Two bathrooms at Wai'anae Coast beach parks were torched by vandals soon after being renovated, leaving some people disappointed and frustrated by the destruction in a community finally getting some long-awaited improvements to public facilities.

City parks director Les Chang said the bathrooms at both ends of Ma'ili Beach Park were burned, one last weekend and the other the previous weekend. Photos of the new porcelain fixtures show them partly blackened and partly still gleaming.

Heat from the fires cracked the toilets in both bathrooms, he said.

Vandals hit the bathrooms just nine days after renovations were completed at one comfort station and a month after the other was completed, Chang said.

Fixing the damage cost the city about $1,200.

But more than that, Chang said such incidents fuel a "why bother?" attitude that is disheartening. "A few people ruin it for everybody," he said.

Wai'anae resident Patty Teruya said the cost of repairs is only part of the frustration. She said the community is just starting to see significant improvements to the area and then gets hit by this kind of disappointment.

"We fight for funds. We love where we live," Teruya said.

Teruya said the community won't sit back and ignore the crime. "We're going to look for these people and turn them in," she said.

The improvements at Ma'ili Beach Park were part of a city push to clean up the area's public facilities and make them more accessible to the general public after years of neglect. It also follows a recent increase in the number of homeless living in the parks.

Chang said the city has completed about 25 percent of the park improvements planned for the Wai'anae Coast. He said other damage has occurred but not at this "malicious" level. Poka'i Bay has had some minor vandalism, but nothing like the extensive damage caused by the fires at Ma'ili.

MORE FOLKS COMING OUT

Wai'anae Coast community members have complained for decades that they're the last in line for community improvements — from parks to police and schools — but first to deal with landfills, the state's largest power plant and more.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann started an aggressive program of park improvements at Ala Moana Beach Park this year, prompting Leeward residents to ask when he would make good on his campaign promises to remember their area.

In August, he said he would work with state officials to help homeless campers find another place to live but he would wait no longer to improve parks.

The changes are noticeable.

When city parks crews cleared the brush near Tracks Beach Park, they opened up a jaw-dropping view of the ocean from Farrington Highway. Teruya said the view provides a welcoming gateway to the community, where bushes once cloaked drug-dealing, stolen cars and a variety of illegal activities.

Without the kiawe and junked cars, people feel comfortable fishing, surfing and swimming there again, she said. "We see more and more people coming out to the parks and enjoying them."

Teruya compared the park improvements to that feeling of happy pride that comes with getting a new haircut or wearing a new outfit.

At Ma'ili Beach Park, the vandalism meant that toilets had to be replaced in both bathrooms and crews had to repaint one room and replace a tissue dispenser.

Chang acknowledged that it's frustrating to deal with such blatant destruction. "It's very, very disappointing," he said.

Of those responsible for the damage, he said: "I wish the next time they need to use the bathroom they think about it."

City Councilman Todd Apo, who represents the area, said the city and the community need to act quickly against such vandalism. "We can't allow that to happen," he said.

'YOU CAN COMBAT THEM'

A community that has worked hard for its improvements won't stop now, Apo said. "We're not the victims; we're not the guys left out," he said. "This is a very strong community."

Apo is proposing that the city consider closing parks with cattle gates and locking up park bathrooms at night to help prevent such vandalism.

He said he knows the vandals are a "very small minority" in the community but it doesn't take away the frustration. Still, he believes the community can fight back with a sense of pride and by pulling together.

"I think you can combat them," Apo said. "I think you can limit the effects."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.