More than a year after 200 homeless people were kicked out of Ala Moana Beach Park to make way for a massive cleanup, some residents are questioning why the work and subsequent efforts haven't addressed chronic infrastructure issues, from crumbling concrete canal banks to broken sprinklers.

Meanwhile, homeless people are slowly returning to the park, and residents say about 20 are now sleeping at Ala Moana, apparently eluding groundskeepers or police during nightly sweeps.

The developments come as the city is planning to take its cleanup policy to the North Shore sometime this year or next, after already covering several Honolulu and Wai'anae Coast parks.

Some residents say infrastructure problems at Ala Moana, coupled with the difficulty in keeping homeless out, show the weaknesses of the city's cleanup effort, which kicked off in March 2006 with Ala Moana Beach Park and is designed to give public spaces a facelift — not a full overhaul.

They also say though Ala Moana did look better after the 2006 work, there are still glaring infrastructure problems that persist. And today, the park is also suffering from smaller issues, from expanding spots of dead grass to overloaded trash cans to vandalized benches and bathrooms.

The city's park cleanup program, dubbed "just-in-time maintenance," involves closing parks for two or more days, moving the homeless out and bringing in city park crews from around the island to paint, clean and repair park facilities.

So far, most of the parks targeted for the program have had homeless encampments, which the city has tried to keep out after the cleanups with new hours that close the parks at night.

MAINTENANCE EYESORES

Dr. Fernando Ona, who takes daily early morning walks with his wife through the park, says the return of homeless people doesn't bother him.

But some of the maintenance eyesores do.

"The canal needs to be dredged and cleaned up," he said. "And they haven't done anything with that falling (canal) wall. It's unsightly."

Ala Moana is one of Honolulu's busiest parks, frequented by tourists and residents alike for its long, sandy beach; open spaces with picnic tables; tennis courts; outrigger launch points; and bowling lawn.

Anne Stevens, chairwoman of the Ala Moana Neighborhood Board, jogs through the 76-acre park three times a week, and says the crumbling canal wall, growing patches of mud and the trash-filled canal and pond where kids often play pose safety hazards that need to be addressed.

The city took over Ala Moana Beach Park in 1928, and its canal, bridges and many of its structures were built between the 1930s and late 1950s.

"The park is well-loved and well-used by residents," Stevens said.

"I do like the fact that the city is taking an interest in the appearance of the park, but it seems like it's a surface type of cleanup, meaning they may put some paint, they may fix the benches, but the infrastructure, like the canal, the sprinkler system, those areas seem to have a lot of issues."

Meanwhile, other residents who frequent parks elsewhere in Honolulu say the program is spreading workers too thin for weeks at a time. Because up to 200 workers are needed for a "just-in-time" project, they are pulled from parks across the island, usually leaving a skeleton crew behind.

For example, users at Kapi'olani Park have for months been trying to address basic maintenance issues, including expanses of untended grass.

"Kapi'olani is not getting the same amount of care and attention," said Jack Gilmore, a member of the Kapi'olani Park Preservation Society.

'JUST-IN-TIME' PROGRAM

Les Chang, parks department director, pointed out the "just-in-time" program is not the only function of the maintenance branch. It is also responsible for daily upkeep at parks across the island, from mowing grass to picking up trash.

"Just-in-time maintenance is a preventive maintenance program as well as a bridge between daily cleaning and major reconstruction and renovation," Chang said. "We feel it has been a very successful program. We've received outstanding feedback from the park user."

And some of the most vocal proponents of the city maintenance policy are on the Wai'anae Coast, where parks neglected for years have finally gotten attention and are becoming more appealing to residents. Many Ala Moana users also say the park looks better than it has in years.

"It has really improved," said George Watanabe of Punchbowl, as he was packing up his car on a recent afternoon after a round of tennis with friends.

"I hope it stays in this condition."

Georgette "Jo" Jordan, chairwoman of the parks committee for the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board, is a proponent of the "just-in-time" policy, but pointed out it doesn't address the bigger funding and infrastructure issues that have plagued city parks islandwide.

"Why are we doing 'just-in-time' maintenance? If we would have been doing normal maintenance over the ... years, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in, even if homeless were living in the parks," she said.

OTHER O'AHU CLEANUPS

In addition to Ala Moana, city crews have completed "just-in-time" maintenance at several parks on the Wai'anae Coast, most notably Ma'ili Beach Park, along with Pupukea Beach Park on the North Shore and, most recently, Thomas Square in Honolulu. The parks department has said it will concentrate on a plan for North Shore parks over the coming months, but will not kick out any homeless as they did at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Jordan said it does not appear homeless people have returned to parks on the Wai'anae Coast that were part of the cleanup, which she attributes to the opening of state-run shelters for families in Wai'anae and Kalaeloa.

The Next Step shelter in Kaka'ako was opened in response to the closure of Ala Moana, but a good chunk of its residents never lived in the park.

It is not clear which North Shore parks the city will focus on, but residents say several with homeless campers are likely starting points.

So far, the parks department has not been able to give an estimate on how much the "just-in-time" cleanups cost because they do not involve contractors. But officials say the program requires a considerable amount of manpower, along with in-house supplies and overtime for workers.

FUNDING SO-SO

Overall, the city parks operating budget has increased since fiscal year 2004, from $47 million to $61 million in fiscal year 2008. But as the city tries to expand the cleanup program to more parks, annual funding for the maintenance division is not increasing by much. From July 2006 to June 2007, the division got $22.6 million — about half of which went to salaries for more than 400 employees, budget records show. Five years ago, the maintenance division got about $17 million.

Meanwhile, capital improvement spending is also down by nearly $15 million from fiscal year 2004, when the parks department spent about $39 million on large-scale reconstruction or renovation projects. And there is no comprehensive plan to deal with capital improvement backlogs at parks, though a host of projects are under way or being proposed, including the design phase of a project to repair canal walls at Ala Moana Beach Park.

"There is more work to be done and we've got it programmed," Chang said.

The budget issues at the city parks department are nothing new — and they're something parks directors across the country are grappling with.

Christopher Walker, who has studied park policy and community development for the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., said U.S cities are facing growing maintenance concerns in parks — largely because parks departments are under-funded and facing more and more cuts.

"There has been that perception that if you under-invest in parks it might not be as visible as if you cut back on other things, like the police department," Walker said. "It's a chronic problem, nationally."

He said some cities have been able to beautify parks by finding a dedicated source of public funding, or by reaching out for private donations.

HELP FROM COMMUNITY

On O'ahu, dozens of citizens and businesses pitch in every year to help parks. In 2006, the department got about $107,000 in private donations.

There are also dozens of groups that adopt parks, but many have trouble finding steady volunteers and sources of funding. Meanwhile, Ala Moana gets irregular cleanups from volunteers, but no one group has adopted it.

In the park on a recent afternoon, handfuls of people sit in the shade eating lunch and chatting. The tennis courts are nearly full, and the beach is filling fast with sun worshippers and surfers. Makiki resident Cornelius Stone sits on a table with friends, recovering from a tennis match.

He said the park gets so much use that he's not surprised maintenance crews have trouble keeping up with all its problems. The 2006 cleanup, he said, made a big difference. "They cleaned it up real good," he said.

Across the park, Peter Canape sits on a bench under a shade tree, strumming his 'ukulele and watching the water. He said Ala Moana is, overall, a nice park. But, he said, it could be a great park.

And, he added, it should be, given the number of tourists who visit or drive by it daily.

"There's still some work to be done," he said. "This is a major tourist flow and when you get some tourists coming by, they give it a second look."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.