DJOU PLEDGES COMMITMENT TO ALL PARKS; NOT JUST A FEW

News Release from www.Djou.com

(November 6, 2016, Honolulu, HI) - The city has 290 parks but Caldwell has focused primarily on the parks in the center core. Last year he spent $1.2 million for a New York consultant to redesign Ala Moana Beach Park -- our major "people's park". Over 350 people spoke at the consultant's community meeting; they said nothing was wrong with the park design. They thought the money should have been spent fixing the bathrooms and watering the grass to restore it.

But the money should be spent on all our parks. Here, Ala Wai Park -- just a mile or so away from Ala Moana Park -- is also in need of bathroom repairs, so essential for park users.

Parks in rural areas are even more severely neglected. I have heard the cries of residents from:

• Kahuku, their park has been without lights for 4 years; ignored by Caldwell even though the City Council appropriated funds for it.  
• Mililani Mauka District Park has been less than halfway completed for over a decade.
• Beach parks on the North Shore are in constant disrepair.
• Pupukea Beach Park, where residents could not wait for the City, raised the money themselves to repair the park and its basketball and volleyball courts.

I promise that will never happen in the Djou Administration!

Our parks were designed and set aside on 5,200 acres for the people of Honolulu. It is the one reasonable pleasure we can provide for everyone. And we should. I find it disgraceful that the current administration favors a select few "pet projects" to the detriment of so many other parks used by our residents.

As Mayor, I will direct the Department of Parks and Recreation to evaluate the condition of all our parks and make sure they have the support they need to provide our residents with the open green recreational space to truly achieve the Department’s motto to "add quality to life.”

• 9:00am - Djou HQ Start
• 9:20am  - Manoa Marketplace, Sign-Waving
• 10:00am - Ala Wai Community Park, Sign-Waving and Press Conference
• 10:45am Longs Drugs Aina Haina, Sign-Waving
• 11:25am Hawaii Kai Towne Center, Sign-Waving
• 12:15pm Windward Mall, Sign-Waving
• 1:15pm Kahuku, Sign-Waving
• 1:45pm Kawaipuna St. (Meet by Reynolds Recycling), Sign-Waving
• 2:20pm Kahuku Golf Course, Drive Through and Sign-Waving (Corner of Puulana St. and Kamehameha Hwy.)
• 2:50pm Foodland Pupukea, Sign-Waving
• 3:30pm Dole Plantation, Sign-Waving
• 4:10pm Mililani Town Center, Sign-Waving
• 5:00pm Djou HQ End

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