useless renovations

recently, the mayor (i believe) decided to use a cost-effective measure to combat the blatant drug use going on on river street. to those of you who don't know, river street isn't really a street per se, it's more of a walkway that runs alongside a (now filthy) river in the middle of chinatown. along that walkway, there are a bunch of tables for playing chess (actually, usually pai gao is the game of choice on them). there USED to be a kind of terracing above the tables, providing a limited amount of shade.

that gets to the mayor's anti-drug efforts. get this: construction workers removed the terracing over the tables, thus eliminating all of the shade. according to the mayor, this will reduce the amount of drug activity going on there, because the shade of the terrace makes it an attractive "hangout" for the tweakers.

(by the way, there IS a serious drug problem going on there. i walk by river street at least twice a week, because my acupuncture school is in the chinese cultural plaza; you can see deals going down in broad daylight [maybe now, it's even broader], and people sitting in little corners beside garbage cans "lighting up." sad.)

my issue is this: how does removing a terrace actually combat crystal meth dealing and use? that's like how the government is "combating homelessness," which, by the way, is another big problem (an "eyesore" as many of the tourist-conscious are fond of saying). see, a LOT of homeless people live on the beaches out in waianae (the western edge of the island). and the way the government "cracked down" on the problem was by "renovating" the beaches (basically bringing in construction equipment to take down the tarp tents, etc.).

how does that really combat the problem?

you remove the ground upon which people live or deal drugs or whatever. so what? they will just move somewhere else.

i don't see the value of the mayor's "cost-cutting" measure at all.

actually, it's pretty sad to see the tables unused in the middle of the day. sure, it's also kinda sad to see all those chess tables filled with transvestites and druggies and chinese gamblers who piss and shit in the nearby river... but then, what's the point of having those tables if no one is going to use them? why not just get rid of the tables period?

i eat sometimes at kent's, which is just beside those tables. and the owner, she doesn't quite understand the point either. from her perspective, all it does is cut down on her business.

well, yet another "intelligent" move from "up above."