Fix It! What’s A Playground Without A Slide?
A Honolulu park slide was removed and its entrance boarded up earlier this year. It’s still unclear when it’ll be replaced.
Head to Waipiʻo Neighborhood Park as the sun’s going down and you’ll likely find a lively scene: friends playing basketball, parents teaching their keiki how to ride a bike, screams and shouts coming from the funky blue and purple playground.
That playground used to have a left-curving blue and purple slide. But the slide has been gone for nine months. Children looking for the rush of a rapid exit from the playground’s highest platform instead find a wall of wood blocking the opportunity for any thrill at all.
The slide was not perfect, neighbor Wayne Elento said. At some point, it looked like someone had torn the plastic, he said, which led the city to take action.
“The next thing you know, they took it off,” he said. “And they haven’t put it back yet.”
Elento, 66, visits the park regularly with his 6-year-old grandson. From a safety perspective, he thinks it was good the city removed the slide since it was getting to be a potential hazard. But by now the playground has been slide-less for the better part of the year.
City parks department spokesperson Nate Serota said in an email the slide was last repaired a year ago, for about $1,500. Vandals damaged it a few months later in February but Serota said the city hopes to have the slide back in play soon. In fact, it’s running behind schedule.
“The replacement slide was ordered, and was ready to be installed in July 2025,” he said, “but the contractor did not have all of the hardware needed to complete the installation.”
Now it is mid-November and still there is no slide. Asked if he was surprised at the slow pace of repair, Elento shook his head.
“This is Hawaiʻi,” he said. “Things like that – somehow, it’s not a big necessity with our government county officials unless everybody starts complaining about it.”
Who Is Responsible?
Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation Director Laura Thielen, (808) 768-3003.
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