Question: I am a retired serviceman who is rated 100 percent disabled by the Veterans Administration. I had to go to the federal building, but found there are no disabled parking stalls assigned there. Why? I had to park blocks away and stumble to reach the building. What are the requirements for providing disabled parking stalls?
Answer: For buildings such as the Prince Kuhio Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, where parking is restricted for security reasons, there are no requirements for providing parking for the disabled.
We addressed a similar complaint in 2003, explaining that all public parking was eliminated at the building following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Before that, following the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, 26 parking spaces fronting the building on Halekauwila Street were eliminated.
The state Disability and Communications Access Board, after receiving many complaints about the lack of accessible parking at the federal building, checked with the Department of Justice.
The response was that because a security issue is involved and because there is no public parking at all, the building was not required to provide parking for the disabled.
Nothing has changed since that report.
The federal building was classified as "requiring heightened security," based on criteria established by the Department of Justice and the Inter-agency Security Committee after the Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City, confirmed Traci Madison, spokeswoman for the federal General Services Administration’s Pacific Rim Region.
"One of the mandatory countermeasures for a building requiring heightened security is to limit access to parking to government vehicles and personnel only," she explained.
Because of that, public parking is not available at the federal building, including public parking for the disabled.
Madison said there are public parking facilities in the area surrounding the federal building, providing a link to a parking facilities map: http://en.parkopedia.com/parking/garage/haseko_center/96813/honolulu/.
The nearest ones with relatively low fees are state-owned parking garages at 564 Pohukaina St. and 530 Halekauwila St.
Question: In the story about the fellow arrested in the incident involving golfer Robert Allenby, it said he also has six prior convictions including "possession of alcohol while operating a vehicle." Does that mean driving with an open container? If you go to the store and buy a bottle of wine and drive home, that’s possession of alcohol. Can you clarify that?
Answer: Carrying an unopened container of liquor is not a crime.
Section 291-3.1 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes says it is against the law for any person to consume any intoxicating liquor while driving a motor vehicle or moped on any public street, or to possess, while driving a motor vehicle or moped, "any bottle, can, or other receptacle containing any intoxicating liquor which has been opened, or a seal broken, or the contents of which have been partially removed."
The penalty for someone found guilty of violating this provision is a maximum $2,000 fine and/or 30 days’ imprisonment.
Mahalo
To the young lady and her mother who appeared at our door with a package of my sister’s pharmacy order back in December. Apparently they found the package on the ground at Ala Moana Center. It had a hole in it (someone must have tried to see if there were any "drugs" in it). They came out of their way to deliver the package to us anyway thinking it was urgent. They didn’t have to do this but they were concerned for the package’s recipient. Many blessings to them. — Thankful Senior in Kapahulu
Write to "Kokua Line" at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
