Bill 6 removes codes for payphones, defunct structure as Parks & Rec finalizes old phone removals
Cleaning up Honolulu’s laws to better reflect how we live today, while removing outdated structures from your shared spaces. Mayor Rick Blangiardi has signed Bill 6 (2025) into law, updating Honolulu’s outdated sidewalk regulations, as the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) finalizes the removal of 108 derelict payphones from parks around O‘ahu.
Introduced by Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Bill 6 eliminates obsolete references in the City code to long-defunct structures like freight elevators, freight chutes, and public telephone enclosures. Many of these structures haven’t been properly used in years, if not decades, and are often targets of vandalism. The changes clear out bureaucratic red tape, simplify permitting, and open the door for more efficient sidewalk use and accessibility.
“Our modern city deserves modern ordinances,” said Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam. “Each and every one of our payphones stopped working years ago, and freight chutes belong to another era. This bill is about making space to focus on the tools and technologies that serve the public today.”
“We do not need these old telephones anymore, and this bill helps clean up and modernize the City to get the unneeded language for these structures off the books,” said Mayor Rick Blangiardi. “Nearly everyone has a smartphone these days, but these old booths were still out there, ugly and not functioning. I appreciate Councilmember Dos Santos-Tam’s initiative on making sure this gets done, and DPR’s leadership in physically removing these derelict devices from our parks. It is great to see collaborative work on the policy and executive side resulting in positive change everyone can see.”
Since early 2024, DPR has been working with WiMacTel Inc. to remove 108 former Hawaiian Telcom payphones located within City parks and gardens around O‘ahu. DPR also worked with some historians interested in keeping elements of the old phones before their demolition.
Prior to this island-wide effort, DPR and fellow City agencies conducted payphone removals on an individual basis, such as the removal of several payphones along Fort Street Mall prior to a mural donation project from Sandy Pohl and the Downtown Art Center.
This bill is part of a broader effort to modernize and declutter the Revised Ordinances of Honolulu. It follows other recent successful clean-up efforts, including the repeal of defunct special funds which hadn’t been utilized in years (Bill 2, 2025), outdated car-rental regulations (Bill 9, 2024), obsolete hotel and boarding house licensing requirements (Bill 25, 2024), and references to plantation-era railroad and vehicle operations (Bill 44, 2024).
If you need an auxiliary aid/service, other accommodations due to a disability, or an interpreter for a language other than English in reference to this announcement, please contact the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation at (808) 768-3003 on weekdays from 7:45 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. or email parks@honolulu.gov at least three business days before the scheduled event. Without sufficient advanced notice, it may not be possible to fulfill requests.
—PAU—
Follow the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation online and on social media:
YouTube: bit.ly/DPRyoutube Twitter: @honolulu_parks Instagram: @honolulu_parks
Facebook: facebook.com/honolulu.parks Nextdoor: bit.ly/DPRnextdoor
Website: honolulu.gov/parks
