CHINATOWN'S CHAOTIC
'SWAP MEET' QUALITY
RAISES CONCERN
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
A peddler sells his vegetables on the sidewalk of Kekaulike Mall in Chinatown. Below, a sidewalk vendor counts cash from the produce she sold to pedestrians. A neighborhood board member says the area has turned into an "unofficial swap meet."
Vendors sprout along
Chinatown walkwaysThe City Council and administration
weigh measures to regulate
peddling on sidewalks
Bright red, yellow and orange fruits amid green leafy vegetables beckon to shoppers along Kekaulike Mall in Chinatown.
Besides the fresh fruit and vegetables and other merchandise in the stores and outdoor stands, street vendors also peddle their wares.
"Lychee, $3 a pound," one vendor calls out, his price about $2 a pound less than nearby stores.
Esther Echineque is selling seaweed and grayish pipipi shells she says she gathered from the beach.
And while she pulls out a general excise tax license, she doesn't have a permanent shop -- she sells her wares on the city-owned mall while sitting in front of an alley filled with garbage bins.
A Downtown Neighborhood Board representative says the mall, at the end of Kekaulike Street between King and Hotel streets, has turned into "an unofficial swap meet."
The colorful yet chaotic scene on the mall and other areas in the city where street vendors congregate is the subject of a City Council hearing on Wednesday.
The Council and the administration are considering measures to regulate the street vendors in Chinatown and other areas.
Downtown resident Karl Rhoads told City Council members recently that some of the complaints focus on peddlers and other people on Kekaulike making too much noise, and there are so many people selling in the mall that the public walkways are impassable.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
"It gets so crowded down there with boxes and piles of fruit and just all kinds of different stuff, potential customers to the stores can't get to the stores because they can't get through the maze of stuff that's in the way," Rhoads said. "My personal feeling is that it's really unfair to the merchants who pay rent in their buildings, and they can't get to their buildings because the stuff is piled up on the mall."
"It's really a hodgepodge of activity down there. We don't want to prohibit everything, we want to maintain that flavor of Chinatown, but I think something more orderly would help," Chinatown police Maj. Michael Tucker told Council members.
The peddlers on one recent day were mostly elderly immigrants with backyard-grown produce like lychee and homemade foods like mochi. They sat somewhat in a row on the ground next to boxes or bags of their products, several feet in front of stores.
"I come only once in a while," Echineque said, her fingers combing a clump of light green seaweed, her Ziploc bags and other supplies sitting next to her in a stroller.
Timotea Baldivino, 64, peeled back petals from edible katuday flower that she picked from her yard. "I heard some was complaining over there inside," she said pointing to one of the nearby markets.
Councilman Rod Tam, chairman of the City Council's Parks and Economic Development Committee, has introduced two bills aimed at clearing the peddlers from Kekaulike and allowing store owners to set up sidewalk stands within enforceable criteria.
"Here are the merchants who pay for rental space, but then you have (peddlers) who utilize the public areas and they don't pay for any type of fees," Tam said.
The city administration has its own bill that officials said takes a more comprehensive approach to maintaining the character of Chinatown.
Managing Director Ben Lee said that the administration bill, which will also allow outdoor dining opportunities on some of the Chinatown malls during special events, strives to attract the public to Chinatown. The bill raises the minimum fine for violations to $100 from $25 and also extends peddling prohibitions to the public sidewalks around Honolulu Hale, where street vendors have been a problem during the Honolulu City Lights Festival.
"You've got congested sidewalks with people having to walk in the street to get around the vendors that won't move," said city Customer Services Director Carol Costa.
Peddlers sell balloons, soda, ice cream, glow sticks and ice cream, Costa said. "We ended up several years ago having to ban parking on King Street for the entire event ... because people would pull up in their cars and sell food out of the back of their cars."
She said there are vendors who are sanctioned to sell their products on the City Hall grounds during City Lights, but they wear badges identifying them as approved vendors.
The section of the city ordinance that Tam and the administration are using to oust peddlers from Chinatown and around City Hall is the same part of the law that the city used to rid crowded Waikiki sidewalks of T-shirt vendors during the 1990s.
Echineque has already been to court once after police cited her on Kekaulike Mall. She paid a fine but continues to sell there because it allows her to earn extra money that she says she uses to buy groceries from Chinatown merchants.
Tam said some of the vendors come from countries where selling on the street is an acceptable practice, and he also understands their financial constraints.
"I feel sorry for them," Tam said. "People try their best to support themselves, but you have to do it within the law."
