Honolulu's Movie Night at A'ala Park Not A Bright Idea

One of the "Bright Ideas in Chinatown" contest winners is Kelfred Chang and his project called "A Night at 'A'ala Park," in a first effort to copy the Waikiki's successful "Sunset on the Beach" happened on Friday, 2/23/2007 in downtown Honolulu.

"Movie Night at A'ala Park" was an sweeping disappointment even before the heavy rains hammered the final nail in the event's coffin that occurred on the last day of the event, Saturday.

During the Friday night rush hour, I saw about thirty Honolulu Police Department officers at the start of the event as I stood at King and Iwilei. Clustered into three groups, the police were clearly for park duty only since no officer was posted for the pedestrian crossing from Iwilei to the park during the usual rush hour gridlock downtown.

Forget about the "Thin Blue Line," it was more resembling of a thick shag carpet of blue. A'ala Park is a city 'Pocket Park' in the densest population of urban Oahu. At ten thousand square meters or about 36,000 square feet in size, the park security probably cost more than the twenty-thousand check the City and County of Honolulu funded towards the event itself. Moreover, at a low estimate of forty cops, if evenly spaced throughout the park, there would've be one uniformed police officer per 82 square feet, in others words, a matrix of police every 30 feet.

Light attendance during Friday's sunset accentuated and brought into sharp focus the heavy police presence during the rush hour gridlock. Lack of security was not the reason why light attendance happened. After a long hard day of work, nobody wants to remain in the gritty downtown amidst a gridlock of idling cars with smoking exhausts.

Due to the newly enacted anti-smoking law that is the strictest in the United States, I asked a policeman about smoking a cigarette in the park. His answer was a qualified no, "Technically, not allowed to smoke in any public park, anywhere." He went on to say that although that interpretation is not currently being enforced, a smoker will be asked to step outside the area of kiddie rides and food and move to the edge of the park before smoking.

Eight restaurants were in the park, with the average price of six or seven dollars per plate. The highest price was the Hawaiian Steak and Shrimp at eight dollars. Malasada Shack was present although Lent has already begun. The forty foot inflatable movie screen premiered in Hawaii and Chinese martial arts movies were shown to coincide with the month long celebration of the Year of the Boar. Lion and Dragon dance performances from the Lung Kung Culture class was featured along with inflatable and rides for small children.

The Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki is successful because there is a sunset which is not blockaded by the newly constructed six story parking lot on the corner of King and Iwilei, next to the twenty story high rise for which it was built for. Duh! It's the sunset on the beach that is the main attraction. The night time movie is just a mere pale second act compared to the wonder of nature.

I'm sure that the very first time that the Sunset of the Beach in Waikiki first event happened that the turnout was small but movies downtown is just plain foolish. If Honolulu council had used that twenty large towards Mufi's proposed $150 rental stipend for the indigent aged and disabled, then 133 additional people would have had more housing security rather than sleeping defenseless in the streets.

The over the top show of force may be intimidating to foreign tourists who come from countries run by oppressive regimes. What is reassuring to some may be unsettling to others. From the other extreme, in countries where even the regular police don't carry firearms, the large amount of fire power in such a small concentrated area may create anxiety for those unaccustomed to the copious accumulation of weaponry.