be twice the size of the first one. Beijing makes the appointment after the committee holds its election.
Through its control of the makeup of the committee, China ensures that the chief executive will be someone it will find acceptable.
Under the turnover agreement with Britain, Hong Kong's 6.8 million people have retained civil liberties not found elsewhere in China. Recently they have been criticizing Tung's economic policies.
They are likely to demand a bigger say in choosing Hong Kong's next leader, which could result in a confrontation with Beijing.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
