Amanda Kirby, a 27-year-old social worker and community activist in Makiki, is trying to stop the city from selling off a small park in urban Honolulu by applying to adopt the park and manage the land herself.

The Honolulu City Council passed a resolution earlier this year approving the sale of Piikoi Mini Park, a decision that has since been criticized by community members who feel the city is offloading its responsibilities to maintain the land by simply selling it off.

“They’re selling our park for pennies,” Kirby said, “because they don’t want to maintain it.”

While the Department of Parks and Recreation says the mini park offers little recreational value to the community, Kirby says the lack of city upkeep has led to the area’s decline.

Honolulu is currently in the process of selling the park for $112,000 to RV Ventures Ltd., a local real estate company that owns two residential plots next to the park.

Ruth Chang, head representative of RV Ventures, says homeless people who use the park have caused significant distress to her tenants. She cited instances of trespassing on private property, burglary and scenes of heavy drug use in and around the park.

“It’s very unfair to our tenants and the neighborhood,” Chang said. “It’s just become so messy and dirty.”

Kirby and RV Ventures agree that the parks department has not done enough to care for the space, but they disagree about how the city should move forward: RV Ventures wants to buy the lot and keep it private for its tenants, while Kirby wants to adopt the space and keep it open for everyone to use.

Why The City Is Selling The Park

Located in a hot, high-traffic area near an entrance to the interstate, the 5,000-square-foot plot of green space on the corner of Piikoi and Lunalilo streets has become a hub for unsavory activity and a resting place for homeless people who sleep under the shade of a monkeypod tree.

Kirby, a social worker who supports homeless people in the area, says she’s familiar with some of the people who use the park and said they only do so when their encampment under the H-1 overpass is cleared by law enforcement.

“The sheriffs sweep the overpass and everyone just moves to the park,” she said.

Winston Welch, executive director of the Outdoor Circle, said he was disappointed in the council for approving the sale of Piikoi Mini Park. He feels the city should protect the few green spaces Honolulu has left and keep them open for the public.

“We must clean them, police them as necessary, but not turn them over to private entities because we can’t or won’t take care of them,” he said.

While some community members want to keep the area open for everyone, others side with the city. They say the park has been taken over by aggressive homeless people, open-air drug use and crime.

Former Makiki Neighborhood Board chair Ian Ross says he often hears from residents about homeless people using drugs in the park, screaming at children and even spitting on them. He said one altercation resulted in a resident having a seizure.

“This is a route to school for kids,” Ross said.

And Chang of RV Ventures says these problems are not new.

She said there have been instances of homeless people trespassing on her tenants’ property, going to the bathroom on their lots and using private outdoor hoses to bathe.

That’s why she moved on the opportunity to buy the lot when the city started reaching out to potential buyers all the way back in 2009. RV Ventures was the only abutting property owner to express interest in the lot, said parks department spokesman Nathan Serota.

Occasional discussions about the sale have been going on-and-off ever since, said Department of Budget and Fiscal Services Director Andrew Kawano.

Chang says her main objective in buying the park is to make a private, clean, safe space for her tenants. She wants to debunk the rumor that RV Ventures is out to make money on the deal.

“It’s not like that at all,” she said.

RV Ventures has no intention of building units on the lot or tearing down any trees wider than six inches. And if the sale doesn’t go through that’s fine, Chang said. But she wants a solid plan from the city about how and when they will maintain the park on a regular basis.

On the other hand, if the sale moves forward, RV Ventures will build a fence around the park and make it private for its tenants.

Activist Seeks To Save The Park

Kirby hopes to keep the park open for everyone.

On June 7, she sent an application to the parks department to manage Piikoi Mini Park for two years through the city agency’s Adopt-A-Park program. In accordance with the agreement, Kirby would need to stage four clean-up events per year. Tasks include picking up trash, removing graffiti and collecting green waste.

Council member Calvin Say, who represents Makiki, said Kirby could potentially stop the sale if her adoption paperwork is approved.

“It probably would,” he said. “Because it would be in the jurisdiction of parks and recreation as a community park.”

Budget director Kawano agreed.

But Kirby said the information officer who helped with her adoption paperwork did not sound optimistic about her plans to “save the park.” And for good reason.

Serota said applications are approved on a case-to-case basis. But the parks department does not engage in adoption agreements when the land is positioned to be sold by the city, he said.

If the council decides not to sell and her paperwork is approved, Kirby wants to plant vegetation important to the Native Hawaiian community in the lot. She suggested growing another plumeria or ulu tree.

Kirby already helps run the Makiki Community Garden at the Makiki District Park, less than a mile from Piikoi Mini Park.

If the parks department doesn’t get back to her soon, Kirby said she may start landscaping the space on her own — a tactic called “guerrilla planting.”

Next Steps For The Sale

Now the ball is back in the council’s court.

In July, the council’s budget committee moved the resolution to sell the park to its final stage: the committee recommended it be put up for adoption. The next step is for all nine council members to vote on it at a full meeting.

The real question is when it will wind up on the agenda.

Council Chair Tommy Waters and Budget Committee Director Radiant Cordero have the power to decide whether to docket it at the next full meeting on Wednesday, or wait until a later date.

Serota points out that there are three other parks in Makiki within a mile of Piikoi Mini Park: Thomas Square, Makiki District Park and Cartwright Neighborhood Park.

Serota said Piikoi Mini Park was identified as an “underutilized property,” for a few reasons. The small space makes it hard to install popular amenities like pickleball courts, community gardens or dog parks, and there’s no parking.

There are 32 mini parks on Oahu and it’s unusual for one to be sold by the city.

“I’ve never seen anything like it come across my desk,” Kawano said.