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Parking lot crackdown at Manoa Marketplace

The operators of Manoa Marketplace have made a handful of $160 refunds to drivers whose vehicles were prematurely disabled with a parking boot and are considering policing for illegally parked cars less zealously.

Since Monday, drivers who parked at Manoa Marketplace and left the property without visiting a business came back to a metallic boot installed on one of the tires of their cars and had to pay $160 in cash to have it removed.

The new parking policy went into effect after business owners complained that customers and employees of businesses outside Manoa Marketplace were taking up reserved spots in back and unreserved spots in front.

Manoa Marketplace officials have given refunds to "a handful" of drivers who parked and were notified of the policy as they left the property, but were not given a chance to move before being booted.

"They just went off the property and were informed they shouldn’t park there and turned around and were already booted," said Aryeh Aslan, a minority owner in Manoa Marketplace LLC who is acting as its spokesman. "They’re getting refunds and we’re reviewing others."

"But the policy has not changed," Aslan said. "Tenants are happy with what we’ve done. We’re just making sure implementation is more just and not overzealous."

Despite the uproar from drivers who found a boot on their vehicles this week, Manoa Marketplace still likes the boot concept, Aslan said.

Aslan on Friday did not immediately know how many vehicles were disabled with a boot this week, how many were towed and how many drivers will receive refunds.

Manoa Marketplace’s actions this week caught drivers off-guard in a community unaccustomed to the appearance of a boot, which is sometimes known as a "wheel clamp" or "Denver Boot."

Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who represents Manoa, had not heard of widespread implementation of the boot in Honolulu before.

She has parked at Manoa Marketplace to attend performances at the nearby Manoa Valley Theatre, "but I’ve gone back to the marketplace to eat, to make sure I’m a customer. I’m going to have to be careful."

A Honolulu Police Department officer who responded to several complaints about boots from drivers at Manoa Marketplace and at Leonard’s Bakery on Kapahulu Avenue on Monday said Hawaii’s towing laws are silent when it comes to the boot.

He asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak for HPD, but said the city’s corporation counsel told officers they were to remain neutral in parking disputes on private property, such as Manoa Marketplace and Leonard’s Bakery.

Aslan emphasized that the entire $160 cost of removing a boot goes to the company that installs and removes it at Manoa Marketplace.

"We don’t make one penny off of this," he said.

He identified the company installing the boots as Booda Towing & Recovery in Moiliili.

But a man identified as the company’s manager, who did not give his full name, told the Star-Advertiser that Booda Towing is only responsible for towing vehicles from Manoa Marketplace, not installing the boots.

He identified the company installing the boots as ICUH, or ICU Hawaii. No one returned repeated calls to the company from the Star-Advertiser Thursday and Friday.

Booda Towing officials were not returning calls from Manoa Marketplace on Friday, Aslan said.