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Leaf-blowing into
street is illicit littering

Question: I've recently begun to clean leaves and rubbish from the sidewalk and curb where I park on Moanalua Road Ewa/makai of Kaonohi Street. While I was cleaning up the leaves from my side of the street one day, I noticed that the yardman at a nearby condo building was blowing the leaves from the trees on their property into the street and down the sidewalk in front of Pearlridge Park. Then the wind and gusts from traffic blow them across the street. Besides the fact that this wastes my work, not picking up the leaves also adds to the blockage of our storm drains. Is there a regulation regarding this situation?

Q: You know those guys with their leaf blowers? Well, when they blow junk from private property, they blow it right onto public property, i.e., sidewalks and city streets. We're not just talking leaves here. Sometimes there's paper, cigarette butts and other garbage that gets blown out onto the street. I never see these guys pick up the stuff. Is this littering?

Answer: Blowing trash deliberately onto public property is considered criminal littering, said Capt. Frank Fujii, spokesman for the Honolulu Police Department.

He advises calling police at 911 if you see someone doing that.

Police cannot cite anyone unless they witness the violation, which is a petty misdemeanor, and can assess the situation.

However, if you provide enough details, even if an officer is not able to respond in time to see the activity, Fujii said they at least might be able to advise the person about the law.

Section 708-829 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes says someone commits the offense of criminal littering "if that person knowingly places, throws, or drops litter on any public or private property or in any public or private waters," except in designated garbage/refuse disposal areas, or into a litter receptacle.

Litter is defined as rubbish, refuse, waste material, garbage, trash, offal, or debris of whatever kind or description, and whether or not it is of value, and includes improperly discarded paper, metal, plastic, glass, or solid waste.

Q: A ficus banyan tree was cut down on Monsarrat Avenue, because it was decayed, over a year ago and never replaced. The empty space is next to the Monsarrat exit of the Honolulu Zoo. Why was it never replaced? The space is now an eyesore.

A: The city Department of Parks and Recreation's Division of Urban Forestry is in the process of replacing the tree, according to Dana Takahara-Dias, the department's deputy director.

That's the good news.

The bad news is "there is no definite schedule as to when this is to be done," Takahara-Dias said.

It's not that there is a backlog of jobs that need to be done.

Rather, it's a matter of there being "quite a bit of tree replanting to be done," first along Kuhio Avenue, she said.

But the plan is to replace the old ficus banyan with another "nice banyan."

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