Question: Not a single bench can be found on Fort Street Mall to sit and have lunch. Thousands of downtown workers are denied this at lunch hour. What is the city administration’s answer to why this is so?

Answer: There are actually 23 city-installed benches on Fort Street Mall.

However, we can understand your frustration, because all 23 benches are makai of King Street.

There are no city benches in the more heavily used mauka area, between King and Beretania streets, where most of the restaurants and stores are located, because of past problems with vagrants and homeless people.

Asked about redistributing existing benches or adding new ones, an official with the Department of Parks and Recreation said your concerns are already under consideration.

She said the Parks Department doesn’t have the funds to install any new benches.

Obtaining and installing benches is costly and involves not just purchasing the benches, but "disturbing the floor of the mall," which would involve crews from the Department of Facility Maintenance.

The city converted Fort Street into a pedestrian mall in 1968. Facility Maintenance had jurisdiction of the mall until the Parks Department took over maintenance in 2009.

As part of the conversion into a mall, improvements such as paver tiles, planters and benches were installed, explained Westley Chun, director of Facility Maintenance.

But the mall continues to be the fire lane access to adjacent buildings. Vehicular traffic is also allowed periodically through permits administered by the Parks Department, Chun said.

"During previous administrations a number of benches were vandalized and removed, and not replaced because of the lack of available funds," he said. "Benches may also have been removed because of complaints from the merchants that persons were sleeping on the benches or using them to conduct illegal activities, adversely affecting the public’s use of the mall."

Chun suggested working through the Downtown Neighborhood Board to try to get benches or other types of seating along the mall.

If the board backs the request, he said the Parks Department will initiate discussions with the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District to determine what improvements can be accommodated, then seek funding.

According to the July 1, 2010, minutes of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, the city had contacted the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District about installing seating, but that the private group was "short of funding."

Back then the city was looking into installing "toadstools," which are not big enough for people to lie on, and that funding would be sought. But, as the parks official noted, funding has been a problem.

Question: Recently I parked on River Street and put 55 cents into the meter, and it registered 22 minutes. My wife and I went shopping, and I returned to put some heavy things into the car. I rechecked the parking meter, and it was expired, even though I had been gone only about eight minutes. I think the sensor that reset the meter was faulty, but how do I report it? I couldn’t go back and help my wife carry more things because I didn’t want to get a ticket, and there was no sense in putting more money into the meter if it was not working properly.

Answer: You’re advised to call police at 911 (as a nonemergency) to report a broken meter.

Or you can leave a note or place a cover on the meter to let authorities know it was not working.

The Honolulu Police Department, which includes the city Parking Enforcement Section, said if there is an indication a meter is broken, a motorist generally would be given the benefit of the doubt and not cited.

If parking enforcement officers find a broken meter, they will try to repair it immediately or place a bag over the meter to mark it as not working.

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