Mayor Rick Blangiardi appeared before the Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board last week to present an update on his plan to revitalize Chinatown. He promised to clean up the streets and support Chinatown’s evolution into an inviting, business- and visitor-friendly community, and is directing city resources into the effort, with pending actions that include installing 52 security cameras, enhancing Smith-Beretania Park and repurposing vacant city-owned spaces.

It’s good to see the mayor express his commitment, as he has repeatedly done this year. Residents and business owners of Chinatown are stressed from the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and a related rise in crime and chronic homelessness, and ready for real change.

Now comes the hard part: follow-through. Immediate, aggressive action is called for to keep up momentum, with no frustrating wait for continued improvements.

There has been a noticeable change for the better since the Blangiardi-mediated departure of River of Life Mission’s long-standing meal service in Chinatown at the end of March, which had been drawing hundreds of clients daily. There are now fewer people sleeping or relieving themselves in Chinatown doorways, and parks and sidewalks are cleaner. But that’s not enough.

Drunken and drug-using people, along with those who have no home to go to, continue to set up for the day in Smith-Beretania Park and along the low concrete walls separating Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park from Hotel Street.

Across the street from Sun Yat-sen Park, the Chinatown Gateway Center is in visible disrepair, with cracked concrete and damage to its central stairway, among other poorly maintained features. The city-owned Harbor Village has spalling damage and a deteriorated atrium that affects access to small businesses on the ground floor.

There are at least six vacant commercial spaces in city-owned affordable housing properties, including Chinatown Gateway Center; if these can be “activated” to attract foot traffic to Chinatown, as Blangiardi suggests, that would also help. Any changes should take into account benefits currently provided by the Downtown Art Center, and incorporate measures to nurture this community feature.

Announced city plans include repairs to the water system at Chinatown ­Gateway Plaza, beginning in August, and renovating the atrium area and spalling repairs at Harbor Village in September. It’s a start.

Blangiardi first promised to clean up Chinatown in February 2021, partnering with Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm to activate a “Weed and Seed” program that uses warnings, arrests and the possibility of jail time to press Chinatown drug users to engage with service providers. The city also initiated a Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement (CORE) program, which uses social workers to respond to nonviolent homeless emergency calls. While these programs, too, have resulted in a quieter, cleaner Chinatown, it’s not clear that they have reduced homelessness and crime citywide.

Moving the problem of crime and homelessness around Honolulu is not a solution, and since Blangiardi criticized his predecessor, Kirk Caldwell, for just that, we look for definitive results here to show that he has not simply relabeled former actions. Residents of all Honolulu’s neighborhoods want results, as well as promises.

It’s now Blangiardi’s turn, and professed kuleana, to clean up Chinatown. It’s reasonable to expect measurable improvements soon. Last week, the mayor called the process “a long-term challenge and a long-term solution.” If it takes too long, however, the community’s patience may well wear thin.