Slew of parking tickets along residential road agitate North Shore residents
NORTH SHORE—Parking on the popular and crowded North Shore is limited. A recent ticketing of cars in an area on Hoalua Road that regularly serves as a parking area has Sunset Beach residents taking a stand against what they are calling “unnecessary and out of the blue” ticketing along the residential street.
On Wednesday, a police officer ticketed approximately 10 cars that belong to community members who all live on the street, and returned approximately 30 minutes later to ticket several more automobiles that had just been parked.
“This is a residential area, and every single one of these cars that parks out here belongs to people who live in these houses and park here every day,” said Hoalua resident Kalindi Jacoby. “It’s not like we have 50 cars illegally parked by people who are at the beach. ... All these people have been parking here for a long time without any trouble and then one day we just get slammed?”
Mitchell, a resident on Hoalua road said: “I got two tickets within a 14 hour span in the last couple of days. All of the tickets say ‘parking prohibited by sign,’ but there is one ‘no parking’ sign in the area on a random telephone pole, with no arrows, times, or information about where you can’t park. My truck was really far away from it, too. Plus none of the cars are blocking the road at all and everyone lives here.”
“I don’t know why [the police] are doing this,” said one woman who asked to remain anonymous. “All these cars belong to people who live in these houses. There really is no where else to park and it’s okay with all of us.”
By Thursday night street residents were angry.
“I got one [ticket] not long after the cop gave the tickets yesterday, and figured I’d be safe to park for about fifteen minutes while I ran into my house. I was wrong, said resident Rosie Silverstein on Thursday. “I got a ticket while I was inside for a few minutes. He must have been watching through the bushes or something waiting for anyone new to show up and ticket them.”
One currently unknown Hoalua resident posted about twenty fliers that read: “Angry about parking? ... This has always been legal parking, and suddenly it’s illegal. We deserve an explanation for the parking tickets! Call your representative to be heard.”
The fliers listed the phone number for State Rep. Michael Magaoay, who represents the 46th District from Laie to Schofield.
According to Judy Formin, Magaoay’s assistant, Hoalua is a City road, making the parking situation an issue for Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz. She said she had received several calls about the issue but referred them to Dela Cruz’s office.
On Friday, new fliers were posted along Hoalua asking community members to attend the next Sunset Beach Community Association meeting. The flier is asking people to “deal with the issue before the winter kicks off,” when an influx of people and cars come to the North Shore for the surf season.
Concerned residents can attend the next Sunset Beach Community Association meeting on Wednesday, July 21 at 7:00 p.m. at the recreation center across from Log Cabins. Calls regarding the issue should be made to Donovan Dela Cruz at (808) 768-5002.
Councilman Dela Cruz could not be reached at the time of publication of this story.