Lena Spain-Suzuki was fed up with the dirty bathrooms at Pokai Bay Beach Park. Last year, the beige comfort stations walls were covered with graffiti. The trash cans were overflowing and there was a pungent smell inside.
So she teamed up with residents from Puuhonua O Waianae a self-organized homeless community in Waianae to do something about it.
I said, Lets do this and we took it upon ourselves to get this place cleaned, Spain-Suzuki said.
In November 2020, Spain-Suzuki and the hui of Waianae residents and volunteers set out to beautify the otherwise rundown bathrooms. The group cleaned around the park and inside the bathrooms, removed the graffiti and primed the bathroom walls for a colorful mural painted by Westside artists.
We are taking back these spaces because once we clean, we own. Its all of our kuleana, Spain-Suzuki said.
The upkeep of parks is a concern for many Westside residents who feel like their beloved public spaces arent being taken care of.
Neglected, abused and overlooked are some of the adjectives that Westside residents used when discussing parks at a recent Civil Beat Talk Story event.
Their frustrations are based in reality.
Were seeing homelessness, illegal dumping, vandalism, theft, all of those things happening, says Department of Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Kehau Puu. All of the issues we see in our communities are magnified in our parks.
Litter and vandalism are the most common problems. According to an audit by the city auditors office, vandalism is one of the primary challenges for maintaining parks because of its unpredictable occurrence and costs.
Puu started with the parks department in June. A Nanakuli resident, she and her family frequent Kalanianaole Beach Park and although its her favorite, she noted the opala, or trash, she often sees after beach parties and long weekends.
So Puu can understand why people have a negative perception of how the parks are cared for. She shared that perception growing up and knows that things out in her neighborhood arent always the best.
We dont have the best health or economic statistics, but for our department, we want to make sure things are more equitable and that were taking care of all of our districts, Puu says.
Honolulus parks are divided into five districts. District 3 or the Leeward Oahu district encompasses 93 parks from Wahiawa to Ewa and Pearl City to Waianae. The largest and most visited parks in this district, according to a 2016 report, are Kapolei Regional Park, Makaha Beach Park, and Ewa Mahiko Park.
However, with over 300 parks on the island, Honolulu ranked 312th out of 319 comparable counties in the country in the 2020 National Community Survey, which measures the livability of counties across the states. Fewer than half of those surveyed thought the parks were excellent or good much lower than the national average.
Satisfaction with parks may come down to how well they are maintained. A 2019 city auditors report of the department found that more of the parks maintenance budget for groundskeeping, custodial and maintenance services went to parks in East Honolulu, despite the lower number of parks and recorded instances of vandalism.
Michael Loftin, cofounder and executive director of 808 Cleanups, sees active participation in their cleanups across the island. The environmental nonprofit has hosted litter and graffiti removal on Oahu since 2014 and has removed almost 700,000 pounds of rubbish with thousands of volunteers showing up and even spearheading their own community-led events.
Every community has people who are motivated to help. On the peoples side, there are always volunteers. The difference I see is on the government side and where resources are poured into. It seems like the Westside doesnt get as much, Loftin says.
And this may be why community members feel like they have to be the champions of their own parks. Scheduling weekly cleanups. Continual graffiti removal and repainting. Nightly patrols. Tracking improvement projects at neighborhood board meetings. All of these community-led efforts to keep parks safe and sanitary have become their prime responsibility.
There are more than a dozen groups on the Westside working to keep the parks usable for the public and most of the work is done by the community members themselves.
Its not always easy. Spain-Suzuki got a verbal warning for orchestrating the mural painting. The group didnt file proper paperwork with the parks department, but Spain-Suzuki questioned the permitting process from the beginning.
Why do I have to ask for approval for this when the bathrooms cant even be kept clean? When we are the ones doing the cleaning? she said.
Puu said that she loved seeing the community efforts at Pokai before she started in her position. Seeing the restoration of the Kuilioloa Heiau at the bays edge actually gave her more confidence in joining the city department.
We really do want to work with our community to make these places better because theyre our spaces, Puu says.
Although she says its the citys job to maintain and fix up the parks, Puu believes that it is a kakou kuleana or a shared responsibility to take care of them.
The biggest question for her is, how can the city work better with the community?
We really do appreciate and mahalo the community for their efforts, but were open to new ideas and new ways to connect with them, Puu says.
Some residents want more communication and transparency from the parks department, but others find it hard to get their own community involved. One solution, Spain-Suzuki says, may be to tell the history and the stories of these places.
Spain-Suzuki wants her beloved park to have official signs to mark the moolelo stories that makes this place special. She envisions a walkway up to the heiau that kupuna can exercise on, with recognition of the sacred structure. Spain-Suzuki believes that knowing the story behind these beloved places will motivate the community to care for them.
