Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial

A very powerful and eloquent opinion piece in Wednesday’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser, calling for action that has been delayed far too long: action to preserve and then restore the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium.

Six respected leaders joined together to issue this call. Leaders from the Hawaiian community, from the military, from the veteran community, from our water sports community, and from the professional engineering community.

A Star-Advertiser photo of the Natatorium in 1973.

If you are a subscriber to the Star-Advertiser, you can read the op-ed here. Once you’ve read it, please join the lively debate in the comments. Speak your mind. Speak up for the Natatorium!

If you’re not a subscriber, you can buy a one-day pass to the Star-Advertiser online for just 99 cents. More than worth it to read this great piece and then make your voice heard in support!

For those who can’t get into the site, we reproduce the full text below. Mahalo to co-signers Peter Apo, Steve Baldridge, Brian Keaulana, Benjamin Mixon, Bill Smith, and Bill Thompson. They’re standing up for what is right. Let’s hope our elected leaders — and all of us — do too.

Here’s the text:

How we deal with Natatorium will put our character to the test

Richard Borreca argues that 32 years of “dithering and delay on the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium has got to end” (“Natatorium is a problem that just won’t go away,” Star-Advertiser, On Politics, Oct. 4).

We agree.

But we do not agree with those who say that demolition or a change of use is in the public interest or the less expensive financial alternative to restoration.

The city, while led by Mayor Jeremy Harris, spent $4.2 million restoring the facade, bathrooms, bleachers and volleyball court and built a new district lifeguard office. Mayor Harris’s and the Honolulu City Council’s total $11.5 million appropriation for the project also would have paid for a re-engineered pool that would provide ADA access to the ocean for the elderly, and disabled. Had the so-nearly-realized restoration been completed, we would be celebrating its return to public use and swimming there today. But the succeeding mayoral administration, under Mufi Hannemann, swept into City Hall with a passion to undo important major projects undertaken by Harris, beginning with a stunning reversal of a fully designed and permitted Natatorium restoration.

It not only stopped the restoration, but went into high gear to demolish the entire structure. It pursued demolition with a spirit of irreverence that dishonored the memory of more than 10,000 warriors from Hawaii who are memorialized by the Natatorium. Auwe! We are as tired of sloshing through debate as some are of having to listen to it, but Borreca’s column cannot be left unchallenged. To spare your readers from having to navigate a manifesto on the subject, let it suffice for us to say here that the real consequences of demolition lie far beyond what most people realize. The Natatorium serves as a sand retention revetment; it created San Souci beach. Demolish the Natatorium and San Souci is history.

Alternative uses like creating additional new beach or volleyball courts are not permitted shoreline uses and would have to survive a lengthy and daunting county, state and federal permitting process, not to mention court challenges.

The Hawaii Supreme Court has already ruled, in 1973, against demolition for any other use of the shoreline expect for a Natatorium (defined as a swimming pool in Act 15 of the Territorial Legislature, 1921). The cost of demolition to effect the new uses proposed, even if successful, rivals or exceeds the cost of restoration. So much for the argument that it’s cheaper to demolish.

Further, the structure sits in a declared marine sanctuary. Demolition-triggered reef damage is a significant threat. A new beach, according to an Army Corps of Engineers study, would require replacing the Natatorium with the equivalent of a three-wall small boat harbor replicating the footprint of the Natatorium walls and its sand retention function to protect San Souci as well as the proposed added 100 feet of new beach. Go figure.

The proposal to “preserve” the arch by moving it is not an engineering possibility. It would have to be rebuilt as a reproduction. So much for preservation.

Finally, hundreds of pages of scientific and expert studies, including a $1.2 million environmental impact statement, show the least expensive, least environmentally harmful option is full restoration.

The idea of demolishing the Natatorium ranks up there with the attempts to demolish Iolani Palace for a parking lot and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for a new high-rise hotel. The Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium is the last of the great historic treasures of the Waikiki shoreline. How we respond to this challenge will mark the greatness or failure of who we are as a people.
———
Peter Apo is an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee; Steven M. Baldridge is president of BASE Structural Engineering; Brian Keaulana is a waterman; retired Lt. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon is former commander of the U.S. Army Pacific; William M. Smith Jr. is an Olympic gold medalist and former director of the city Water Safety Department; and William Y. Thompson, is president of the 442nd Veterans Club.

The city of Honolulu is starting work on Monday to correct what it describes as “hazardous conditions” caused by cracks in the walls of the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium.

Now, of course, the Friends of the Natatorium support doing what is necessary to ensure the safety of swimmers on nearby Kaimana Beach.

But isn’t it ironic? The city is acting now on an emergency basis to mitigate a safety problem it caused and could easily have prevented.

The city neglected the Natatorium for decades. It allowed this historic icon and civic treasure to deteriorate. And – in 2005 – it canceled a fully approved and funded restoration effort that would have reopened the pool and made it better than ever.

In fact, when the project was canceled, more than $5 million had been spent and, among other improvements, the bleachers, bathrooms and lifeguard offices had already been renovated.

We agree with reporter Curtis Lum, who blogged for the Pacific Business News that “it’s time for the City and County of Honolulu to decide” what to do about the Natatorium.

We believe, of course, that the decision should be to preserve, restore and renew the Natatorium. We believe that for all sorts of good reasons, including the fact that Kaimana Beach will erode away if the protective Natatorium walls fall into the sea.

But, as Curtis writes, the time to decide and move forward is now, “before Father Time and Mother Nature decide for us.”

What you can do

Write to Mayor Peter Carlisle and to Gov. Neil Abercrombie. Tell them that you think the facts are on the side of preservation and restoration, and that demolition would be more costly and environmentally harmful. Tell them you think that the time for action is now. You can consult this document to help you craft your message.

On Sept. 7, legendary Maui waterman, swimmer and coach Keo Nakama died at the age of 91.

Maui's Keo Nakama (photo courtesy ISHOF)

As two of the “original ditch boys from Camp 5,” Nakama and schoolboy friend and fellow swimming legend Halo Hirose learned to compete in Maui irrigation ditches under future Olympic swim coach Soichi Sakamoto. In college, Nakama swam for national championship teams at Ohio State University. He went on to capture the world record for the 100-meter freestyle and won five Pan Am Games gold medals. At age 41, Nakama was the first person to swim the Molokai Channel. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1946, the inaugural Keo Nakama Invitational was held in the salt water of the War Memorial Natatorium, drawing thousands of spectators. It is considered the longest-running annual invitational meet in the country. The photo above, circa 1955, shows the Natatorium lanes installed and flags flying for the famous meet.

Here is an obituary that appeared on the website of Swimming World Magazine.