It would seem apparent that keeping the crown jewel of the Hawaii tourism industry, Waikiki, in pristine condition would be self-evident. But having spent some time in the area recently it is clear that this is not so.

The ponds by the Kapi’olani bandstand clearly haven’t been cleaned in a long while. They are filled with pine needles, leaves and trash. Understandably people just walk by them without paying them any attention.

The fountains along the makai side of Kalakaua still trickle with water and the tourists do take pictures in front of them. But many of them were designed to descend into wading pools. The wading pools are so filthy that no one uses them currently. They are filled with leaves and trash.

In front of the Honolulu Zoo the majority of benches are taken up by homeless people sleeping on them. Having been driven from place to place they seem to have settled there for the time being. It doesn’t make for a very attractive environment though.

Almost all of this is on the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. The trees there are shedding this time of year so some of the mess is understandable. There does appear to be some effort currently underway to clean up the area, there are large bags of leaves scattered about everywhere but one would have to wonder why it was allowed to get into such a poor condition in the first place.

The renovating of both Kalakaua Blvd and Kuhio Ave addressed those roads only the immediate areas. The rest of Waikiki is pretty much a mess. Weeds grow up between curbs and the road, there are potholes and deteriorating road conditions everywhere. Cigarette butts are ubiquitous. Even the condition of Kalakaua Blvd along the Fort De Russy area is crumbling although it was repaved just a couple of years ago.

The bright light in all this is the redevelopment of the Royal Hawaiian shopping center, the Outrigger Beach Walk and the Trump Tower. This will, of course, forever change the face of Waikiki but there is no resisting the march into the future. These areas will at least be pristine for a while. But then again they aren’t going to be maintained by the city but by the businesses that utilize them.

Which brings up the problems at the other end of Waikiki that were noted at the beginning of this article. These problems exist because the city is tardy and inefficient in maintaining these areas. This is characteristic of government. If the city of Honolulu cannot properly care for such simple things as fountains, roads and ponds what makes anyone think it will be able to do so with rail. What will that look like in five years?     

Donald Newman is a policy analyst with the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.