Kapiolani Blvd Turning Into a Dump

As a follow-up to my discovery of the hole in the ground on Kapiolani Blvd last week, I decided to go back and see if the City had, in fact, filled the hole as they had promised. Sure enough, it has been filled.

I'm wondering how many people had walked past the hole and never considered reporting it because they thought the City would never get around to it or would take forever to do the job. But, here we are about five days after my first phone call and it's covered-up and safe to walk over.

Really, I cannot fathom how people can believe that their government is too busy to take care of things that pose an immediate danger to passersby or simply doesn't care. Sure, government is big and can often seem to be unfeeling. But, there are those times when the government can act quickly and get the job done.

So, thanks to Mr Lester Hirano and his staff.

While riding down Kapiolani on my way to the McCully intersection, I passed what can only be described as a garbage dump. I remember seeing a few bags of trash in the same location, but now the pile has grown by leaps and bounds, along with a swarm of flies to feast on the free food.

There were other places along Kapiolani I had passed where things had simply been left out for whatever fate awaited them. A beach chair, old bicycle tires, a rusty air conditioning unit, etc were all along the boulevard, along with unmowed grass and weeds. As I got closer to the McCully intersection and passed the self-storage business there, there was suddenly a total lack of garbage on the street and the grass was trimmed very nicely. So, in front of the business, it was clean. But, the areas fronting the residential buildings had garbage and weeds.

A sad state of affairs, I must admit.

On Kapiolani, between Kalakaua and McCully, several residences were marked with graffiti, which only added to the rundown look of the area.

I do wonder how long the trash has been piling-up before I reported it to the City. I can only guess that no one who lives in these buildings has called the City about the trash or to request that the grass be trimmed-down. Would it have killed anyone to take a weedeater and trim the grass themselves? I mean, you can borrow one from a friend, if you don't have one.

Maybe this is one of those cases where people think that it's some one else's job to take care of these things and they don't even have to take the initiative and call the City to make it happen.

There is also the very real possibility that the trash has been dumped there by people who do not live in the area and would rather it be left for others to dispose of. It happens all the time, especially if there had initially been just a small number of trash bags and some one driving by had decided that they could simply leave their garbage there for other people to have to dispose. There are numerous places around O'ahu where people simply dump assorted trash of various types and quantities and then drive back home, leaving it to the people who actually live around there to deal with it. Over time, the makeshift dump becomes rather famous and before you know it, everyone and anyone feels perfectly free to dump their shit on some one else's front doorstep. Never mind the health concerns about food waste or the fact that children walk around it every single fucking day.

Fucking inconsiderate bastards.

Still, you'd wonder if area residents are calling HPD about this sort of thing. I would and I'd be camped-out closeby to catch the motherfuckers doing it.

I am seriously thinking that I may be one of the few people who really cares what the City looks like.

Duane D. Browning