We’ve lived in Kukuihaele Village and can say that living across from the park for the last 10 years has given my wife and I a unique view and participation into the village community and association of all the people enjoying the open green space we called ours.
We called it ours because we used it, perhaps not daily as some did, but certainly it was open and available when we wanted to enjoy the space.
The people here enjoyed the space in all the following and actually many I have not mentioned activities. Kites whether singular flying or teaching their children to fly them. Catch including football, soccer, baseball, Frisbee. Riding bicycles, and learning to ride bikes. A safe place to bring and play with your children. Training your dogs to heel and hunt pigs. Car and motorcycle gatherings. Weddings and receptions. Birthdays. Wakes. Picnics in the open. Meditation. Stargazing. Or maybe just sitting in the grass and being with the aina. Drone flying. Horseback riding or being pulled in a cart by a tiny pony. Horseshoes of many varieties. Some of the finest food cooked in a tent with the makers staying in a small tent in the back. Meetings of all sizes and a place to safely park 100 or more cars.
It is true I had to pull out a few cars over the years when the rain turned the grass into a slippery surface which also healed quickly. Fire-dancing always welcome at any event. A trust in each other sharing a large open green space with no fence. Lots of laughter heard from the area whether we were there or home across the street. A truly happy place that was a center for being with others in the community. When the county did not get around to mowing I would volunteer and get it done.
We trusted our council person to act on our behalf even if she did not use our park. We were told that there would be a new pavilion and bathroom to replace the porta-potties that were sometimes less than attractive. What we were not told is that there would be a calculated government theft of all that we had in our village park. Now, instead of being an interactive space to share with our neighbors, we are being forced to be a spectator sitting on an aluminum bench watching others play like we used to on our field.
Not ours any more we are told. People from the “city” get to come here and we get to watch. My faith in my government here is seriously damaged from the lies and actual experience of living across from what was our beautiful open space for gatherings to seeing our top soil being carried away by a seeming endless stream of trucks. This and the endless hammering of rock to lower the field and make vertical walls with ugly concrete surfaces facing the neighbors and park area. This is not progress. This is a city park in a village.
People in Hilo have many parks to choose from for an afternoon activity. We had only one and now it is apparently dedicated to the people from the city. Our village has approximately 27 children who now get to use the 30-by-60-foot open green space as a lame offering from the county for taking our 4-plus acres of play area. I personally feel a great loss and not just for our family but for all the sharing we have experienced with our village friends in the neutral space of an open park. The new park is fenced, gated, lighted and locked. We are now locked out of our way of life. All to provide a dedicated playing field for a sport that we don’t want to watch.
We want to play in our park.
And this is not to demean the addition of the pavilion and real bathroom. They are both what we expected and I am told been promised for over 30 years. This addition to our park is in no way equal to the theft of our space to live our lives with our neighbors.
David Allen is a resident of Kukuihaele Village