KAILUA-KONA — Naomi Camacho said she’d never take her 23 grandchildren to the beach.
KAILUA-KONA — Naomi Camacho said she’d never take her 23 grandchildren to the beach.
“Never, not anymore,” she said.
She’s lived in Kona since 1968. Back then, Camacho said, she could go to the Kailua pier and go swimming, never feeling anything but safe.
Things are different now, she said Friday, holding up a sign that read, “We’re taking back our community,” and another that read, “We’re taking back our beaches!”
These days, she said, public parks and beaches are rife with squatters who leave behind trash, waste and drug paraphernalia — so much so that she doesn’t feel safe taking her family out.
“The kids want to go to the beach; it’s like, ‘no,’” she said. “So who suffers? The kids.”
Camacho was among a handful of residents Friday on Queen Kaahumanu Highway in Kailua-Kona rallying to draw attention to the state of public parks and beaches.
“Take ‘um back,” declared signs and T-shirts during the rally, a call to action for passing motorists.
Bolo, a local musician, said the slogan illustrates the sad state of local beaches.
“It’s like we shouldn’t have even had to do that to begin with,” he said. “It shouldn’t have been taken from us anyway. This life is for all of us here in general.”
Earlier this month, 1,000 volunteers came together to clean up 133 miles of West Hawaii’s coast line. One contingent of that effort focused entirely on Old Kona Airport State Recreation Area, picking up rubbish.
But in the less than two weeks since the cleanup, “it’s all trashed again,” said Jeff Fear.
“I mean you name it — bottles, cans, trash, blankets, beds,” he said. “It’s disgusting.”
But, rally attendees said, it doesn’t seem like any government leaders are interested in addressing the issue.
“The thing is, you say something and nothing’s happening,” Camacho said. “And it shouldn’t be like that because it’s our hard earnings — taxpayers’ money — that a lot of them get paid.”
“So, when there’s an issue and there’s a problem it should be solved,” she added.
The county recently came up with a plan it wants to implement in the coming weeks that will close the old airport park for a couple days and relocate the homeless populations there while offering them services. Mayor Harry Kim said it was an effort that wasn’t a beach cleanup, but one “to make this a better place to live.”
Fear emphasized the timing, saying it needs to be addressed “not next month, this week.”
“I hear it from tourists, local families, all of the above,” he said. “We’re just fed up already; we want our beaches back.”
Bolo said they plan to continue to fight their quest.
“I feel that it’s my kuleana, and Jeff does, and all of us here do, and we’re building a force that does,” he said. “And we want to make changes for the love of our community.”
Email Cameron Miculka at cmiculka@westhawaiitoday.com.