One of the world’s most famous beaches is set to close an extra 2 hours every day

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - One of the world’s most famous beaches is going to be closed an extra two hours every day.

The city says the hours at Kuhio Beach Park will go from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day to 5 a.m. to 12 a.m.

“I am very much in favor of closing the park earlier,” said Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

“We’ve been putting up with — for too long — the kind of vagrants that really, quite honestly are people who have criminal records and think they have a right to be there. I would tell you that they don’t in the spirit of the fact that they represent a threat to the public safety.”

The city’s Department of Parks and Recreation didn’t provide a specific date for the closure change to take effect but said it would happen sometime this week.

The move is similar change Hawaii News Now reported on earlier this year in Waikiki.

Royal Hawaiian Beach — which is a private beach with public access — expanded its closure hours as well to try and keep people from sleeping there overnight.

Rick Egged is a member of the Waikiki Improvement Association.

He says the desire to keep people out was out of Kuhio Beach for longer overnight was a community-led effort — not one from his organization. But he says the WIA supports the idea.

“It was the residents who were advocating for this. This would make Kuhio Beach Park consistent with Kapiolani Beach Park, which already closes at midnight,” Egged said.

Kuhio Beach Park can still be traversed 24 hours a day to access the water.

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