A Second Crack at Clearing Honolulu’s Sidewalks
A bill to remove personal items left in parks and on sidewalks is the Honolulu City Council‘s second stab at the problem in less than a year.
The , which has been criticized for unfairly targeting the homeless, advanced out of committee Tuesday and will now head to public hearing at the Council’s next meeting. But the failure of the bill’s predecessor to have any impact in the year since it was passed highlights the complexity of the challenge.
If Bill 54 becomes law, it will simply ban the storage of personal items on public property.
The previous measure, , established an eight-foot-wide “pedestrian use zone.” But the city admitted Tuesday that it has been unable to enforce the law because it can’t readily define its own property. Sounds strange, but what exactly constitutes a public sidewalk isn’t so simple, making the law effectively unenforceable.
The new version may solve that problem, but raises numerous questions of its own. How much will it cost? Who’s going to do the work? Will they be willing to do the work, which could be dangerous? Where will the possessions go? What happens when property owners simply move their belongings from one sidewalk or park to another? How will property be monitored?
The administration on Tuesday said the Departments of Facility Maintenance and Parks and Recreation will be in charge of enforcing the law. Nobody will be arrested or even cited, so the Honolulu Police Department will not be involved.
Instead, property left on the sidewalk — whether attended or not — will be marked with a notice warning the owner to move the items. Simply moving them 10 feet — or even from one city park to another across town — may not be sufficient. But a city attorney said she would recommend that owners be re-warned if they move their property.
After the 24-hour warning period, the city will retrieve the items and put them in storage. It’s not yet clear where they’ll go, or how much it will cost to house them there. The best parallel is a tow yard for cars removed from city streets.
After a second notice, owners will have 30 days to pick up their items from the tow yard, after which the city will dispose of everything with an estimated value of less than $1,000. More expensive items will be auctioned. The city hasn’t yet set a cost for owners who wish to retrieve their confiscated items.
Lori Nishimura, executive assistant to Mayor Peter Carlisle, said there are some blanks in the bill because it represents Honolulu’s “first foray into the area.”
Nishimura and proponents of the bill reiterated that it doesn’t target the homeless but rather tries to protect public space for all citizens.
“This has nothing to do with any particular group of people. No matter who you are, obstructing the sidewalks should be illegal,” Stanley Chang said, supporting the bill’s advancement to public hearing.
Pressed by Council member Nestor Garcia about who else might be impacted by such a proposal, Nishimura said the city has received 104 sidewalk obstruction complaints this year, for items like basketball hoops, stacks of tires and vending tables. The full list will be provided to the Council in advance of its next meeting.
Garcia was the only member to object to the bill. Safety, Economic Development and Government Affairs Committee Chair Tulsi Gabbard was joined by Chang and Tom Berg in moving the measure out.
, which became the pedestrian use zone law, passed by a vote of 5-4. Of the four no votes, only Garcia remains on the Council today.
