As most Kauai residents know, the West Kauai Community Plan has been made, reviewed, and will hopefully be put into place during the year 2020.
As youth members of this community, we have looked at and studied this plan very closely. In fact, the majority of our lives have been ppent on the Westside. Most adults here have been born and raised in the West, and chose to raise their kids here as well. This is why we decided to study this plan, as students, and give our own personal opinion on it.
We understand that government members have attempted to give their best to take on how to better the well-being of West Kauai. However, we believe that our opinions, judgments and ideas are just as reliable on this subject because of the time we spend here.
We would like to publicly share our beliefs on this topic and even give our own recommendations on how we think we can positively change our community.
We would like to highlight two popular locations in West Kauai, Lucy Wright Park and the Waimea State Recreation Pier. Both places are not living up to their potential because of the problems that affect these areas every day. We have found three common problems that affect both places, and many more.
The homeless, parking issues and facility maintenance continue to negatively impact these areas. Not to mention that these areas are considered to be “recreational facilities,” which makes these issues more significant, and action should be taken right away.
To begin, we will focus on Lucy Wright Park. This park has a very large and spacious area that can be used for an endless amount of activities. It is also by the beach and the river mouth, which allows for different environments and views for those who are there.
However, this park is barely used by residents because of the high amount of homeless found in the park on an everyday basis. This is definitely a more major issue that needs to be focused on more in-depth. However, one of the solutions that we thought would fix this would be to prohibit camping.
There are many specific details that come with this problem, but we believe that this would be the quickest and most efficient solution. If we enforce this law of no camping at this park, then that would eliminate the problem of having homeless there every day and every night.
By doing so, it would open the park up to other residents and give them the opportunity to use it. Secondly, the facilities in this location are unused because of its lack of care and maintenance. If our community was able to upkeep these facilities, it would provide for a more reliable place for people to go.
Our community should create caretaking jobs or find a caretaker for these facilities to ensure that the quality of these facilities is always at its best. By doing this, the population and rates of this park would increase.
Finally, the parking lot does not meet the needs of this park. This parking lot is too small, has no distinct parking spots, and is full of potholes. This issue needs to be fixed to increase the use of this park and to make it more accessible to residents and visitors.
The second location that we would like to improved is the Waimea State Recreational Pier. This pier is in a very convenient location for Westside residents, but still faces many problems that can and should be fixed. We have come to the conclusion that the same three problems are found in this location as well.
The uncontrollable amount of homeless flood this area, chasing out residents and visitors who come to the pier. The facilities in this area are inadequate and need to be improved, and the parking lot makes getting to this area inconvenient and difficult.
Because these problems are the same ones found at Lucy Wright, they can be fixed with the same solutions. Prohibiting camping, creating maintenance jobs, fixing potholes, expanding the parking lot, and making visible parking spaces. If these solutions were created and enforced, the problems would disappear and these areas would be able to reach their full potential.
By doing these things, and constantly making sure they are enforced, our community would be able to better utilize these locations. There could be community events, school events, and overall provide a place for the residents of West Kauai to spend time and create memories.
In addition, by preserving these well-known places, we will be able to keep Waimea the historic and traditional town it is now. It will teach the next generation the importance of taking care of the environment they have now. This will completely change the course of the future in the best way possible.
We hope that these ideas will be thought about thoroughly, and executed as soon as possible.
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Kilihea Kanekoa and Denise Dumlao are students at Waimea High School.
Finally. It takes a couple of High School students to tell us what we all already know. Don’t allow camping in these parks. Enforce the laws. Remove the homeless. Clean up the facilities. Thanks you for confirming that our young citizens have some common sense and can clearly see solutions to obvious problems that seem to escape our elected officials. Nice commentary and well written as well.
So. I think I get it. A homeless person is not a resident. And definitely not a member of the public, and therefore should be prohibited from using public areas. Since they are also excluded from privately owned areas, and since it is illegal to sleep in one’s car, the homeless are criminals by definition? In spite of the growing gap between rich and poor, and our regressive tax system which continues to exacerbate that problem, forcing still more into homelessness?
This is a thoughtful and well written article by the high school students. What they say is spot on. If you think that just because homeless folks are residents and members of the public, that they should be allowed to run public spaces, leave their trash anywhere, let their dogs run loose and defecate all over and dissuade others from using the parks, then go to Oahu– you will see the future.
Compassion for the homeless can go along with not allowing them to degrade our public spaces. They need assistance and many of us are also one or two paychecks away from the same situation. That doesn’t give them license to treat public spaces as if they were their own living rooms. Listen to these students who clearly do care for their hometown.