Honolulu’s community gardens remain closed due to COVID-19 lockdown, but may get some maintenance help
The city may consider using park staff to help maintain the plots, Smothermon said “of course we would welcome efforts to help water and maintain the plots
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star Advertiser
Aug. 12, 2020
Excerpt:
Those with plots in community gardens won’t get a reprieve from Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s decision to close the sites along with other recreational facilities.
But it’s possible the garden members will get some relief, city officials said.
Since Caldwell announced Thursday that the 10 facilities were being locked down along with all city parks, beaches and other recreational facilities, the city has received lots of correspondence from community garden users.
“At this point the city is making no exceptions to the parks closure,” the Department of Parks and Recreation said Tuesday. City officials recognize that there are health benefits to gardening and that there is a desire for more food security and sustainability, but “the pandemic has taken priority over all park user needs and this has a lot to do with enforcement capability for (Honolulu police), as well as the (issue of) gathering which has been so much of the dialogue focus,” Parks and Recreation said.
“The goal of these park closures is to reduce the potential for additional community spread of COVID-19, minimize gatherings, and provide an effective environment for HPD enforcement to be conducted,” the department said. “Having select park amenities open makes it difficult for authorities to determine who should and should not be utilizing park facilities.”
