MAYOR CALDWELL SIGNS BILLS 8, 75 AND 76
News Release from Office of the Mayor May 1, 2013
Mayor Kirk Caldwell has signed into law Bill 8 (2013, CD1); Bill 75 (2012, CD2); and Bill 76 (2012, CD1).
Bill 8 allows people to traverse (travel continuously in a direction across or through) public beach parks using the most direct route during park closure hours for the purpose of reaching the shoreline. Bill 8 also allows people having custody and control of dogs to traverse public beach parks using the most direct route for the purpose of reaching the shoreline during either hours when a park is open or hours when it is closed.
Bill 75 permits limited service hotels with up to 180 dwelling and/or lodging units in the BMX-3 Community Business Mixed Use District.
Bill 76 rezones certain parcels of land on Charles Streetin Kapahulu from the R-3.5 Residential District to the B-1 Neighborhood Business District.
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October 11, 2012: Law Aimed at Homeless Snares Thousands of Gays Instead
SA: Thousands of trespassers have been fined in District Court. Police have issued 5,420 citations at Oahu parks outside of Waikiki since January 2003 and 1,647 in Waikiki in just the past three years. Visitors, military and transients have accounted for one-fifth of the court's criminal and traffic caseload.
The city Department of Parks and Recreation attempted to eliminate the problem last Friday when it began locking all of the city's Waikiki public toilets during overnight hours. It also removed signs about its 24-hour restrooms at Kapiolani Park and Kuhio Beach. The move makes sense, since no one is supposed to be in most parks from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. (Now the gays can’t get into their favorite hot johns. Tragic.)
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Darryl Miyahira says most of the strayers who go to court have ended up with criminal records for having crossed the line at any of all but 82 of the 300 city parks on Oahu….
The ordinance obviously was aimed at keeping the homeless from turning parks into their shelters, but it hasn't worked. Its main effect has been to aggravate people who were unaware of the potentially dire consequences of a criminal record.
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October 9, 2012: Thousands snared by law on closed parks
SA: His after-hours use of the Kapiolani Park tennis court facilities on July 6 has Perez facing more than $500 in legal costs, a jail term of up to 30 days and a criminal record. Police cited him around 12:30 a.m., shortly after he saw a sign posted at a closed Waikiki public bathroom indicated that the tennis court restroom was open 24 hours.
While the restroom was open, an officer told Perez that it's a crime to be in the park from midnight to 5 a.m….
Perez isn't alone. People arrested for being in an Oahu park after it is closed account for about 20 percent of the District Court criminal and traffic cases, and most of them leave with criminal records, said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Darryl Miyahira.
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July 18, 2004: Lawmaker, OHA Official arrested for alleged lewdness
A state representative from West Maui allegedly approached a plainclothes police officer outside a Kapiolani Park restroom and groped his crotch, police said.
Rep. Brian K. Blundell (R, Olowalu-Kapalua) was arrested for fourth-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor offense, for an incident which allegedly took place at 11:15 p.m. across from the Diamond Head Tennis Center, 3908 Paki Ave....
"Paki bathrooms," is well-known among officers as one of the places where sexual solicitation happens often late at night....
This is not the first time a state official has been arrested at public restrooms. In March 1991, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Administrator Clyde Namuo, then a courts administrator, was arrested for open lewdness after exposing himself to an undercover officer. Namuo pled no contest to the petty misdemeanor charge, which was expunged from his record after 60 days probation, a $75 fine and the completion of psychological counseling.