The Honolulu Star-Advertiser Mark Coleman column
By Mark Coleman, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"We don't have vandalism in
That's a good question, and though an answer is elusive, Shubert-Kwock is intent on at least trying to mitigate such behavior, especially in
"People were ripping off old ladies in the markets, pushing them down, stealing their purses," plus businesses in the area were frequently getting burglarized, Shubert-Kwock recalled. "It was pretty bad."
But few people in government were taking it seriously, so she and restaurant owner
Shubert-Kwock moved to
After a brief period in
Back in
The mother of two adult sons, Shubert-Kwock has long been active in
Question: What's the worst thing going on in
Answer: Drug dealing and petty theft.
Q: Not homelessness?
A: Drug dealing and homelessness. I was coming to that. But I will tell you why. I was thinking about Dr.
Q: So what specifically are you recommending for, let's say, the homelessness issue?
A: Well, actually I was studying all night yesterday writing support for Bill 44, City Councilmember Carol Fukunaga's bill to have the same 24/7 "no lie/no sit" in
I also really support
Q: Are you worried about the constitutionality of the sit-lie bills?
A: You know, let individuals who have problems sue the city. But I think, majority of people, we care about the health and welfare of our homeless. Living on the street doesn't prolong their life. Living on the street is going to make them sicker. So what constitutional rights do you have when you're dead?
Q: Is the crime situation separate from the homeless issue or are they related?
A: The big part, of course, is that homelessness has impacted our businesses. People stop coming to
Q: What's your main goal for the area? What would you like to see?
A: We really need to clean it up with efforts from the city, and also I really want our
We need the promotion of
What we want the city to do, really, is to power wash our sidewalks every day. Not like only some days, when they feel like they have the people or the machine. They don't power wash because the urine and the feces really send out such a terrible odor. That's why one of my vice presidents of CBCA calls it "the perfume of
Q: So you think a sit-lie law would alleviate the homeless issue, and you'd like some public bathrooms funded by the city?
A: I'll tell you, No. 1, public toilets should be in an existing public building, and stand alone, like we search so much for bathrooms. We recommended five locations to the
Q: What is the reaction you get generally at the
A: They are respectful of me. They ask me to testify on certain things.
I tell you one of the problems we have is the city government: In the last five years, we had three mayors. And then we had changes in department heads, which affects institutional memory.
So our dragon statues, we submitted our dragons for approvals, and went through so many levels for approvals ... CBCA paid
Q: When did you get the approval for the dragons?
A: I got the approval in 2010. Then when Mufi Hannemann quit as mayor to run for governor, the managing director (and acting mayor) was
Q: Do you think the city is not taking the area seriously enough?
A: They're not investing in
Another thing is the graffiti. We need a graffiti law that is strong. I have been seeing buildings that have the same graffiti on for 10 years. But the building owners should take them down. I think when you own a property in
Q: But that's vandalism on their property, isn't it? Isn't it unfair to expect them to have to take it off all the time?
A: Well, you have to because you have a responsibility to the community. You cannot just leave it up for years.
Q: But what about the responsibility of the police to prevent the graffiti?
A: Well, like I say, a graffiti law is very important to protect the community from blight. And owners, they can file an insurance claim for damage to their building. To me, police have to be more active in catching these graffiti artists. They are property-damaging people. These are not artists. They are vandals. If they really want to be a good artist, draw something on canvas and sell it.
Q: Looking ahead, are you expecting the advent of the rail system to have any impact on
A: The rail is a good thing because we have asked that toilets should be at the stations for people coming and going and can use. And the toilet should be available to people who are not riding the train as well. Why not multi-task our public facility? Cut cost and make them more available to more people, you know?
... We also want to draw people to
And we need to take out the crappy trees on
Another thing we really want is, for the last 10 years, ever since we all tried to help revive
Friday, for the gallery walk, and get-to-know
Q: Really?
A: Yes. Because it's become a non-permitted on-street closure, so the buses get diverted, and so bus riders are hurt, because a lot of working-class people, they have to walk up just to get to the bus. And then when you have that many people coming into
One of the things the community is so up against is so many block parties in
Q: So what would you urge, that they don't allow so many?
A: Yeah. We're trying to cut that down because it's really wrong. There is really no public purpose to allow this. The streets belong to the people. The inconvenience is a cost to our population. And we really have only a one-dimensional party, which is to get wasted and get drunk, and you get so many companion problems. People yelling, screaming, fighting, they're vomiting, peeing. There's garbage.
Q: Who do you complain to about that?
A: In 2012, August, I have a petition of 535 signatures, of people living, working, owning businesses in
Q: What happened to that petition?
A: They ignored it, because the mayor's
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