Amid a wave of unsubstantiated rumors about the coronavirus invading Chinatown, leaders there are hoping government can do more to clean up unsanitary conditions in Honolulu’s oldest and most historic business district.

Chu Lan Shubert-Kwok, president of the Chinatown Business and Community Association, said many Oahu residents are already discouraged from going there due to ongoing struggles with the homeless, higher crime, increased parking rates, fewer street parking stalls and mounting trash.

Shubert-Kwok pointed out two large piles of cardboard boxes, black trash bags and what she described as “stinky open garbage” that has been piling up along one section of Maunakea Street for at least four days.

“It’s not tied up, so (the Department of Environmental Services) doesn’t pick it up,” Shubert-Kwok said. “They’re trying to send a message.”

In September the city instituted a new policy that requires merchants, property owners and residents to bag their curbside trash in large, specially marked bags that cost about 60 cents each. Those who don’t use the bags are expected to use dumpsters serviced by private disposal companies.

“That is our policy. If it’s not in the yellow bags, we’re not picking it up,” city Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina said. “If I just keep picking it up, it’s just going to enable the illegal dumpers.”

If a pile has been there awhile and it poses a potential hazard, “the mayor will dictate that either (Environmental Services) or (the Facility Maintenance Department) need to pick it up,” Kahikina said. In this particular case, she expects her staff will pick up the trash identified by Shubert-Kwok, but not before inspectors examine it to see whether its source can be determined.

She said she’ll also have portable cameras installed to deter such action in the future. Cameras have caught people elsewhere disposing illegally, with the city identifying the responsible parties and then informing them “to cut it out,” Kahikina said.

Shubert-Kwok said when she complains, employees from Environmental Services, Facility Maintenance and the Department of Parks and Recreation point to their sister agencies as the responsible party. “Trash is trash, pick the goddamn trash up,” she said. “I think the policy needs to be revamped. They just need to have one trash collector pick up everything and that’s it.”

Kahikina said the reports she’s been receiving from merchants is that the yellow-bag system is working.

The next step is to convert to locking carts that can be opened only by authorized property owners, merchants or residents and then be cleared by ENV crews, she said. The city is in talks with United Public Workers, the labor union that represents sanitation workers, about the change, she said.

Both Shubert-Kwok and Chinatown businessman Oren Schlieman criticized Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who held a news conference with other state and city leaders Saturday to declare Chinatown safe and to encourage the public to ignore the rumors and do some shopping there.

Shubert-Kwok said Lt. Gov. Josh Green made a similar visit several days before Caldwell’s visit, and said she’s distrustful of the motives of both since they both are likely running for governor in two years.

Schlieman, owner of Maunakea Street business Info Grafik, said the city “has done a terrible job in Chinatown (of) keeping it safe and clean and sanitary.”

He said if Caldwell were serious about cleaning up Chinatown, he would “get a SWAT team together” of sanitation workers and social workers “and clean this place up.”

A visitor to Hawaii going to Chinatown to dine at one of its noted restaurants gets hit by the smell of urine, “and it’s surrounded by filth,” Schlieman said. “And you hear that Chinatown has coronavirus, what are you going to think? So you gotta clean up your house, and that includes the sidewalk, the urine and the feces.”

Caldwell said the main purpose of his news conference, held in coordination with the state, was to dispel rumors and myths that the coronavirus was affecting Chinatown produce and restaurants. Caldwell encouraged Schlieman and others to speak to the city about any suggestions they have.

While there’s no association between trash and the virus, Caldwell said, he takes exception to the charge that the city has not been doing what it can to tackle waste in Chinatown.

“We have been told the yellow-bag program is working,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are people who do illegal dumping in Chinatown. We do pick it up, but we don’t want to encourage people to continue.”

Chinatown merchants and residents need to report illegal dumping, he said, adding that the city has been working on city and state legislation that would make it tougher on violators.

Paul Min, owner of the You Market produce stand inside Kekaulike Mall, said he agrees that the new coronavirus and Chinatown trash are separate issues. Encouraging people scared off by the coronavirus to come back to Chinatown can be solved by having the city and state use the mass media to educate the public about the facts and falsehoods, and what steps they should take to avoid it in the event it does arrive here, he said.

As for the trash issue, nearly all of it is being caused by illegal dumpers, Min said. “If the city wants to do something, they should go after those people and teach them a lesson or educate them better,” he said.