There are so many beautiful stories for these places that we are disconnected from, but we will get back to that. Thats how we can build true community, Spain-Suzuki says.
Here are three parks on the Westside and the people who love them and want to keep them in order:
Micah Doane currently resides in Waikele, but his special connection to Keaau Beach Park comes from his Makua-born grandmother. She used to take him, along with his siblings and uncles, to these Westside beaches, calling it heaven on earth.
As the founder of Protectors of Paradise, a stewardship nonprofit focused on Westside beaches from Keaau on, Doane works to protect the paradise of his grandparents for his children. He calls all of the litter and vandalism of these public spaces abuse and doesnt think his children should grow up in places that are so neglected and disrespected.
Majority of the time my 4-year-old son goes to the beaches, its because Im cleaning it up, Doane says.
Its frustrating work knowing that the beach wont stay clean past a couple of hours. In the five years since launching his nonprofit, Doane says his hui has removed thousands of pounds of trash with little long term improvement. So, theyre hoping for more assistance from the city.
Its so easy to lose morale and money, so we want to see what kind of support we can get from the government to continue our work there, Doane says.
He also points to another change hes seen over the years: the influx of tourists to Westside beaches.
Before we felt really isolated out there, but with social media, now our beaches have become a popular spot for visitors, Doane says.
His dream is to have a cultural classroom out at the park, so that locals and tourists alike can learn about the area and how to mlama ina take care of the land. Doane and his group have started small gardens across the Waianae Coast at various parks, hoping to create an incentive for the community to get involved.
The land offers a lot of opportunities for usage, besides just sitting back and relaxing, Doane says.
Penelope Parnes is used to seeing large groups of volunteers cleaning up Oneula Beach Park. She says that the young and old, students and veterans even residents who dont live in the neighborhood come out to maintain this park.
Shes lived in Ewa for 15 years and counting, often facilitating cleanups at Hau Bush in partnership with other organizations, like Ewa Surf Club, Blue Zones and the local JROTC program. She also joined 808Cleanups in 2017.
Weve removed over 60,000 pounds of rubbish from Hau Bush and this happened because of the continued stewardship of community volunteers, Parnes says.
The biggest issue she sees is the lack of a dedicated city-appointed caretaker. She believes that an individual, who overlooks the park maintenance, would improve the park and create accountability.
Parnes also thinks that the parks department should collaborate with the community more. In one of her Ewa Neighborhood Board Parks Committee meetings, the group pitched an improvement plan that included graveling and expanding the beach area. When they sent it to the parks department, Parnes says she was told to hold off until the department can fully review the environmental impacts.
Its impossible to even get answers to questions, let alone establish a partnership, Parnes says.
In a recent Ewa Neighborhood Board meeting, Parnes, who serves on the board, told the parks department director, Laura Thielen, that her community would like a better relationship with parks staff.
I want to support the different efforts going on. The parks are loved a lot, but they also get loved to death, so we definitely need the help, Thielen responded.
Parnes just wants to see improvements done when they say they will be done. The published Oneula Beach Park Master Plan mapped out two comfort stations, a community center and ball field for that Ewa area. So far, only one bathroom has been built.
The community is and has done everything in our power to maintain our parks, Parnes says, I invite anyone to see that we care with our hearts and our hands.
Lena Spain-Suzuki grew up a mile from Pokai Bay Beach Park. Her fondest childhood memories happened there from birthdays to just hanging out on the weekend. She remembers playing on the bays rock wall, feeling the strongest sense of community with other Westside kids.
It didnt matter if you were from Makaha or Lualualei. We were all just playing together, Spain-Suzuki says.
Since the mural painting last November, she and her fellow ina warriors have held multiple cleanups and gatherings at the park. Almost 200 volunteers came in February to clean up the beach, playground and heiau. She has also worked with the homeless community that lives at the park, calling on them to be good stewards of the area, often bringing food and supplies as well as connecting them to social workers and services.
Along with Puuhonua O Waianaes Hui Aloha, some have formed a bathroom brigade, cleaning the bathrooms when other volunteers cant make it out. Spain-Suzuki says that they have helped six people find housing.
Her greatest success, she says, was seeing local kupuna and homeless community members come together to make lei in celebration of May Day. The group played music and Spain-Suzuki even got up to dance a hula for her friends. At one of her La Kupuna or kupuna days they sat together in the grass and talked about the future of their shared Pokai Bay.
Good stewardship means including everyone in your village and doing what is right for the place that youre in, Spain-Suzuki says.
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These West Oahu Residents Are On A Mission To Clean Up The Island's Beach Parks - Honolulu Civil Beat
