Frederick Law Olmsted, considered the Father of American Landscape Architecture, and designer of iconic parks such as Central Park in New York City and the Emerald Necklace in Boston, held that city parks are places of democracy.
They should be designed so that people from all walks of life can gather, celebrate and escape the stresses of daily life.
Ala Moana Beach Park embodies that principle, which is at the core of our plans to revitalize, restore and improve this great park.
The park was designed by the first woman landscape architect in Hawaii, Catherine Jones Richards, in the early 1930s. The original proposal included tennis courts, baseball fields, volleyball courts, a children’s wading pool, picnic spots with outdoor grills, and a bridle path linking Ala Moana to Kapiolani Park.
Even then, Richards designed the park "to handle the huge number of people wanting entertainment on holidays and over the weekends."
Today, the park still has great bone structure, but is showing its age. Ala Moana is the most heavily used of our more than 300 parks.
How to take better care of it so that everyone continues to benefit?
We have brought together a team of the best local and national experts to help us with this task. We are sincere in our desire to hear from people and incorporate their thoughts and ideas into a plan. The website, ouralamoanapark.com, has received more than 30,000 interactions and growing. A community meeting at McCoy Pavilion was attended by about 350 people. What we heard loud and clear was that, at a minimum, we need to better maintain the park. Here’s what we are going to do over the next two years:
» The restrooms are constantly trashed, and women and children in particular are afraid to use them. We plan to build a new prototype bathroom at the beginning of Magic Island. All the stalls will be entered from the outside instead of having to walk into an unobserved area, not knowing what to expect, and they will be easier to clean. Showers and washbasins will also be outside at either end of the bathroom complex.
» We will green the brown patches of the park through more efficient irrigation systems. The area between the canal and Ala Moana Boulevard, currently a stretch of red dirt, will be re-seeded with grass and landscaped with shade trees.
» We will increase security and policing during the hours of operation and when the park is closed. All areas of the park must be available for everyone and not just a few who move in and keep others from enjoying park activities.
» We will restore the path around Magic Island, making it safe for seniors, walkers and joggers. It will be painted, easy to see, with distance markers to measure progress when exercising.
» We will replenish the sand at the water’s edge, primarily in the beach’s middle section. It now consists of sharp coral bits, making it hard to enter and exit the water.
Once we complete these initiatives, we will undertake others, but only with the input of park users. We also ask users to help take care of this special place, as if it were their own front yards. Pick up trash that is blowing around. Protect the sprinkler system, park benches and picnic tables. Don’t allow people to vandalize the bathrooms.
Ala Moana is for everyone, young and old, families and individuals, around the entire island. The vision for Ala Moana Beach Park remains the same as it was nearly 90 years ago.
It is very important to me, as mayor, to hold true to the vision and democratic principle of keeping it a people’s park.
