To all of you who have supported Ala Moana Beach Park for all these years through the first, second, and final drafts of the Environmental Impact Statement, Mālama Moana thanks you for the help, concern, and passion which you gave us to keep fighting the unwanted proposals for the Park!
As most of you already know, February 19th, 2020, was the day when the City Council decided unanimously to approve Amendment CD1 for Resolution 20-21 which took out 3 of the four remaining proposals in the Master Plan for Ala Moana that we fought against. Those were the dog park, one acre playground, and perpendicular parking on the Ala Moana Park Drive. Including the removal of makai parking and the widening of the sidewalk to create a shared use path, that makes 5 proposals taken out since 2015 through our speaking up about it and working together with the City Council by bringing the voices of the people to them. Great job ALL including the groups that worked with us to emphasize the importance of taking these out!
The remaining proposal still in the plan is about the sand replenishment project that has not yet tested the sand to be dredged for contaminants even in the EIS process. We are continuing our watch on this and will alert you all if there is anything that we can do as a group. Since the Resolution Amendment included language stating that contaminant testing must be done before dredging the sand outside of the surf breaks and laying it on the beach, we are not as worried as we were before. Despite the City saying they would not lay contaminated sand on the beach, the consulting firm Sea Engineering has repeatedly said there’s no need to have done or to do the testing even as of Feb. 6th after the Zoning Committee Meeting where the amendment was approved to be passed on to the Council.
Another thing we are watching out for is the contractor bidding for projects that were taken out. We are watching to make sure they aren’t paying out for things that are no longer being done at the park. Part of the whole thing was to not spend our taxpayer dollars on things that were not needed. Certainly, paying for something not going to be done would come under that. We’ll let you know, or tell us if you know first and we will look into it.
We had a wonderful wet, windy, and sunny Mahalo Rally on Feb. 29th from 8-12 pm at the Keyhole in Area 21 next to the tennis courts at Ala Moana Beach Park! The Art Kalahiki Band and Danny and The Band Tantalus played wonderful music for us with Precision Sound providing the sound system! Groups that joined us for the Rally were Save Ala Moana Beach Park Hui, Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds/Save Ala Wai Project, and Kamehameha Canoe Club. Speakers from Friends of Kewalos also came to celebrate with us! We had honored guests Council Members Ann Kobayashi, Ron Menor, and Carol Fukunaga and Director Michele Nekota from Parks and Rec join us and speak to those at the Rally. We also had community leaders Ala Moana Kaka’ako Neighborhood Board Chair Ryan Tam and mayoral candidate Choon James speak as well. Speakers from the Groups were: Bruce Lum, Shar Chun-Lum, Dave Watase, and Teri Skillman. Regrets and good wishes from those who were out of town such as Winston Welch from the Outdoor Circle or unable to attend due to other obligations were read at the Rally. Cars and trucks parked along the Park Drive displayed signs and banners of our Mahalo and a number of signs were hung from tents as they waved in the wind. A big mahalo to all who came and helped us pull this Rally off!
We had a debrief meeting yesterday with our core group of Mālama Moana and decided to keep being a community group with this name for now and continue to watch out for Ala Moana Beach Park. News may be less frequent, but when something is happening, you will hear about it through this email address. Feel free to write me at malamaalamoana@gmail.com and I will always reply. FYI: we signed hand written thank you cards and will be giving them to the City Council members tomorrow along with a Mālama Moana shirt now that all the commotion is over. We also will present CM Ann Kobayashi with a Mahalo poster that many signed at the Mahalo Rally. We are thanking her from all of us for helping save the People’s Park!
Much Aloha to you All,
Audrey Lee
