Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Abandoned vehicle
section removes vanQuestion: My neighbors and I would like to know why an individual is allowed to park and store two vehicles in the public driveway and parking lot fronting the Ala Wai Canal and the Ala Wai Driving Range/Golf Course. Very possibly, he is living in the larger of the vehicles as it has not been moved for months. There also is a smaller truck, which parks alongside the van or truck but seems to come and go as if the individual goes to work during the day, then returns in the evenings. These vehicles are parked and/or stored there 24 hours a day, and although police frequently drive by during the night, no one seems to stop and check it out.
Answer: It turns out that a man had been living out of the larger vehicle, a van, and driving the other one to go to work, according to city golf course Administrator Garrick Iwamuro.
Based on your complaint, police did come down and mark the tires on the vehicles, to see if they complied with the city ordinance requiring that they be moved at least once every 24 hours.
The van had not moved, and the owner acknowledged it was inoperable, Iwamuro said. Police issued a citation and handed the case over to the city's abandoned-vehicle section.
At last check the van had been removed, according to the Honolulu Police Department.
However, the man apparently was continuing to park his pickup truck in the area overnight.
There is nothing now that prohibits him from doing so, Iwamuro said, because even though it is city property, there are no signs saying you can't park there overnight.
A Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman also said the pickup owner wasn't doing anything illegal, but police would continue to monitor the situation.
In the meantime, city officials were looking to see what kind of sign might be posted, since there is no ordinance now that restricts overnight parking in that area.
"It's a matter of finding the right sign," Iwamuro said.
But he also noted that if and when a restrictive sign is posted, the man could go across the road to the driving range parking lot or the Ala Wai Golf Course parking lot.
Officials don't want to restrict overnight parking at the golf course because many golfers line up there as early as midnight to be the first in line on the course the next morning.
Auwe
As I stood in the security check line at Honolulu Airport last month to go on a short trip to Japan, I was handed a beautiful, glossy map of Hawaii, about 20 inches long and nearly 3 feet wide, by a uniformed woman. It was published by the state of Hawaii. It's lovely, but I live here and really don't need a state map. And why do departing tourists need them? Is the government hoping that everybody will be so impressed that they may turn around and come back with those maps for another visit? It seems like a pretty wasteful gesture to me. -- Yoshi Clack
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