The city, presumably acting in the public interest, regularly issues permits for street festivals and parades that close a large stretch of Kalakaua Avenue.
In some cases, this makes perfect sense. Parades that celebrate Hawaii’s culture and traditions, like the longstanding Aloha Festivals and the Honolulu Festivals, benefit visitors and locals alike, promote the islands and bring crowds that patronize Waikiki businesses. Other events, like the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade and Honolulu Pride Parade and Festival, are honest exercises of First Amendment-protected speech that deserve accommodation.
But not all Waikiki festivals are so high-minded, and they need tighter controls. Area retailers and residents have long complained about street-closing events that appear to have little public benefit, but snarl traffic and hurt businesses that pay steep rents for the privilege of operating in the state’s top tourist district.
The complaints are understandable: Closing Waikiki’s main public thoroughfare for hours is disruptive, and should be done for clearly established public benefits — not casually or with minimal review.
It’s time for the city to consider tightening its permitting requirements to ensure that events truly follow the intent as well as the letter of the law — that they serve a “public purpose,” and that “any private benefit arising out of the … activity is incidental to the public purpose.”
The city now allows up to
15 nonspecific events annually in addition to “legacy events,” such as the Honolulu Festival, that have been in Waikiki for at least 15 consecutive years, as well as First Amendment events that allow participants to exercise their right to free speech, religious practice and peaceful assembly.
A lightning rod for complaints has been Millwood Ohana Productions, a prolific promoter of Waikiki street festivals whose website exhorts: “Join us as we shut down Kalakaua Avenue for our Waikiki Block Festivals!”
Over the years, Ohana Productions has managed to obtain a lion’s share of nonspecific permits for its various events, which are primarily booths set up to provide entertainment and sell products like food and arts and crafts. The company handles the logistics and charges vendors from $100 to $800 per booth. It pays the city nothing for use of the street.
Do these “Waikiki Block Festivals” serve a legitimate public purpose? Or has a private company simply found a way to operate its business, rent-free, on one of the busiest and most expensive commercial strips in Hawaii?
The ordinance provides no obvious answers. So Michael Formby, the interim City Council member for District 4, is drafting a bill that would more clearly define a “public purpose”: an event that would “benefit the public as a whole,” he said. It would require an explanation of the private benefit the applicant would gain, to ensure that it is indeed “incidental” and not the raison d’etre for the event.
Formby also suggests reducing the number of nonspecific events allowed, from 15 to perhaps 12, as well as the number of waivers the mayor can grant for an event, from as many as 10 to six. The mayor may grant waivers for events that could be an economic benefit to the city, have cultural or historical significance, or for other specific reasons.
Formby said he intends to seek community input on these proposals in the near future.
To be fair, the city already has made progress on reducing disruptive street closures in Waikiki in response to community complaints.
“Before the updated ordinance and rules were implemented back in 2006, there were over 60 permitted events in the Waikiki Special District,” said Jon Nouchi, the city’s deputy director of transportation services. “Compare that number to 27 permits issued in 2018.”
Still, more can be done, and Formby’s proposals appear to be headed in the right direction.
The goal is not to eliminate these Waikiki events, but to ensure they deliver broad community benefits.
