Editorials
Wednesday, March 21, 2001

Closing parks for meeting
of ADB may cause chaos

Honolulu parks may be placed off-limits
during the Asian Development Bank meeting.

THE preparations that Honolulu police appear to be making for the Asian Development Bank conference here in May seem aimed less at keeping the demonstrations orderly than at preventing them from occurring at all. Any plan to thwart peaceful protest would be a recipe for chaos.

Police deny reports that they have decided to close Ala Wai Community Park both from ordinary park activities, which would deprive paddling clubs, soccer teams and Little League baseball of access to facilities, and as a camping spot for demonstrators, ostensibly so police can use the park as a staging area. Demonstration organizers also complain that they have been told no permits will be granted for large groups to gather at Ala Moana Beach Park, so it also can be used as a staging area.

"There are no decisions at this time," says Assistant Police Chief Boisse Correa. He gives assurance that police "don't want to see a police state. We don't want to close down parks."

Brent White, an American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii attorney, complains that the city also has decided to deny applications by ADBwatch, a local coalition of protest groups, to use the parks and Kalakaua Avenue for a rally. The reason given, according to White, is that all the special-duty police officers will be assigned to provide security for the conference. Again, Correa denies that any such decision has been made.

Closing off Ala Wai and Ala Moana parks would be reminiscent of the Chicago police ban on camping at Lincoln Park by anti-Vietnam War protesters during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Chicago officials reasoned, according to presidential campaign author Theodore White "that since Chicago's citizens are forbidden to sleep in public parks at night, strangers from afar should obey similar rules." (Correa also voices that view.)

"Except that the rules, the procedural rules, are the first and most fragile target of all political demonstrators," White added. "The more arbitrary the rule, the more fragile." When protesters converged on Lincoln Park, Chicago's finest chased them away through narrow streets, clubbing and tear-gassing demonstrators and bystanders alike. The confrontation became infamous.

Most demonstrators camp out. They don't stay in hotels. Refusing to accept that fact of political protest could create a debacle of proportion exceeding the relatively light demonstration envisaged.

Correa says police seek "an open dialogue." White says ADBwatch has been frustrated in its attempts to achieve such a dialogue. He says he invited city officials to meet with him and two state assistant attorneys general yesterday to discuss the issues, but they declined. Correa says the state attorneys represented the city in that meeting.

A dialogue between police and protesters is needed desperately to avoid any adversarial approach and enable demonstrators and delegates alike to exercise their First Amendment rights.

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Ridding Waikiki streets
of hawkers and hookers

It's possible to shoo away Waikiki's illegal
vendors, but it's harder to drive off prostitutes
or connect tourists with Hawaii's 'real' people.

GETTING law enforcement authorities to crack down on illegal vendors in Waikiki is surely a step in the right direction, but there are many more that could be taken to make a visit to Hawaii a more rewarding experience.

The vendors and commercial leaflet distributors not only harass passersby but obstruct the sidewalks with their merchandise and pushy tactics, making passages unsafe. Moreover, the vendors skim from legitimate businesses that pay rent for their enterprises and degrade the perception in the quality of these businesses.

Like everyone else, the vendors have a right to make a living --but by playing by the same rules as everyone else.

Still unsolved is a way to rid the streets of prostitutes -- both female and male. Although their presence has dwindled lately, the ladies and men of the night remain a challenge to creating a more decorous atmosphere in the heart of Hawaii's tourist district.

The Waikiki Business Improvement District has hired security guards to police the resort area and their visibility may discourage such illegal activities. But cheap souvenir vendors, hawkers and hookers aren't who visitors should encounter.

An informal sample of visitors in Waikiki found that many want to meet more islanders. Brenda and her daughter Kori from Apple Valley, Calif. (they declined to give their last name) said they drove to the North Shore and Windward Oahu "to see real people and how they really live." Brenda said she found having conversations with island residents difficult in Waikiki because "everyone's just trying to sell you something or hand out coupons."

Some cities such as Portland, Ore., station visitor aides where tourists congregate to give directions and suggest places to see. They also take the time just to talk.

To heighten a sense of the islands, Hawaii's tourist industry could establish a cultural center in Waikiki, a place where visitors could learn about the ethnic groups here. Instead of a marketplace that hawks plastic hula skirts, visitors could watch craftsmen construct one from ti, or see how a carver works a bowl from Hawaiian wood. Best of all they could talk story with island people.

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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.

Don Kendall, President

John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
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